GNU MediaGoblin Wiki - User contributions [en]

GNU MediaGoblin:Community portal

2013-05-14T09:49:30Z

Ciaran: /* Spam blocking: Questy Captcha */ ::Glad I could help. ~~~~

==Spam blocking: Questy Captcha==

I see you've spambots making lots of new accounts and occasionally making spam pages. ([[Special:RecentChanges]])

I installed ConfirmEdit (it's free-as-in-freedom) on my wiki ( http://en.swpat.org/ ) and spam has dropped to nearly zero. ConfirmEdit offers a few captchas but I think QuestyCaptcha is by far the best. It requires new contributors to answer a question if they want to edit anonymously or make an account. There are no questions supplied, so each wiki has to write their own. The result is simple for a human but practically impossible for a bot.

Documentation:
* http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:ConfirmEdit
* http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:QuestyCaptcha

Rough HOWTO:

# Download it here: http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Special:ExtensionDistributor/ConfirmEdit
# mv ConfirmEdit-MW1.17-r77902.tar.gz WIKIDIRECTORY/extensions/
# untar it there
# Put these lines at the end of LocalSettings.php (change or add as many questions as you like):
require_once( "$IP/extensions/ConfirmEdit/ConfirmEdit.php" );
require_once( "$IP/extensions/ConfirmEdit/QuestyCaptcha.php");
$wgCaptchaClass = 'QuestyCaptcha';
$wgCaptchaQuestions[] = array( 'question' => "What colour is grass", 'answer' => "green" );
$wgCaptchaQuestions[] = array( 'question' => "What do most people sleep in at night? (3 letters)", 'answer' => "bed" );
    5. In WIKIDIRECTORY/extensions/ConfirmEdit/ConfirmEdit.php, make two changes:<br />
*Search for the following, and change it to "true":
$wgGroupPermissions['user' ]['skipcaptcha'] = false;
*Search for the following, and change it also to "true":
$wgCaptchaTriggers['edit'] = false; // Would check on every edit

I do still get a trickle of spam, which I found surprising. Maybe some of the spam networks that target my wiki include groups of humans, but only a small fraction have good enough English to answer my silly questions.

In contrast, requiring email confirmation is inconvenient for well-intentioned visitors and probably doesn't block any spambots. Automating the response is probably trivial for a spambot author (although I haven't tested to see if it does reduce spam). In any case, QuestyCaptcha should be enough.

Hope that helps, and best of luck with GNU MediaGoblin! [[User:Ciaran|Ciaran]] 17:58, 2 May 2012 (EDT)

:It's been setup. Thanks. [[User:simonft|simonft]] Feb 20 2013

::Glad I could help. [[User:Ciaran|Ciaran]] ([[User talk:Ciaran|talk]]) 05:49, 14 May 2013 (EDT)

GNU MediaGoblin:Community portal

2012-05-03T00:22:37Z

Ciaran: /* Spam blocking: Questy Captcha */ added documentation links (Is this in the right place for this sort of stuff? What types of in-wiki communication *are* allowed?)

GNU MediaGoblin:Community portal

2012-05-02T21:58:20Z

Ciaran: Spam blocking: Questy Captcha== I see you've spambots making lots of new accounts and occasionally making spam pages. (Special:RecentChanges) I installed ConfirmEdit on my wiki ( http://en.swpat.org/ ) and spam has dropped to nearly zero. Conf

==Spam blocking: Questy Captcha==

I see you've spambots making lots of new accounts and occasionally making spam pages. ([[Special:RecentChanges]])

I installed ConfirmEdit (it's free-as-in-freedom) on my wiki ( http://en.swpat.org/ ) and spam has dropped to nearly zero. ConfirmEdit offers a few captchas but I think QuestyCaptcha is by far the best. It requires new contributors to answer a question if they want to edit anonymously or make an account. There are no questions supplied, so each wiki has to write their own. The result is simple for a human but practically impossible for a bot.

# Download it here: http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Special:ExtensionDistributor/ConfirmEdit
# mv ConfirmEdit-MW1.17-r77902.tar.gz WIKIDIRECTORY/extensions/
# untar it there
# Put these lines at the end of LocalSettings.php (change or add as many questions as you like):
require_once( "$IP/extensions/ConfirmEdit/ConfirmEdit.php" );
require_once( "$IP/extensions/ConfirmEdit/QuestyCaptcha.php");
$wgCaptchaClass = 'QuestyCaptcha';
$wgCaptchaQuestions[] = array( 'question' => "What colour is grass", 'answer' => "green" );
$wgCaptchaQuestions[] = array( 'question' => "What do most people sleep in at night? (3 letters)", 'answer' => "bed" );
5. In WIKIDIRECTORY/extensions/ConfirmEdit/ConfirmEdit.php, make two changes:<br />
*Search for the following, and change it to "true":
$wgGroupPermissions['user' ]['skipcaptcha'] = false;
*Search for the following, and change it also to "true":
$wgCaptchaTriggers['edit'] = false; // Would check on every edit

I do still get a trickle of spam, which I found surprising. Maybe some of the spam networks that target my wiki include groups of humans, but only a small fraction have good enough English to answer my silly questions.

In contrast, requiring email confirmation is inconvenient for well-intentioned visitors and probably doesn't block any spambots. Automating the response is probably trivial for a spambot author (although I haven't tested to see if it does reduce spam). In any case, QuestyCaptcha should be enough.

Hope that helps, and best of luck with GNU MediaGoblin! [[User:Ciaran|Ciaran]] 17:58, 2 May 2012 (EDT)