For old comments see the Archive.

RE: Suggestions

I do not think we should ban page creation by new accounts. On wikipedia that makes sense, but on appropedia, I am sure that we will have some readers who never sign up until they are ready to create a page based on their project. Unlike an encyclopedia, many of our community will have specific interest and expertise that may not have a corresponding page (even more true since we are still only a few thousand pages big). I think the main next step for spam abatement are:

  1. Install and customize a simple Reverse Turing test.
    • Non-logged in users must solve a simple addition problem to comit an edit.
    • To create a username a user must solve a simple addition problem.
      • We can also set it up so that only when entering a URL is a Reverse Turing test administered.
  2. Consider installing a blacklist extension that prevents edits that contain certain spam URLs, or spam patterns in a URL, as listed in a blacklist.
  3. Much later consider http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Talk:Bad_Behavior_extension
    • This extension seems to have many counterindications

See http://wiki.evernex.com/index.php?title=Blocking_Spam_in_Mediawiki for a much more detailed and clear approach to spam abatement. The plan laid out there is very sound and would work for Appropedia, with the following exceptions:

  1. I think we should avoid implementing Bad_Behavior as it may interfere with submission, especially from more spam-ridden computers (often the case in older internet cafes).
  2. We may consider adapting the ConfirmEdit Reverse Turing test to the specifications I listed above.

--Lonny 09:53, 17 April 2007 (PDT)

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