[WikiEN-l] Yeah, let's botspam Wikipedia. I'm sure that'll work out just fine.

[David Gerard]

2009/9/6 Risker <risker.wp at gmail.com>:
> 2009/9/6 David Gerard <dgerard at gmail.com>

>> What could possibly go wrong?
>> http://www.blackhatworld.com/blackhat-seo/black-hat-seo-tools/115582-wikipedia-linking-tool.html
>> If your life is suffering from inadequate levels of stupid (I know!
>> Whose doesn't?), that looks like just the forum for you to get a topup
>> from.

> Amazing how few people realise that we're also perfectly capable of
> blacklisting their websites, and will do so without hesitation should a
> spambot show up.  Heck, we give people a hard time for putting in half a
> dozen of the same links.


Often they won't test it on Wikipedia itself. The first MediaWiki
spambot I heard of was when someone emailed mediawiki-l about their
small wiki getting obvious spam and asking for non-laborious ways to
deal with it. Very similar spam started showing up on en:wp soon after
(and was trivially detectable and blockable).

Our semi-automated immune system - that lets us keep as close to
"anyone can edit" as we do - is actually incredibly sophisticated and
powerful and more than a little frightening.


- d.