Not done for now, have blocked the offending account. If another account or ip is used to spam, please report back. Thanks Scarian. --Hu12 (talk) 01:07, 20 February 2008 (UTC)[reply]
Carbon Copy Pro 3
Guess who's back? This time, he's trying calling it "CC Pro" to try and escape detection.
Far to many links using wetpaint.com, I'll list the expression "carboncopypro", and we can adjust as needed. Please keep up the good work.--Hu12 (talk) 01:08, 19 February 2008 (UTC)[reply]
This spam gets added to articles about academic testing every few days. User contributions was warned here about spamming by administrator User:Hu12 on 13 Feb, but the spamming has continued.
Blocking the IP addresses won't help because (a) the incidents are infrequent; (b) legitimate edits have occurred from those addresses; (c) different IP addresses are involved, although it's primarily 62.3.32.54.
There's no reason to use this URL except to disguise a referral spam link.
rcm.amazon.com/cm?t=
The part after the "t=" is the associate account ID. Used for associate referral links, probably just rcm.amazon.com is needed. I haven't seen this one on Wikipedia yet, but I'm an Amazon associate and that's what my links would look like, if I wanted to add my linkspam.
amazon.com/.*&tag=
With or without 'www'
The "tag=" string indicates an amazon associate who gets paid if someone buys something after clicking on the link. I'm assuming the blacklist uses something like egrep, so .* is a wildcard for "any characters".
Thanks. Maybe now the spammer will use tinyurl.com tricks (if that isn't already blocked, it should be). By the way, how come some patterns in the list are enclosed by \b...\b and some aren't? =Axlq00:33, 21 February 2008 (UTC)[reply]
What about punctuation? If the blacklist contains \bamazon\.com will it still match www.amazon.com because there is a period, not a letter or number, before 'amazon'? =Axlq20:11, 24 February 2008 (UTC)[reply]
IP user keeps adding these links to this site, which has classic science fiction stories with no indication whatsoever that they are licensed to appear there; when reverted, he/she calls reverting editors "ignorants"!
Wow! Did you even bother to check the links? For instance the Asimov page has links for 2 stories: "Profession" on abelard.com and "Gold" on webscription.net
Since when someone should prove he is not guilty?
The site is useful for it has more than 400 links to online fiction legally published by tens of websites like gutenberg.org, scifi.com, webscription.net, baen.com, infinityplus.co.uk, strangehorizons.com, authors' own websites, etc.
That's why I call those who throw the stone WITHOUT BOTHERING TO CHECK THE ACCUSATIONS FIRST as being ignorants! (UNSCRAMBLER (talk) 20:31, 22 February 2008 (UTC))[reply]
wwesuperstars.org
Multiple IP's (whom I suspect are the same person since they are so similar) and a regular user (who I can't find at the moment) continue adding this site to wrestling related articles even after being warned. Here are some examples: [19], [20], [21]. TJSpyke09:32, 21 February 2008 (UTC)[reply]
I think this is not a good idea.this site is same as wikipedia.everyone can edit.
Maybe some of its content is not good,you can ask the webmaster of this site to remove the content,if you remove it,we can not access this good site again.just like wikipedia. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Bill14341 (talk • contribs) 07:19, 22 February 2008 (UTC)[reply]
I figured that it was a personal web-site or web-site totally unaffilated with Oink, as the oink.me.uk original web-site contradicts the spam links assertions.
A real estate company in Tangier. They keep adding their link to the Tangier page from different IP addresses. User:Khalid hassani has indicated on the Revision history of Tangier, on 25 Feb. 2008, that they are also spamming the French Wikipedia. Thanks. --RenniePet (talk) 18:34, 28 February 2008 (UTC)[reply]
Sorry this seems to have been missed. Is it just teh one IP adding it & is it still happening? Personally I'd go for a block next time (if that is the case) and then list after than (feel free to nudge me on my talk page for the block if you want) --Herbytalk thyme12:07, 22 February 2008 (UTC)[reply]
Agreed up to a point. However with only that number of edits let's try other methods first. I've blocked for 48 hours. Let's see if it springs up from another IP/or after the block and then look at this. Hope that is ok & thanks for picking it up, cheers --Herbytalk thyme17:04, 21 February 2008 (UTC)[reply]
Actually, I thought blacklisting was more to the point because the site is blatantly commercial with no useful content. I doubt that a short block will have much effect because it's used so infrequently and the user was only up to a third warning. But, however you want to handle it. --Steven J. Anderson (talk) 17:12, 21 February 2008 (UTC)[reply]
These are all links that fall in to the Wikipedia:EL#Links_normally_to_be_avoided category # 11. Usually the edits are made on the same day within minutes of each other.
As would be expected, the penis enlargement article gets its share of linkspam. contributions and contributions, for example, have been repeatedly blocked for linkspamming (also see spam blacklist report on User Talk:125.209.115.132). Every so often this user comes back and adds variations of a domain name that contain the string "penisenlargement", such as penisenlargementss.com and penisenlargementy.com.
I suggest we add a general purpose regexp to this blacklist, something like \bpenis-*enlarge[-A-Za-z0-9]*\.[a-z]{2,4}\b. That would pre-emptively take care of future "contributions" of linkspam to that article. I'm assuming egrep pattern matching here; not sure what's actually being used.
Keeping in mind the debate below about blogspot, we should of course avoid casting too wide a net. A regexp matching simply "penis" may be a bit too broad, but I think "penisenlarg" is almost guaranteed to be spam. =Axlq (talk) 06:32, 11 February 2008 (UTC)[reply]
Update: Well, one can't get them all. Another user just got a permanent ban for spamming the article with enlargementpills.be. Is there a way to make this blacklist context-sensitive; that is, block certain domains from being added to specific articles? =Axlq (talk) 15:56, 11 February 2008 (UTC)[reply]
Update again: After seeing another incident, I moved this section from discussion section below to this proposal section. =Axlq20:07, 24 February 2008 (UTC)[reply]
Lets try both. Take for instance the theory of gravity, we can choose to ignore . Its not useful in all circumstances, nor remotely necessary in most circumstances - but we should not ignore gravity. Watchlist the penis related articles, and we'll test for a week. Obviously there is abuse associated with specific site above. This regex appears to skirt the Scunthorpe Problem, but if this occures it can be easily and quickly reverted in the event of any false positives. It shouldn't trigger on URLs having just the word "penis" or "enlarge" in them, it should trigger only if both strings are present. Done a little Viagra for Wikipedia--Hu12 (talk) 21:15, 13 March 2008 (UTC)[reply]
sarilocker.com
Being spammed since December at least by throwaway accounts - so warning messages not particularly useful.
