[PD] pdpedia and spam

[Philip Potter]

Dear all,

thanks for your feedback. Based on the response, it doesn't seem worth
it clearing the spam up by hand, but there have been some interesting
suggestions for how to maintain pdpedia as a going concern. AFAIK I am
unable to install captchas or make the wiki readonly (or editable by
logged-in users only); I think the wiki owner would need to do any of
these, if they desired.

Does anyone know who is ultimately responsible for the wiki? I guess
it's Marius, but I'm not sure.

My preferred option would be to make the whole wiki semiprotected --
ie only editable by logged-in users. Captchas would also be a
reasonable option.

Philip

2009/10/17 Marvin Humphrey <marvin at rectangular.com>:
> On Sat, Oct 17, 2009 at 03:59:03PM -0400, Mathieu Bouchard wrote:
>
>> why wouldn't it be better to just have no wiki at all,
>
> Maybe it would be better to kill it off, I dunno.
>
> If you're gonna do that, though, either remove it completely or preserve it as
> a read-only resource.  Don't leave the rotting carcass lying around for
> spammer maggots to feast on.
>
>> even in a situation where there wouldn't be any spam and the captcha
>> wouldn't be annoying?
>
> I don't think spammers ought to be driving the decision when there are
> countermeasures available.  If the wiki is underused or outdated or whatever,
> do something to address that, such as retiring it.  But if it's being used and
> the problem is the spam-to-edit ratio, captchas, whatever their drawbacks, can
> treat the spammer pestilence and let the wiki live on to die a natural death
> at the end of its natural lifespan.
>
> Marvin Humphrey
>
>