User talk:CAMwikiAdmin

From Wiki4CAM

Contents 1 Vandalism 2 Site organisation 3 Extensions 4 Homeopathy 5 Hacking

Vandalism

As the first user I found listed as a sysop I think you might be interested in the fact users TKay and Homotox are blanking pages. JerryVanS 22:56, 13 August 2008 (CDT)

Homotox's pattern is indicative of a computer program called a bot. These are banned on most wikis you might want to consider a method for preventing this. JerryVanS 23:17, 13 August 2008 (CDT)

I don't think it's a bot. It looks too human. However, preventing external bots or botlike behaviour is a good idea. Internal bots can be useful for housekeeping issues. Rainbow 02:05, 14 August 2008 (CDT)

So tired. So very tired. Could you get me some lemonade, J? TKay 23:19, 13 August 2008 (CDT)

See the absurdity of some people, you need to look into ways of preventing this in future. JerryVanS 23:22, 13 August 2008 (CDT)

You don't like lemonade? TKay 23:26, 13 August 2008 (CDT)

Really the only way of dealing with this is with 24 hour a day on call admins with block and rollback rights. Tmtoulouse 23:25, 13 August 2008 (CDT)

There are some other options such as limiting the editing rate of new users, or using a closed registration system. Tmtoulouse 23:32, 13 August 2008 (CDT)

Thanks for your help Jerry and Tmtoulouse. We will work on your suggestions. We were expecting such initial acts of vandalism. They will only strengthen our security in the long run. Both the accounts have been blocked, empty pages deleted and changes rolled back. What sadistic pleasure do these people get in removing content from pages when they know that anything that they do, (can be (and will be) rolled back? Anyway, we have just started and we will be bringing in more administrators soon. Thanks again!

The pleasure stems mostly from seeing their name in lights, and creating problems for other people. There are several notorious vandals that you will have to deal with that hit every single wiki they can. One is called Grawp and another called Whilly on Wheels. Whilly on wheels is particularly bad because he moves pages. Which is why I recommend setting the "move page" rights to confirmed users (you can set the criteria for what constitutes confirmed status) to avoid the worst of the vandalism. Let me know if you need assistance with suggestions on what to do on the backend. Tmtoulouse 00:15, 14 August 2008 (CDT)

Your welcome. Let me know if you have any questions. One thing though I seem to be having a problem with cached pages not updating. When a page is changed I have to shift-reload to get the changes to appear. Did you make a change to the caching rules? Anyway, I am out for tonight good luck. Tmtoulouse 01:23, 14 August 2008 (CDT)

Any guidance on how to control the editing rate of new users and the rate of new pages that a user can create per hour would be very welcome.

I don't remember making any changes to mediawiki cache policy and am myself trying to figure out how to set this right!

Eh, I lied about going to bed, one last post before I am off. First a recommendation to get in the habit of signing your talk page posts, just end the comment with ~~~~. As for limiting the editing rate, there is supposedly a mechanism built into mediawiki that uses memcache but I have found that it is difficult to set up and highly unreliable. As I have said on my user page I am an administrator of a major wiki and have had a lot of experience working with the code. I developed on my site what I call a "vandal brake." It places a limit of 1 edit per x seconds on anonymous users, and a different one on newly registered users. Since you don't allow anonymous editors it would only be the newly registered users you would want. The problem is this change can not be done as an extension alone you have to change the "EditPage.php" file. I would be happy to show you the changes in code I made to implement this if you are interested. Tmtoulouse 01:45, 14 August 2008 (CDT)

I would like to have those restrictions in place. Would it be possible for you to drop me an email with the code changes at info@wiki4cam.org. Thanks again! CAMwikiAdmin 01:58, 14 August 2008 (CDT)

I will do so right now. Tmtoulouse 11:36, 14 August 2008 (CDT)

Wanted to mention that the page Verbal_Medicine appears to be some left over vandalism. I'm not sure if this site has a tag for speedy deletion. --Zebsmith 02:17, 14 August 2008 (CDT)

Yes, someone should just go zap that. Human 04:10, 14 August 2008 (CDT)

It looks like there are more vandals on the prowl. I suggest that you either lock the database when no-one is around or extend the number of adminstrators to ensure that there is someone can lock, block and delete at all times. -- Rainbow^TALK 17:25, 14 August 2008 (CDT)

We do have limited number of admins at present but we will try to increase the number when we get any volunteers and know that they can work as an admin. DoctorB 21:31, 14 August 2008 (CDT)

Site organisation

I don't know if you are the right person to contact but I have been reading several articles here and noticed that reference tags don't appear to be implemented. Providing references is an important part of making a wiki trustworthy. Rainbow 01:52, 14 August 2008 (CDT)

We have installed the cite extension now and the wiki should support the reference tags now.CAMwikiAdmin 01:56, 14 August 2008 (CDT)

Good. I can se that it's working now. Rainbow 02:03, 14 August 2008 (CDT)

Extensions

Hi! I have e-mailed you as requested about the vandal break. If you check my user page User:Tmtoulouse you will see a list of some extensions you might be interested in. You have installed cite which is great, that is top priority, I would say the next most important extension is the new user log. This will display on recent changes every time a new user is created and what there name is. This allows us to welcome them to the site, see how fast it is growing, and keep an eye out for potential vandals. Tmtoulouse ^communicate 11:52, 14 August 2008 (CDT)

Thanks for the suggestions and help. We will install the recommended extensions soon.DoctorB 20:51, 14 August 2008 (CDT)

Homeopathy

What happened to this article? Azlax 22:09, 27 August 2008 (CDT)

Hacking

I am most sorry old boy, my account seems to have been hacked.

Orac 22:51, 14 November 2008 (CST)