Most recent discussion at the admin's noticeboard shows a clear consensus to blacklist this site. Essentially, the problem is that anyone is allowed to post their own articles there, with no editorial oversight. Additionally, authors there get paid by the pageview, so there's a clear incentive to spam links to them. At current count, there are 731 links on en.wikipedia, 13 on fr, 7 on de, and I haven't exhausted my searching options yet.
We've dealt with this site in the past, and removing the links just resulted in even more showing up. Once we have this under control, we can deal with removing the existing links. (Likely the only page that we should allow to keep a link there would be Associated Content (and other language versions, of course).) --Infophile(Talk)(Contribs)17:55, 13 March 2008 (UTC)[reply]
This is a commercial photography site, with the site owner clearly wanting to sell his photos. This site does not meet the external links guidelines, and he has been told so. Nonetheless, the site owner (presumabely) keeps re-adding the link. I spotted this back in July, when new user Mimopes(talk·contribs·deleted contribs·logs·filter log·block user·block log) was adding them. I warned him about this at that time, though he recently blanked my message and continues to spam. [45]
The link has been repeatedly spammed on numerous pages about landmarks, neighborhoods, and places in NYC and DC. He adds the link in a sneaky manner, with a false or misleading edit summary. See here as an example diff of how these links were added. His edit summary was "added architectural landmarks", with the edit including an additional sentence. However, he always also sneaks in his link with the edit (under a false edit summary). That edit was back in July, and I had reverted it then.
This morning I found the link again on a page, and saw the link had been re-added on numerous other pages. Looking at the edit history of that page, I see it was re-added shortly after I took it out, by a new user. (a sock) This time, his edit summary was "notable buldings - grammatical error". In reality, his edit had nothing to do with any grammatical errors or notable buildings. He simply re-added the link and apparently continues to do this as recently as last week. - Czenkaj(talk·contribs·deleted contribs·logs·filter log·block user·block log)
I took out approximately a dozen of these links today, on various pages about NYC and DC. Since he continues to add the link, do so in a sneaky manner, and will use socks to so, the best course of action is to add the link to the spam blacklist. As an admin, I could add it myself, but an independent admin (whoever maintains this page) should do it. --Aude (talk) 17:50, 17 March 2008 (UTC)[reply]
Holiday-card related, promotional. At first I thought these links were only being spammed from 61.0.137.*, so I thought a /24 rangeblock might do the trick. However, a link search indicates that the range is wider than that. Activity usually heats up before a holiday (Easter and Easter bunny in this case). OhNoitsJamieTalk19:00, 20 March 2008 (UTC)[reply]
I had used one of this website's petitions in the article Wizards (film) ([46]) as a citation for the fact that the petition had gotten the film released on DVD. This fact has been verified by the director both in interviews and on the film's DVD release. It should be linked in the article. (Ibaranoff24 (talk) 09:18, 11 February 2008 (UTC))[reply]
Linking to the petition itself isn't a suitable source as verification (since the mere existence of the petition is not verification that the petition is the reason for the release). The interviews of the director in which s/he confirms that the petition is what prompted them to release on DVD is a much more appropriate source. Can they not be cited instead? -- SiobhanHansa14:16, 11 February 2008 (UTC)[reply]
The following discussion is an archived report. Please do not modify it. Subsequent reports should be made in a new section.
I am contributor to this site. There are about a lot of people working in this site for free. It contains data that can not be found elsewhere. We have covers for lps for every country and accurate catalog numbers for record collectors that we collect personally. Our discography material is unique and rare not for every artist/group we have but for the most. We only add links to wiki when our link provides info that is worth noticing and only with relevant material. Every music fan who knows about recording industry can appreciate that our info is sometimes great. And of course all is free. No copyright laws are broken. We dont give downloads, we dont sell anything illegal. We understand that we may added too many links too soon. We feel they are worth it but if we are creating any trouble we will stop it or minimize it. Please consider our case. Thank you. Andreas Xantzis. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Andreasxatzis (talk • contribs) 11:50, 27 February 2008 (UTC)[reply]
You were provided with links to these policies and guidelines in the warnings some of your accounts were given.
Typically, we do not remove domains from the spam blacklist in response to site-owners' requests. Instead, we de-blacklist sites when trusted, high-volume editors request the use of blacklisted links because of their encyclopaedic value in support of our encyclopaedia pages. If such an editor asks to use your links, I'm sure the request will be carefully considered and your links may well be removed.
Unlike Wikipedia, DMOZ is a web directory specifically designed to categorize and list all Internet sites; if you've not already gotten your sites listed there, I encourage you to do so -- it's a more appropriate venue for your links than our wikis. Their web address: http://www.dmoz.org/.
Should you find yourself penalized in any search engine rankings[53] and you believe that to be a result of blacklisting here, you should deal directly with the search engine's staff. We do not have any arrangements with any of the search engine companies; if they're using our blacklist it's purely on their own initiative.
I received the following comment on my talk page;[54] I have copied it here along with my first, brief response:
''Dear Sir, I am representing a Greek company that create quasimodobell.com I was asked by my client to review your answer about his proposal to remove his from wiki black list today, and also i was informed that you mentioned other sites we created in your post.
First. I do not own quasimodobell. My client does, I only created it. I do not own all the other sites you mention except my company domain and two more that absolutely nothing to do with quawsimodobell. I dont/cant tell my customer how to use his website. I dont post in wikipedia. I never did and i am not interested in. You refer to my company site and other sites we have created in your answer. You also give some google adsense ID. Different from those in quasimodobell ownen by different people. What are you doing???? If the owner of quasimodobell is spamming or doing anything you dont agree with, resolve it with him. His email and contact information can be found in his site. You dont want him posting in wiki? Did he spam? Then add him to your blacklist. Whats the point of reffering to other sites we have created for our customers and our company sites. Do you understand that you are attacking different persons? You refer to a greel blog, a greek web design company, a blog with nothing to do with quasimodobell, a greek classifileds website and a internet niche directory. Did this sites spam wikipedia? Did you find any link or post in wikipedia to this websites? Absolutely not. Please remove all our links and references that have nothing to do with wikipedia COMPLETELY before we have to take legal actions against you personally.
I am very concerned about your comments and want to make sure I've done the right thing. Please understand that we get comments all the time from not-so-innocent spammers insisting they did not spam or that their domains were not related. At the same time, we also make mistakes. When everyone is using pseudonyms or anonymous IPs, it's often difficult to sort out these claims.
I am copying your response to MediaWiki talk:Spam-blacklist#quasimodobell.com in order to get additional opinions there and have others review my actions. I will respond further to your comments there.
I take these comments seriously and I will investigate this and respond further today or tomorrow when I have better computer access. In the meantime, I would ask that before anyone blocks this user per our No legal threats policy, I suggest they also read the "Don't overlook legal threats" essay:
"When newcomers make legal threats, they may have good cause. Stop and look carefully before wielding a banhammer."
