[Bioperl-l] bioperl wiki spam

Hilmar Lapp hlapp at drycafe.net
Thu Mar 17 19:38:01 UTC 2011


Just a thought towards the future - OpenIDs are so easy to obtain that  
the way it is right now (any OpenID will do) is built on the premise  
that it's not used widely enough (yet!) to make it worth the spammers'  
time.  Same story as with reCaptcha, probably. So once OpenID is used  
widely, we'll probably have to restrict the OpenID providers that we  
permit.

	-hilmar

On Mar 17, 2011, at 12:16 PM, Chris Fields wrote:

> Peter,
>
> It's set up for biopython.  Will make an announcement on open-bio-l  
> and post something on the blog when I catch my breath (redmine and  
> this in one week is a little tiring!).
>
> Will also ping biojava and the other wiki groups about switching over.
>
> chris
>
> On Mar 17, 2011, at 3:27 AM, Peter Cock wrote:
>
>> Yes please - thanks Chris!
>>
>> Peter
>>
>> On Thursday, March 17, 2011, Chris Fields <cjfields at illinois.edu>  
>> wrote:
>>> Done, for BioSQL.  Let me know about Biopython and the others.
>>>
>>> -c
>>>
>>> On Mar 16, 2011, at 10:05 PM, Hilmar Lapp wrote:
>>>
>>>>
>>>> On Mar 14, 2011, at 11:01 PM, Chris Fields wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> Okay, we have bioperl.org set up to use OpenID, works well:
>>>>
>>>> Seems to work mostly - there seems to be some odd small problem  
>>>> with ClaimID: typing in my username leads to an OpenID error,  
>>>> whereas entering my full ClaimID OpenID works.  Not sure why that  
>>>> would be.
>>>>
>>>> Any chance this can be enabled for BioSQL too (and accordingly  
>>>> account creation disabled there, too)?
>>>>
>>>>      -hilmar
>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> http://www.bioperl.org/wiki/Special:OpenIDLogin
>>>>>
>>>>> I have also temporarily shut down new user account creation (new  
>>>>> users must now use OpenID); old users can still use the login,  
>>>>> but they can also tie their account to an OpenID.  Let's see if  
>>>>> it cuts down on the spam.
>>>>>
>>>>> chris
>>>>>
>>>>> On Mar 14, 2011, at 1:48 PM, Hilmar Lapp wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>>> Any update on the OpenID extension?
>>>>>>
>>>>>>    -hilmar
>>>>>>
>>>>>> On Mar 14, 2011, at 2:25 PM, Chris Fields wrote:
>>>>>>
>>>>>>> On use of Recaptcha: according to the ConfirmEdit page (http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:ConfirmEdit 
>>>>>>> ):
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> "Unfortunately, reCAPTCHA might be a victim of its own success  
>>>>>>> - as of 2011, some spammers appear to have figured out a way  
>>>>>>> to bypass it, either through character recognition or by using  
>>>>>>> humans. For that reason, it is not necessarily recommended."
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> I agree about the barrier to entry issue, but unfortunately  
>>>>>>> with the wiki we're facing a reality check re: spam attacks.   
>>>>>>> We can probably set up a new group for users that allows  
>>>>>>> account approval, though, which might alleviate the process  
>>>>>>> somewhat.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> chris
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> On Mar 14, 2011, at 1:12 PM, Scott Cain wrote:
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> Hi Chris,
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> The GMOD wiki has been getting hit similarly.  I've been  
>>>>>>>> thinking
>>>>>>>> about the "vampire" model that EcoliWiki uses: once you have an
>>>>>>>> account, you have the ability to approve other people's  
>>>>>>>> accounts.  The
>>>>>>>> hope being to distribute the load.  I'm not thrilled about it  
>>>>>>>> though:
>>>>>>>> I want the barrier to entry to be as low as possible.  We  
>>>>>>>> already make
>>>>>>>> it so that you have to have an account to edit, passing a  
>>>>>>>> recaptcha on
>>>>>>>> the way.  Apparently that barrier is already a little too  
>>>>>>>> low :-/
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> Scott
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> On Mon, Mar 14, 2011 at 1:44 PM, Chris Fields <cjfields at illinois.edu 
>>>>>>>> > wrote:
>>>>>>>>> All,
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> We have been getting inundated on the wiki with spam  
>>>>>>>>> lately.  In order to get on top of this, I'm thinking about  
>>>>>>>>> having the wiki set up so wiki admins approve new user  
>>>>>>>>> accounts, using the ConfirmAccount plugin:
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:ConfirmAccount
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> I wanted to get everyone's opinion on this prior to  
>>>>>>>>> enforcing it.  The queue is pretty configurable, and one can  
>>>>>>>>> set this to auto-delete old requests.
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> Any thoughts?
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> chris
>>>>>>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>>>>>>> Bioperl-l mailing list
>>>>>>>>> Bioperl-l at lists.open-bio.org
>>>>>>>>> http://lists.open-bio.org/mailman/listinfo/bioperl-l
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> --
>>>>>>>> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>>>>>>> Scott Cain, Ph. D.
>

-- 
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: Hilmar Lapp -:- Durham, NC -:- hlapp at drycafe dot net :
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