Spam Patrol Archive

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Spam Patrol > Spam Patrol Archive

Table of contents
1 Howto Remove Spam for Admins/Moderators
2 SpammerBlockPattern
3 Spammer URL Updates
4 Spam Removal Updates
5 Spam Patrol

Howto Remove Spam for Admins/Moderators

  1. Adjust your preferences (http://www.katrinahelp.info/wiki/index.php/Special:Preferences)
    1. Do not hide minor edits in recent changes
    2. Search all namespaces by default
  2. Monitor for spam here Recent changes daily.
    1. Optionally, click 'Hide' Patrolled Edits at the top of Recent Changes page.
    2. Review Recent changes list for potential spammers.
    3. Click spammer's Username in Recent changes
      1. Click User contributions in lower left Toolbox menu (If Username is an IP address, the user contributions will be listed in body of page)
    4. On patrolled pages click [Mark this article as patrolled].
  3. Use the history/compare/rollback feature to remove spam. Rollback works best if you detect the spam ASAP, otherwise, you may need to edit/delete the spam.
    1. In edit mode, be sure to scroll to the absolute bottom of a page while looking for spam, as spammers will insert several blank lines to push spam below the viewable region of the edit window.
    2. Use comment: Spam Removed
  4. Use the search box to find pages with new spam words
  5. Use the Recent changes/block feature to block users who spam.
    1. Set user block time: 99999.
    2. Use comment: Spammer (or Vandal if indicated).
  6. Pages that are spammed repeatedly or are spammed after a long period of inactivity are candidates for Protection.
    1. Use the protect/unprotect tab at the top of the page to prevent repeated spam.
      1. Use comment: Spam Protection
    2. Users with Admins status may continue to edit protected pages
    3. Insert this template at the top of protected pages:
      1. {{Katrina Help Info:Protected page guidelines}}
  7. Each time you remove spam
    1. Add date/description to the Spammer URL Updates list below.
    2. Update the "SpammerBlockPattern" with John
    3. Ask Rudi or AnnaLissa to use your new "SpammerBlockPattern" occasionally to activate new blocking. See discussion for indepth information.
    4. Add a signature/time stamp, with most recent at the top of the Spam Removal Updates list below.
      1. Indicate cleanup and banned/blocked user.
      2. If you protect a page, make bold the page link, e.g. Help Needed


SpammerBlockPattern

A shift in strategy
  • Unique spam words will be used for blacklisting most spammers instead of URLs
  • URLs will be used for blacklisting vanilla links (no unique spam words)
Benefits
  • More new spammers will be stopped without any intervention
  • Less time spent on cleaning up the spam
  • No need to build massive URL blacklists like this:[1] (http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Spam_blacklist)
  • Protecting pages against spammers will be less necessary
Caveat lector
  • Legitimate users will not be able to use blocked spam words
They will be given an opportunity to leave a Spam Protection Comment
  • Vandals and grafitti posters will not be hindered by spam word blacklisting
Spammer counter-tactics
  • In order for spammers to work around the new strategy, they will have to purge all blacklisted spam words from their wiki links including their URLs. This is a big hassle for them.
  • If spammers try to mask spam words with funky spelling/punctuation, they will undermine their own efforts to get found via search engines.
  • Spammers will be able to post promotions with generic terms, such as Better sex for free!
  • Spammers may use vanilla URLs or tinyurls (http://tinyurl.com/) to avoid detection. Those URLs could be used for redirection to the real URLs. This ploy will require increased vigilance.

Spammer URL Updates

URLs on free hosts may be short lived. URLs repeating over several dates are candidates for the URL black list. Dates listed below refer to dates of spam removal. If a URL starts with an asterisk(*) it indicates subdomain (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subdomain) www, or no subdomain, or the association of several subdomains. Substitute the last period(.) in a domain name with a tilde(~) so that domain names can be saved without blocking. If you would like to get a blocked word to be accepted, insert a question mark (?) into it.

  • 12 Nov 2006: anzwers\.org
  • 27 Oct 2006: fetch\.php\?media\=
  • 12 Sep 2006: corona4\.info/index1015\.html
    • blocked with \.info\/index[0-9][0-9][0-9]+\.html?
  • 12 Sep 2006: pickyourcity\.com
  • 12 Aug 2006: (seller|dealer)s?.?of.?phones
  • 04 Aug 2006: wow.?gold
  • 30 Jul 2006: milky.?smith@yahoo.com User:Tandata
  • 28 Jul 2006: jiay*inte (remove *)
  • 23 Jun 2006: biki4~com [2] (http://www.katrinahelp.info/wiki/index.php?title=Help_Needed&oldid=24659)
  • 22 Mar 2006: myflooring~org [3] (http://www.katrinahelp.info/wiki/index.php?title=Help_Needed&oldid=24151)
  • 16 Mar 2006: sprot2~com [4] (http://www.katrinahelp.info/wiki/index.php?title=Animal_Rescue_Resources&diff=24107&oldid=24106)
  • 10 Mar 2006: goone.mynew~ws
  • 28 Feb 2006: armanix.white.prohosting~com
    • reported to abuse@prohosting.com with good results
  • 06 Jan 2006: northwestairlines.bravehost~com
  • 01 Jan 2006: *.white.prohosting~com (reported to abuse@prohosting.com with good results)
  • 16 Dec 2005: *.fil~ph; directory.321webmaster~com; *.ameranet~com; *.freehost~ag; *.fsr~jp; pharm4us.servetown~com; pharm4us.white.prohosting~com; *.freespaces~com; *.cafe150~com; *.white.prohosting~com;
  • 14 Dec 2005: h1.ripway~com; b2.boards2go~com
  • 12 Dec 2005: b2.boards2go~com; *.dynu~net; *.freeservers~com;
  • 11 Dec 2005: *.4allfree~com; b2.boards2go~com; *.fil~ph; *.freeservers~com;
  • 21 Nov 2005: *.lookscool~com
  • 10 Nov 2005: *.888.web~com
  • 07 Nov 2005: *.anzwers~org
  • 03 Nov 2005: *.de~ki; *.212cafe~com; *.net~tf; *.ru~tp
  • 02 Nov 2005: *.atspace~name; erectile-dys?function.spiritualitea~net; members.fortunecity~com/nick3; online-da?ting-louisville.cu~tc; *.avi?agra~net; *.lol~to;
  • 01 Nov 2005: *.free-high-quality-movies-pics-download~net
  • Sep 2005: *.coolhost~biz;

Spam Removal Updates

Spam Removal, Blocked Users, & Protected Pages

Spam Patrol

Spam Patrol > Spam Patrol Archive

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