I think it's quite possible that the "possibly related" domains above may not be owned by the spammer; that's why I marked them as "possibly" related. I also think that the other domains I cited are definitely closely related based on the links I posted as footnotes above; I will repeat them here:
I will post one more comment here about this subject because I am very concerned with it and furthermore I dont think you read my post carefully. Here is how it goes.
1. I do not own quasimodobell.com. I created it for a customer of mine. Before me it was created by a company named araneous. That explains the first link. Contact the website or search the net. You will clearly find the owner name.
2. I dont ask you to not-ban quasimodobell. If they spammed wikipedia do as you must.
3. As quasimodobell was created by me, my client asked me how to raise his traffic. Thats why i posted with my name visible, questions in google groups to help him. If I wanted spam advice I wouldnt use my real name and I would definetely not use google groups.
4. What my client does with his site is not my responisibility. You cant blaim all my other sites and customers because of his actions. If any other site of mine is found responsible for spamming then ok, but there isn't one. The only clue you have is the link from quasimodobell that points to my company. So What??? It is not a secret. You are not the Internet police and you are not responsible for saving the net from spammers. You do your work for wiki and if someone spams wiki then act accordingly. The only relation between the websites you mention is that they were created by me. But I dont own them all. I own finditgr coopdircom but thats not a secret either. Ban the website/ip/user that did the spamming.
5. Right now sites that I own, and my customers own are mentioned in wikipedia as related to spammers. Do you understand that you are accusing different people and companies for the actions of a specific person? You work for wikipedia, so ban-delete-attack anyone who attacks wikipedia. If you find a website that spams, that was created by a company that has created 2000 other websites will you accuse all these 2000 websites???? We are a small company and maybe that why you did what you did. If we were huge you wouldn't. But we will stand for our legal rights and for our customers rights too.
Resolve this matter as soon as possible.
And please read my post carefully.
Starfish
PK. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 193.92.250.225 (talk) 09:15, 29 February 2008 (UTC)[reply]
quasimodobell.com, other .com are from register.com
You will also see that quasimodobell is not even hosted in the same servers as my sites.
I note that this spam campaign extended from mid-2006 through 2008 which includes the time period when you were promoting this site. Your IP traceroutes to the Democritus University of Thrace, which was also a source of quasimodobell promotion.
My promotion for quasimodobell was clearly about giving advice for legitimate link building. Thats why i asked in google groups. I only gave them ideas with what to do and corrected the mistakes in their code for better seo. It is very possible to find IP's from Democritus Univercity because members of quasimodobell team are students there, and because there is free internet access with good bandwidth inside the campus. I have worked there from time to time. I created their websites. Will you add a whole University to
your spammers list now?
As for your concern that we presume to be some sort of Internet spam police, the answer is that we don't. We just act to protect our own site. This blacklist covers the English Wikipedia only. Another blacklist covers all Wikimedia and many MediaWiki wikis; your links were not reported there since we did not find any evidence of link-spamming to other Wikimedia wikis.
You probably dont understand the influence wikipedia has. If you refer to my company as spammer you are causing me a great loss.
The words "propably related" is not covering your actions. Either you have real proof and you are ready to defend your suggestion or you dont mention it. If I found your last name to be the same with a serial killer and wrote "propably related" on wikipedia would you find it serious or not?
As for "working for" Wikipedia, I'm just a volunteer.
I have removed mention of these other domains from the discussion. Thanks for your patience and help and I apologize for my mistake. --A. B.(talk)20:06, 29 February 2008 (UTC)[reply]
The discussion above is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.
insomnia.ac
When I tried to add a review article about ketsui as reference, I was informed it was a spam site. Last time I checked, it is a legitimate video game review site. Why was it entered spam list in the first place? The whole idea of the spambot list simply isn't working, because spammer would just move target, while innocent people who happened to inherit spammer's domains will suffer. Jacob Poon 03:53, 8 February 2008 (UTC)
Ok.. I guess my time is short too so I'm not sure how to deal with this. You requested a removal & gave a reason & it is not blacklisted. Please see what the issues is with the other site & let us know why that one should be removed, thanks --Herbytalk thyme13:11, 7 March 2008 (UTC)[reply]
sarilocker.com
Please unlist this domain. It will be used only as an external link under the "External Link" heading in relevant and meaningful ways, such as an external link on the Sex Education page, or when linking to articles contained on the site the provide more information. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Fran510231 (talk • contribs) 01:03, 2 March 2008 (UTC)[reply]
Clear evidence of abuse See WikiProject Spam report , along with vandalism to this page[57]. - Declined. Unlike Wikipedia, DMOZ is a web directory specifically designed to categorize and list all Internet sites; if you've not already gotten your sites listed there, I encourage you to do so -- it's a more appropriate venue for your links than our wikis. Their web address: http://www.dmoz.org/.--Hu12 (talk) 01:11, 2 March 2008 (UTC)[reply]
smarter.frih.net
The following discussion is an archived report. Please do not modify it. Subsequent reports should be made in a new section.
This site is a collection of links to legally published online Science Fiction. It is useful because it gathers in one place all known free online SF works (over a 1000 and the number is growing) from tens of more or less specialized websites such as gutenberg.org, webscription.net, baen.com, scifi.com, infinityplus.co.uk, strangehorizons.com, eidolon.net, etc. and authors' own websites. The accusations of copyright concerns are completely unfounded. No content is stored at the site and all links are to free online science fiction (free as in having copyright owner's consent).
Let's take the example of Isaac Asimov. Right now there are online 2 stories: "Profession" at abelard.com and "Gold" at webscription.net. If someone bothered to check the links, he would have seen the copyright notices at those websites. They have the right to make those stories freely available to anyone.
(UNSCRAMBLER (talk) 07:01, 23 February 2008 (UTC))[reply]
The listing (request here) looks perfectly valid to me. My concern is not just about content but also about the fact that the IP who placed the links completely ignored the fact that they were not required by the community (& were rude about it as well) --Herbytalk thyme09:34, 23 February 2008 (UTC)[reply]
"not required by the community"!? For me it seems a requirement for an author's page to have a link to the works of that author (if they are legally available, of course). I think that for a Wikipedia user it doesn't matter what kind of person the contributor is but it does matter if he/she finds the contribution useful. As an avid science fiction reader I find this type of links as being very useful. (UNSCRAMBLER (talk) 16:50, 23 February 2008 (UTC))[reply]
The listing request was perfectly valid. It would seem some in addition to multiple IP spamming some of the additions, are link vandalism such as [58][59][60][61][62]. edit summaries such as "for the ignorants: check things first before crying copyright", would indicate that the requestor is one and the same "That's why I call those who throw the stone WITHOUT BOTHERING TO CHECK THE ACCUSATIONS FIRST as being ignorants! ". Typically, we do not remove domains from the blacklist in response to those who where involved in spamming them. Instead, we de-blacklist sites when trusted, high-volume editors request the use of blacklisted links because of their encyclopedic value in support of our encyclopedia pages. If a specific link is needed as a citation, an etablished editor can request it on the whitelist on a case-by-case basis, where the url can be demonstrated as a source (in an appropriate context) when there are no reasonable alternatives available. Declined--Hu12 (talk) 08:29, 2 March 2008 (UTC)[reply]
1) Of course I am both the editor and the requestor. Who claimed otherwise? And if someone wrongly accuses me of breaking a law (copyright in this case) what I am supposed to think about him/her?
