User talk:Kris

Template to add a Category?

I'm still trying to master MediaWiki syntax, so when I see someone doing something different, I try to understand what they have done and, perhaps, why they are doing it.

You seem to have added Template:DevDiscussion merely to add Category:Developer Discussion to a wiki article. I don't understand the improvement a Template provides over merely directly placing the Category reference in the article. Can you help me understand, please? NeoPhyte Rep 15:11, 6 January 2012 (UTC)

Hi Neophyte, there is actually not really a difference for average usage on the wiki and hence, should generally not be used for simple categorisation. There is only one advantage, namely when you want to "rename" a category. Renaming a category is not possible, it consist of duplicating the category page and moving the content in the new category before deleting the original category name. So if you have used a template, you can simply modify the template. I only did this for now as the wiki now needs some content update. I see different many different styles in naming pages, namely CamelCase, Each Word Capitalized, etc. So in case we want to uniformize, this first step might save some work later on. Regards, Kris 17:37, 6 January 2012 (UTC) PS: maybe on the developers discussion pages, it might be interesting to have an info box at the top saying this (and that is were a template would be really handy)

Interesting technique. Thanks for the explanation. NeoPhyte Rep 18:05, 6 January 2012 (UTC)

Wiki maintenance

Kris, I've noticed that you're spending an inordinate amount of effort blocking accounts of spammers and deleting their handiwork. Most of them are, no doubt, new accounts, and it's a good bet that many of them are perpetrated by the same bad actors who are logging in with temporary IP addresses that change every time they reboot their ADSL modem. I recently encountered an interesting technique to cut down on this type of activity at the OpenOffice.org wiki. (Sorry, you'll need to find the URL yourself, because a half-baked script on this wiki puked when I tried to save this message with a link to the relevant page.) They've implemented a "cooling-off period" for new accounts and have completely blocked editing by anonymous users. Anyone can create an account, but one must wait four days before making the first edit. If someone has a legitimate reason to be here, they'll make a note of it and come back when the waiting time has expired, but it may be a significant deterrent to hit-and-run spammers. User8192 07:36, 2 December 2011 (UTC)

Hi User8192, We are aware of this extension which allows to allows to hinder inappropriate behaviour at various levels. It should be enabled now or very soon (I do not know its status though). Regards, Kris 08:20, 3 December 2011 (UTC)

New spam

I've been editing the wiki in the last couple of days and noticed new user accounts that have been used for the sole purpose of spamming. The accounts and their IP addresses should be blocked and all pages created by them should be deleted. Since I don't have administrator privileges on this wiki, I replaced the content in pages that I found with the word "SPAM" and put "SPAM" in the edit summary. User8192 19:24, 13 December 2011 (UTC)

• Special:Contributions/Gitukaff
• Special:Contributions/Colecris
• Special:Contributions/Restinve
• Special:Contributions/Betgclub9
• Special:Contributions/Fesulri
• Special:Contributions/Fidedian

• Special:Contributions/Annavict hasn't done anything yet, but it looks suspicious, as it was created at the same time as Colecris and Restinve.
• Special:Contributions/Holidaygclub also looks suspicious, but hasn't posted anything yet.
• Special:Contributions/Moonpav (added after initial post)

Unfortunately I can't give you admin permissions myself, but I have blocked most of those users for you. Legio noctis 20:38, 14 December 2011 (UTC)

Blocking spam (external links)

Hello. The pages MediaWiki:Spam-blacklist and MediaWiki:Spam-whitelist can help you in combating spam. Once a link is added to the blacklist, no one will be able to save it again on this wiki. These 2 pages are protected, so that ordinary users (like me) can't edit them.

For an usage example, see [1]. It's a list of regular expressions. The main thing you have to remember is that . represents a single character in the URL, while \. represents a dot in the URL. \b identifies a word boundary, i.e. the position between a word (a sequence of letters and/or digits) and a punctuation character.
Can I help? I have experience with regular expressions, and I can write down them, given the links.

For example, you might add

\bgangstaa\.joinvps\.com\b

URL taken from 1, 2

Also, I'm wondering why they're spamming non-existing domains.

(I have absolutely no idea of whom and where to write this to: ) The webmaster of this wiki might also consider to read the page "Combating spam" in the MediaWiki manual. --Marko 16:42, 16 February 2012 (UTC)

Thanks Marko, I knew of the existence of the blacklist, but did not think on it as one of the problems is really the creating of dozens and dozens of accounts from open proxies. This link to the manual is handy. I'll forward the link to the "IP address blacklists" section to the right person. Kind regards, Kris 20:11, 16 February 2012 (UTC)

Suggestion to replace CAPTCHA module

Hi, I'd like to suggest replacing the simple MathCAPTCHA with QuestyCaptcha (it is a Mediawiki Extension). I have been successfully using it on a number of public wikis and with a good selection of questions it has immediately brought the number of spam accounts down to zero. Good questions and answers will be very easy for Inkscape users and even newcomers, but generally unsuitable for spambots (e.g. "The main color in the Inkscape logo is ..."). I've found that avoiding direct questions in favour of sentences to complete is better, but YMMV. I'm happy to help if needed --Steko 11:50, 21 April 2012 (UTC)

Thanks I'll discuss it it with the website admins. Kris 14:14, 23 April 2012 (UTC)