[WikiEN-l] Re: Spambots

[David 'DJ' Hedley]

> Tim Starling wrote:
> > David 'DJ' Hedley wrote:
> >
> >>Tonight there have been two incidents i've noticed where mass-spambots
have
> >>been set on to the English Wikipedia. These spambots have been blanking
> >>articles probably at a rate of 100 articles a minute, and as that is the
> >>time it is normally taking an admin to notice and block the bots are
causing
> >>a lot of disruption.
> >>
> >>I don't know where these bots have come from, but they seem capable of
> >>quickly deleting content. The contributions for [[User:Whoever blocks me
has
> >>no life!]] shows what I mean.
> >
> >
> > That's a vandalbot, not a spambot. They come from sad, morally vacuous
> > people who are jealous of what we have achieved and want the whole world
> > to be as empty as their own life. As opposed to a spambot which is
> > written by people who want to make a bit of money, and who rationalise
> > away the ethical problems with their chosen method.
> >
>
> OK I take that back. I count 30 edits per minute not 100, which is
> pretty typical for a page blanking spree with just a browser. So that
> means the vandal is probably more bored and mischievious than depraved.
>
> -- Tim Starling
>
I was watching the recent changes IRC room. The edits were flooding the room
at times, then the bot was stopping, then flooding again. I imagine it was
actually a bot doing it, not a human, and obviously it was blocked quickly.
It was going at a rapid rate, too fast for a browser user.