2) Again unfounded accusations: after ludicrous copyright infringement accusations now it's link vandalism! Let's take them one by one:
- [63] that's replacing an informative link with a more complete one. freesfonline.de is a good site but in this case (Asimov) as in several others their page is less complete/informative than the new link (more stories)
3) I thought Wikipedia was about information not about easily-offended self-righteous editors! For people like you I will always be guilty as charged without ever bothering to check the accusations just because you don't like the way I talk! (UNSCRAMBLER (talk) 12:41, 8 March 2008 (UTC))[reply]
The discussion above is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.
opticsplanet.net
Please unlist opticsplanet.net The site is the largest specialized source for astronomy, hunting, and other optical products and has a ton of unique content that wikipedia users can link to and visit from the "External Link" in relevant and meaningful way. No spamming has been intended and no commercials/advertising content - just unique How to's and explanations.
The list of some of the articles is here (space is added before .net to be able to insert the link with examples)
http://www.opticsplanet .net/howto.html
and here are a few specific examples
http://www.opticsplanet .net/riflescope-glossary.html
http://www.opticsplanet .net/secure-scope-mounting-system.html
(Pshvarts (talk) 19:49, 3 March 2008 (UTC)).[reply]
Hello, this link is in the black list because of my fault, when i was a newbie i started including it everywhere. It's been a year and a half, and i'm now quite a best contributor in es:, and the link is now only where it belongs. So i request the removal from the list. Thanks, Gons(¿Digame?) 16:55, 9 March 2008 (UTC).
Declined The domain was involved in a significant case of abusive linking at the beginning of the year (see: this report). Typically, we don't remove domains that have been spammed from the blacklist in response to requests from site owners. Instead, we de-blacklist sites when trusted, high-volume editors request the use of blacklisted links because of their encyclopedic value in support of our encyclopedia pages. If a specific link is needed as a citation, an established editor can request it on the whitelist on a case-by-case basis, where the url can be demonstrated to be be important for furthering our encyclopedic mission. -- SiobhanHansa13:32, 14 March 2008 (UTC)[reply]
hotrails.co.uk
This site was added to the external links on the "Blue Oyster Cult" page, AFTER the official site links. It's a large site, and has been online 5 years. It is an ongoing attempt to document the career of Blue Oyster Cult, and has hundreds of contributors - including current and ex-members of Blue Oyster Cult THEMSELVES and their roadcrew!!
It contains lists of gigs and setlists and reviews completely unavailable anywhere else. The site is unique - it's completely ad-free and no mailing lists are involved. Yet Wiki have blacklisted it as "spam". Needless to say, I disagree, and would like this decision to be reviewed.
The official sites you DO list are by and large pretty useless as founts of BOC knowledge - take the "www.julesradino.com" link you have there - yes, it's "official" but do you come away - after perusing it - with one iota of info on the band? I'll save you the trouble - no, you don't. Have a look at my interview with the BOC drummer at this url:
[Please note, I can't put the actual link here as it won't let me save the page when I do - because of course it is "spam" - please append the following to the url domain mentioned above "/blueskybag/albertbouchard/050212.htm"
The drummer himself said it's the most in-depth interview he's EVER done... it forms the basis for the new section on the site dealing with the band's history from 1967 to 1971 - NOBODY else is doing this. I have tons of emails from visitors who say this is the BEST, most informative BOC site anywhere, yet you say it is SPAM.
Have a look at the BOC history page - for say - 1980 here:
Again, I'm not allowed to put the URL so append the following to the basic site domain: "/history/1980.htm"
This sort of thing is NOT available ANYWHERE else. Yet, apparently, it's SPAM...
By trying to add the link to the Wiki BOC article, I'm attempting to promote a site that not only the average BOC fan will find very useful but also I'm trying to reach the "casual" BOC fans to try and get THEIR contributions to the ongoing BOC story... it's a socially-motivated documentary project - it'll never be complete but along the way, it'll become the most comprehensive encyclopaedic repository of publicly accessible information and opinion on this band that it is possible to get...
If that's SPAM to you, then to misquote Dr Seuss, spam I am.....
We do not remove domains from the blacklist in response to those who where involved in spamming them. Instead, we de-blacklist sites when trusted, high-volume editors request the use of blacklisted links because of their encyclopedic value in supports of our encyclopedia pages. If a specific link is needed as a citation, an etablished editor can request it on the whitelist on a case-by-case basis, where the url can be demonstrated as a source (in an appropriate context) when there are no reasonable alternatives available.--Hu12 (talk) 13:15, 7 March 2008 (UTC)[reply]
Bear in mind that Wikipedia is an encyclopaedia - as such many links are not relevant. Equally Wikipedia is not a place to to promote a site for that reason too. --Herbytalk thyme13:14, 7 March 2008 (UTC)[reply]
> clear documented threats to continue disruprition
I've never knowingly "disruprited" anyone or anything in my life! Some months back when I first added the link, it got removed each time within an hour - a fellow fan added it again, and finally it stayed for a fair while. Then when I checked again yesterday, it was gone again. Hence I thought it was a case of someone deleting my post again because it "wasn't official" or whatever...
So - the main argument - if I understand it correctly - is that the site in question is an "unofficial fan site" and therefore is a site to be avoided... I've just read your 15 bullet points under the heading of links to be avoided and the first one - about a "site that does not provide a unique resource" would clearly seem to be relevant. Have a look at it if you have a minute, but maybe you need to be a BOC fan to understand why it's different...
> Equally Wikipedia is not a place to to promote a site for that reason too
The external links would seem to be at odds with this philosophy - if anyone adds an external link, then isn't that "promoting" that link and should therefore be removed? Looking at those external links which you DO allow - they are mostly the "official" sanctioned sites by the band members themselves. No other sites are listed there. Can you tell me why THEY are more relevant to an encyclopaedia -promoting as they do, the current careers of those members in most cases - and in one of them, you have to pay $50 to join!! - whereas the Hot Rails site is all about documenting the past career and plotting it against a set timeline? No axe to grind, no adverts or mailing lists or anything - just the facts told by the people who were there...
Go to the official CBS/Sony site - and similar sources - and look at the sanitised links they provide there - just like the Wiki page, you get the same "official" - sanctioned - links...
I'm not sure how USEFUL this is to a BOC fan who wants to find out more about the band's history, but I suppose THAT must be what you want, and - consequently - my idea of what constitutes a legitimate encyclopaedic resource must differ wildly from yourselves... 82.38.141.32 (talk) 00:54, 8 March 2008 (UTC)[reply]
A good reference is black listed
this page is blacklisted: *http:// education. stateuniversity. com/ pages/ 2338/ Prosser-Charles-1871-1952.html - added spaces so it will save here. Why is it black listed? It is a good reference for artcile Charles Allen Prossor. Is there anything that can be done about this?Cool10191 (talk) 18:37, 10 March 2008 (UTC)[reply]
http: / /transportationhistory.suite101.com/article.cfm/louis_bleriot is blacklisted, and I was trying to use it as a reference. I don't see any possible reason it could spam the website, and I believe it is a legitimate web site for research. STYROFOAM1994talkReview me!23:27, 12 March 2008 (UTC)[reply]
Vuze.com was added to the blacklist as spam on the articles Vuze, Vuze, Inc., and Azureus, Inc.[68] This is rather nonsensical, as Vuze.com is Vuze Inc., is the company that develops Vuze, and is the new name of Azureus, Inc. We have a domain blacklisted for being used in articles about its owner. It's like blacklisting apple.com for being used on iPod. There seems to have been a handful of attempts to link to a specific video on the service, but we'd have to blacklist half the web if that were the standard. -- Cyrius|✎18:17, 16 March 2008 (UTC)[reply]
I have tried to add a link to VBS.TV on the Vice Magazine page, as they are affiliated with the mag. However, the site appears to be blacklisted. I can see that a user VBS.tv has added links to several related pages which have since been reverted, is this the basis for it? If so, I would argue that, although specific content/deep links may not be notable enough to merit inclusion on related pages, the VBS.tv website is significant enough by itself to merit links to the homepage when discussed in relation to Vice Magazine or its impact on IPTV. For that reason, I think it should at least deserve consideration for the whitelist. Thedregs (talk) 15:14, 19 March 2008 (UTC)[reply]
The following discussion is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section.
Trying to update a spelling mistake on Antonio Visentini, I couldn't complete the action because artericerca.com was blacklisted. Having a look at it, I can't see why: it looks like a good-quality Italian-language resource on painters. Dsp13 (talk) 14:58, 20 March 2008 (UTC)[reply]
Foreign-language links are certainly not mentioned at WP:LINKSTOAVOID. English links are preferred when available, but there's certainly nothing categorically wrong with foreign sources. Zetawoof(ζ)04:18, 21 March 2008 (UTC)[reply]
The discussion above is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.
aerobaticteams.net
The following discussion is an archived report. Please do not modify it. Subsequent reports should be made in a new section.
Hello,
My name is Alexander, and I'm the owner of the Aerobatic Teams web site aerobaticteams.net. My site is dedicated to Modern Aerobatic Teams, like yours same section. Why my site is blocked to adding links. This is not spam, because my site is relevant to wikipedia Aerobatic Teams section.
Exaple: in you Blue Angels page http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_Angels have External link www.funonthenet.in/articles/airshow-san-francisco.html which is relevant with this thematics, but my Blue Angels www.aerobaticteams.net/BlueAngels.html is relevant too, but my site is blocked. Also my page is more informatible then this page, but this page not blocked, only my site.
How can I receive rull from you to adding links to all aerobatic teams pages in Wikipedia? As you can see my site is not commercial.
I know that you media is not web site promotion tool, but you are education organization and peoples must have access to more inmormation that needed. My site is education site and have education role about Aerobatic Teams past and present. For that reason I think that must have link to my site in you Aerobatic Teams pages.
You passed a lot of unuseful site links, but not mine.
Can you help, and help to aerobatic teams fans to learn more about this teams joining to my site.
Back in January 2008, you and several other logged-out editors added links to this site to a number of articles where they were not appropriate, and continued doing so despite warnings. Here's the logs. Zetawoof(ζ)19:47, 22 March 2008 (UTC)[reply]
I see but our webmaster during this period don't see. Please help us to fix this problem form us, and we will be more attentive for the future. So please remove our site from blacklist, because we look like criminals. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 77.85.71.15 (talk) 07:26, 24 March 2008 (UTC)[reply]
Declined Typically, we do not remove domains from the spam blacklist in response to site-owners' requests. Instead, we de-blacklist sites when trusted, high-volume editors request the use of blacklisted links because of their encyclopedic value in support of our encyclopedia pages. If a specific link is needed as a citation, an etablished editor can request it on the whitelist on a case-by-case basis, where the url can be demonstrated as a source (in an appropriate context) when there are no reasonable alternatives available.
Unlike Wikipedia, DMOZ is a web directory specifically designed to categorize and list all Internet sites; if you've not already gotten your sites listed there, I encourage you to do so -- it's a more appropriate venue for your links than our wikis. Their web address: http://www.dmoz.org/. --Hu12 (talk) 07:30, 24 March 2008 (UTC)[reply]
- This decision prove me that Wiki is not real encyclopedia. So We must colect editor votes to removed from blacklist, because our FORMER webmaster was stuped. What is the point? Everyone can become editor, but does this info will be real - no one knows. Also this smell me like censorship.
Sorry that I boring your time and hope that you will make right choise for other blamed in spam sites. We just want to share our information for free, but we suspended. And, I don't real think that you open and check our site. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 84.1.47.21 (talk) 17:43, 24 March 2008 (UTC)[reply]
- One last thing. Our site blacklisted for not relevent content, but what of our content is not relevant for Aerobatic Teams? Maybe some editor don't like our site, because its more informatible, then his page. Who knows... —Preceding unsigned comment added by 84.1.47.21 (talk) 17:52, 24 March 2008 (UTC)[reply]
The discussion above is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.
freemasonrywatch.org
This is a good reference. Many articles and images. Often quoted and referenced by researchers and writers. Has been referenced in Washington Post, New York Times and a number of television documentaries and news reports. Only a member of the Freemasons would want this website blacklisted, which is probably how it got so in the first place Davinciscode (talk) 16:57, 23 March 2008 (UTC).[reply]
Lulu.com is an online self publisher for small authors and I can't figure out why it is blacklisted. The only discussion I found was here, but that didn't indicate any activity one way or the other. We can't reasonably maintain the Lulu article with the link to the company blacklisted and it makes editing articles that have related materials on their site difficult as well. For instance both Count Your Sheep and Real Life have works printed via the service. I can't make any edits to the Count Your Sheep article unless I remove the link to the book, nor can I add the link to Real Life about the new book. Dread Lord CyberSkull✎☠06:46, 25 March 2008 (UTC)[reply]
I've removed it along with ehow and Associated Content. As with most sites that invite content from the public (sound familiar?), there can be valuable stuff and abuse at the same time. If the abuse spreads, I would still recommend other measures than the spam blacklist. There may be more on this list that need to be reconsidered as well. --Michael Snow (talk) 17:54, 25 March 2008 (UTC)[reply]
There was both discussion and consensus for the additions, along with documented abuse. In addition;
Have no editorial oversight (see WP:RS) and articles are essentially self-published
Offers its authors financial incentives to increase page views
It's more than just verifiability, it's being able to have external links to companies and their website in the articles specifically about those companies. --Michael Snow (talk) 21:15, 25 March 2008 (UTC)[reply]
This section is for archiving Troubleshooting and problems.
I tried to add a new talk section to [72], using "+". This means that only my text was on the screen. Previous text on the talk page wasn't even in view. Thus it was very confusing to be spam blocked with a text addition that had no links whatsoever. Shouldn't this only happen if you're editing the full article? And should it really apply to Talk pages, where such links might be discussed? (cf. the article itself)? If so, am I supposed to change someone else's talk to fix the spam blocked link? (fortunately in this case, it's myself using it as a reference (See 'Open University credentials') but normally I'd be pretty uncomfortable changing some else's talk? Natebailey (talk) 08:08, 24 March 2008 (UTC)[reply]
I think that this "hub" of admins is a very interesting wiki-phenomenon. The rules ?guidelines? here are also very interesting, brief, (and uneditable?)
“
Does the site have any validity to the project?
Have links been placed after warnings/blocks? Have other methods of control been exhausted? Is there a Spam project report? If so, a permanent link would be helpful.
Close the request entry on here using either Done or Not done as appropriate. The request should be left open for a week maybe as there will often be further related sites or an appeal in that time.
”
Here are my questions:
I wanted to know if there are other guidelines about what should be wiki-blacklisted.
Is there a general list of blacklisted wiki site? (Maybe this would be good for my e-mail spam filter, for example??)
Do links that are blacklisted have to fit all the above criteria? Only one? Case by case?
How long after something is marked Done is it kept here before archiving?
If an admin puts a website on the blacklist... and that site is then discussed under Proposed removals... can the same admin keep it black listed and call it Done? Or could that be perceived as a conflict of interest for the admin him/herself?
How are the archives organized? How can I search them easily?
Can you point me to some disputed blacklisted sites? (disputed amongst admins?) Or are things always clear cut.
Does a proposed removal need only one vote from one admin?
is there a way on wiki to have voting? (has this been tried)??? i.e.: three admins must agree for x & y to happen? almost like a jury? Or are decisions on wikipedia made without jury - and only by judge (i.e.: admin).
In this initiative... have there been cases where the admin was found to be biased? Or found to have ulterior motives?
I think this is really fascinating, and am considering doing a review of blacklisted sites to better understand how the process works. What happens to these sites? What % are challenged? What % are manipulated to avoid detection? How many (if any) get removed from the blacklist - and if so, when? Of those that are removed, how many are removed by the original blacklisting admin? Any statistics here?? It is my guess that most of blacklisted sites stay blacklisted forever... but that some are troublesome and keep coming up with ways to try to beat the system. Is that true? What has been done to prevent this? Would anyone be able or interested in helping me with this? Or offering other suggestions of what to look at?
Sign your username: Newtowiki2 (talk) 16:07, 12 February 2008 (UTC)[reply]
You raise some interesting questions that probably needed asking. Here's my unofficial two cents
If we find spam has been spread "cross-wiki" (i.e., to Wiktionary, other Wikipedias, etc) we list it there.
When I think a link should be blacklisted
Spammer knows our rules and spams anyway
Usually I assume this means 3 or 4 warnings; I may shortcut that if
The problem is big enough
The spammer is using open proxies
The spammer is disruptive in other ways
The spammer is involved in off-wikipedia discussions of how to bypass our spam defenses
The spammer never uses the same IP twice and there's just no way to warn him
Cross-wiki spam usually gets taken to meta immediately
URL redirection domains such as tinyurl.com get blacklisted on sight at meta
Sites that attack or attempt to breach the privacy of Wikipedia editors may be blacklisted
Listing sites here, then blacklisting, then adjudicating their possible removal:
If it's controversial, I'll ask someone else to get involved. Everything is transparent and so if I just try to hide a poor decision under the rug, it will blow up in my face.
If it appears open and shut (buyviagra.com or getrichquick.net), I just go ahead and handle it. 95+% of spam falls in this category.
If we find spam has been spread "cross-wiki" (i.e., to Wiktionary, other Wikipedias, etc) we list it there.
?? Maybe I don't know how to look at this... but is this the full list? It looks like just the "b"'s??
“
Do links that are blacklisted have to fit all the above criteria? Only one? Case by case?
”
Spammer knows our rules and spams anyway
Usually I assume this means 3 or 4 warnings; I may shortcut that if
The problem is big enough
The spammer is using open proxies
The spammer is disruptive in other ways
The spammer is involved in off-wikipedia discussions of how to bypass our spam defenses
The spammer never uses the same IP twice and there's just no way to warn him
Cross-wiki spam usually gets taken to meta immediately
URL redirection domains such as tinyurl.com get blacklisted on sight at meta
Sites that attack or attempt to breach the privacy of Wikipedia editors may be blacklisted
Listing sites here, then blacklisting, then adjudicating their possible removal:
If it's controversial, I'll ask someone else to get involved. Everything is transparent and so if I just try to hide a poor decision under the rug, it will blow up in my face.
If it appears open and shut (buyviagra.com or getrichquick.net), I just go ahead and handle it. 95+% of spam falls in this category.
Are sites that may be controversial always listed here before blacklisting - to provide a forum for discussion? Or are there examples where they went directly to the blacklist? The 95% is clear cut. It is the remaining 5% that I want to flush out to better understand
“
How long after something is marked Done is it kept here before archiving?
”
??
“
If an admin puts a website on the blacklist... and that site is then discussed under Proposed removals... can the same admin keep it black listed and call it Done? Or could that be perceived as a conflict of interest for the admin him/herself?
”
??
This seems like a great oportunity to keep things "clean." In an ideal world, one admin would identify spam and vote to a blacklist... a separate admin would place on proposed blacklist... and if contested - the case should be reviewed by a third admin who is 'impartial'. I do not see any discussion of this type of protocol (or similar). Do you think such efforts are unnecessary? Too burdensome on the admins? (I do not think this is needed on the 95%... only talking about the 5% here)
“
How are the archives organized? How can I search them easily?
”
??
“
Can you point me to some disputed blacklisted sites? (disputed amongst admins?) Or are things always clear cut.
”
??
How do I weed out the 5%???
“
Does a proposed removal need only one vote from one admin?
”
(Not talking about the 95% of things that are obvious - like viagra, etc. More interested in the 5%)
It would seem the answer is that only one vote from one admin is needed (and that could be the same admin that placed the site on the blacklist)
Is that correct???
“
is there a way on wiki to have voting? (has this been tried)??? i.e.: three admins must agree for x & y to happen? almost like a jury? Or are decisions on wikipedia made without jury - and only by judge (i.e.: admin).
”
??
“
In this initiative... have there been cases where the admin was found to be biased? Or found to have ulterior motives?
”
??
“
What happens to these sites? What % are challenged? What % are manipulated to avoid detection? How many (if any) get removed from the blacklist - and if so, when? Of those that are removed, how many are removed by the original blacklisting admin? Any statistics here?? It is my guess that most of blacklisted sites stay blacklisted forever... but that some are troublesome and keep coming up with ways to try to beat the system. Is that true? What has been done to prevent this? Would anyone be able or interested in helping me with this? Or offering other suggestions of what to look at?
”
??
What is the best way to sort this all out?
Ultimatly, we can all agree about the 95%. I want to better understand how the Spam-blacklist affects the 5%. Clearly the spam-blacklist plays a key roll in managing the 95%. Was this list intended for the 5% in the first place? What about having every new external link go to a pool that requires review by an admin? This way, we would catch spam before/as it happens? And would perhaps prevent or discourage those from trying to spam? Or is this also too burdensom on the admins, and risks slowing down the rapid growth of some articles?
Newtowiki2 (talk) 21:30, 13 February 2008 (UTC)[reply]
Friends Cyber Club - friendscyberclub.com
My social networking site seems to be banned by wikipedia, can you please remove it from your black list, i have taken a proper care of the site, cleaned it completely, also edited the picture of the member galleries, now member pictures will only appear once the admin approves it.
Now friends cyber club is completely clean, will make sure no one spams our site too! i think it is ready for removing it from the blacklist at wiki!
Hi. Why is whatbird.com blacklisted? I tried to add identify.whatbird.com to the Science ref desk but it said it was blacklisted. Can someone tell me the reason for when it became blacklisted? Thanks. ~AH1(TCU)18:37, 29 February 2008 (UTC)[reply]
In regards to my post "How to keep wiki free of spam" I was hoping to get a few more comments before it was archived. Is there little interest? little time? other priorities? all of the above? From my perspective, it seems as if these are important questions that may be difficult to answer but need to be considered (but I must disclose bias... as they are my questions...) I do not think that some of these questions have been asked before... and I hope I have not offended any by asking them now in my attempt to understand the blacklist better.
You posted a bunch of questions, received a well thought out and fairly comprehensive response and then posted some very none specific comments in what I found to be a difficult to read format. It wasn't something that was easy to respond to. If you could summarizing one or two of the points you have questions to and concentrate on those it may be easier for people to respond in a productive fashion. Also while people will likely be happy to answer specific questions that have direct relevance to your ability to contribute, they may be much less willing to engage in a more in-depth conversation unless they are particularly interested in pursuing the discussion for their own edification. -- SiobhanHansa17:47, 2 March 2008 (UTC)[reply]
Thanks SiobhanHansa. I have limited time on Wiki so although i worked very hard in making a table to organize my thoughts and the reply- this seems to have been a difficult format to stimulate discussion. Out of all of my questions, here is the one that seems the most important. The Wiki blacklist is a powerful tool, and run by respected and powerful wiki members. Isn't there a risk of abuse amongst the admins (or at least risk of being accused of abuse)? What if the admins have their own bias? I reviewed only a very small section of the archives (as I ref on my talk page) and I was most surprised to see examples in the archives where the same admin had taken these actions on individual sites:
Listed a site for blacklist (without offering it as a proposed blacklist or other atempted warnings)
Responded to discussion (or dominated discussion) when their action was questioned on proposed removals
Made the "call" by marking an item as done
Archive the discussion
If the same admin takes on all of those roles for a single website in question... does that put the entire blacklist at risk as being a fair and unbiased wiki tool?
I also saw several examples where a site was kept on the blacklist because it was determined to be an "unreliable source". Is the mission of the blacklist to eliminate unreliable sources? Is blacklisting an unreliable source the same as preventing spam? Are there broader negative associations with being on a "blacklist" (ie: does inclusion on the Wiki blacklist have the potential to do harm to a website??) Can this potential harm put the entire wikipedia project at risk for legal action (ie: slander???)?Newtowiki2 (talk) 19:05, 2 March 2008 (UTC)[reply]
So there are a few issues you bring up - The one about admin actions being unilateral and not really open to review is one that is brought up in many different contexts on Wikipedia, and the same situation applies here as to any admin action. It's not as though non-admins like you and me are without recourse, the same avenues are available to get review of actions on this page as are available for any admin action. If you need help with something specific please feel free to leave a note on my talk page and I'll try and assist you in taking the right steps, but the broader issue is not something I'm interested in discussing in any depth personally.
On the fair and unbiased issue - a) The blacklist's role isn't really to be "fair and unbiased" it's to help us make building the encyclopedia easier. But if by unbiased you mean that the list has a tendency to keep out links of a certain POV and that that POV is one that our NPOV policy dictates we should cover - that would be a significant issue. Many eyes would appear to be a good defense against this, so if you've noticed something please bring it up. b) Openness is important to help with review and to that extent there is inbuilt "fairness". We have process to make this easier (such as all additions being logged with reasons). In cases where that process isn't followed, a request for delisting is granted when reason for an addition can't be found, or when its continued presence on the blacklist can no longer be justified.
The unreliable source comment may have been taken out of context - a site that is spammed but can also be a reliable source (we've had several library sites spammed for example) is one where we might think twice about adding it to the list (or be more inclined to delist), since editors might need it as a citation and it could be otherwise useful to the project. A site that isn't a reliable source doesn't really need to be considered as carefully since it's not of the same potential benefit to the encyclopedia. I believe there have been a few sites in the past where additions of totally inappropriate sources (non-notable blogs for instance) have been used so much that a listing has been considered, but there isn't a general acceptance for admins to simply add any URL they know of that isn't a reliable source to the blacklist, and I don't think that's done.
As to broader negative associations - we don't promote this page for anything other than use on the English Wikipedia. The meta blacklist is used by some broader spam-fighting engines, and it's possible they also look at this one, but I haven't seen anyone confirm that. We have a number of sites on meta that aren't even spam as such but get used by spammers (such as redirect sites) and there aren't any concerns about law suits there so I don't think we're worried here. We are concerned about the impact a listing might have on a site, but not to the extent we're prepared to allow Wikipedia to be spammed. If a site could show they were damaged by inclusion on the list and provide believable assurances that they would not spam again, there would probably be some consideration for delisting. It's not the intent of the blacklist to harm businesses or people just because their sites have been inappropriately added to Wikipedia, the only point of the blacklist is to help with building the encyclopedia. -- SiobhanHansa21:04, 3 March 2008 (UTC)[reply]
"The blacklist's role isn't really to be "fair and unbiased" it's to help us make building the encyclopedia easier" -- according to who? This is a spam blacklist - and it would seem the original intent was to prevent spam/vandalism. I think that it is routinely being used in a much broader way... and that is why I am surprised. The guidelines on the top of this page relate to spam, and its prevention. Do the guidelines need to be revisited?
"The unreliable source comment may have been taken out of context " take a look at the table on my talk page... just a review of a small sample. Is this sample out of context? It seems to be more of a pattern to me... a pattern where it is easy to be put on the blacklist, and very difficult to come off of it - even if there is no threat of spam??
"A site that isn't a reliable source doesn't really need to be considered as carefully since it's not of the same potential benefit to the encyclopedia." but is that the job of the blacklist admins to decide? or the specialty admins on a given article? If a site is being disruptive... it should go to the talk page of the article. If the site is still being disruptive, then it qualifies for this or other spam prevention. But this does not seem to be the history of many domains.
"The meta blacklist is used by some broader spam-fighting engines, and it's possible they also look at this one" - That is serious. You do not need to intend to do harm to do harm... and if a website ends up on this black list there are several ways in which they may suffer. For example, their e-mails to subscribers may end up in spam filters, for example. They may not realize this for months... or longer... and I bet would not even know how or why their domain became listed as a spam domain. If they look and see a history here of spam, with attempts to stop the spam, and the black list used as a last resort to prevent spam - I think that there is no problem. If the guidelines above have not been followed, I do see a potential problem for the wiki community. This could be a difficult, expensive, and possibly impossible problem for a domain to fix. And they may be fixing it because a random visitor to their website listed the domain... and an admin here thought that the source wasn't reliable? That just doesn't seem fair. Newtowiki2 (talk) 22:49, 6 March 2008 (UTC)[reply]
The point of everything on Wikipedia is to build a GFDL encyclopedia. The spam blacklist helps us do that and nothing you say above actually shows harm that current practice does to that end. Your comments about how these processes ought to be handled don't seem to be grounded in an acceptance (or even solid understanding of) community practice; this could be because you're a new user who has not yet added much to the project. You may find a lot of this more understandable if you spend more time editing articles and come back to this after you've experienced the impact in the field.
In terms of harm to website owners - given that we do nothing to suggest other organizations/people should use this list for their filtering purposes I don't think we're going to change our practices unless we had evidence that it is actually being harmful. Introducing more bureaucracy or opportunity for wikilawyering is not something we are likely to consider without a very clear motive. -- SiobhanHansa00:56, 7 March 2008 (UTC)[reply]
"Your comments about how these processes ought to be handled don't seem to be grounded in an acceptance (or even solid understanding of) community practice" - You are right... I am new here... but please do not bite the newcomers. When I read the guidelines above this wiki spam list... I find more examples of their disregard than their utility. (see comments on my talk page) As a communal set of guidelines, they should both be helpful - and offer some degree of unification and protection as they have been (theoretically) agreed upon. I also understand that long and leangthy guidelines serve no purpose here... so I am not suggesting that we make these guidelines more complex. I'm just not understanding why they are not being followed.
I am a newcommer, who is unweathered, and has been in no "wiki fights" or "spam wars". The Admins have been here much longer and work very hard, and closely to this project. I know that these admins have all of the best intentions - but in their efforts to do good and make wikipedia better that (at least in this forum) I rarely see my rolemodels assuming good faith, and sometimes may not follow wikipedia etiquette.
Please understand that I am not a lawyer, and it is not my intent to offer spurious legalisms. I offer these links only to better illustrate my concern with this spam list and the guidelines above. Some decisions to blacklist a site may be considered reckless. Decisions here are managed by Admins only... who would not be able to claim innocent dissemination. Ignorance is not a defence. Clear disregard of this blacklist guidlines may be interpreted as intent for libel. After all, if someone is an Admin active here, it would be assumed that they known that SPAM engines may use dsn blacklists.
Clearlly this list is very important to the work that is being done here. But from my limited review, it seems to be used for purpose broader than it's intent. I also quesiton if comming off this list is unfairly difficult... with a suggestion to Defer to Whitelist the knee jerk reply.Newtowiki2 (talk) 02:12, 12 March 2008 (UTC)[reply]
I had no intent to come across as bitey and I'm very sorry that I did. My point is simply that you have made virtually no additions to the encyclopedia but you are immersing yourself in a policy and guidelines discussion. Since Wikipedia is not a philosophical entity and its policies are grounded entirely in a pragmatic desire to make them work on the ground, with a strong prejudice towards ignoring things that aren't actually causing problems, this is not a particular effective way to understand them. So far you haven't demonstrated any way in which the actions you suggest are inappropriate actually harm the encyclopedia and that's a pretty critical issue for suggesting significant change.
Claims that the list is a legal risk should be made to the Foundation. While many Wikipedian's love to get involved in unqualified legal speculation (including me from time to time) there's no way for us to make such a determination without proper legal council. Such a discussion in this forum is pointless. I would certainly support a change of name for the list from spam black list to link block list or the like. I've never been a fan of the spam word being splashed around too liberally because it riles users up when we can achieve more by using other words. But that's just a cosmetic change from my perspective.
According to the spam filter, the below contains all of or a portion of s6.invisionfree.com:
Image:Revamped Flareon.png is being used in the 'revamping' section of this artcle. The image page specifies that the image is being used under fair use but there is no explanation or rationale as to why it would be constituting fair use if used in this Wikipedia article.
This image was originally made by Nintendo and modified by me. I uploaded it specifically for its use in this article, as an example of a 'revamped' sprite. I do not think it is replaceable by a free alternative because revamped sprites almost always need an existing, non-free sprite to begin with. --EinsteiNewton19:17, 8 March 2008 (UTC)[reply]
I'm not seeing a match when I test the regex, nor when I try to test it on Wikipedia directly. Perhaps it was just a fluke? I blame cosmic rays. ~Kylu (u|t) 22:25, 9 March 2008 (UTC)[reply]
\bcairns1st\.blogspot\.com\b was added as a result of a mistaken ANI report I posted. This site is fine, it's the blog of some politician. Could someone please remove it? Thanks. Equazcion•✗/C •15:39, 20 Mar 2008 (UTC)
Looks like someone just did it. Thanks. Equazcion•✗/C •15:40, 20 Mar 2008 (UTC)
Resolved
