Re: esw wiki under attack

>> The wiki-spam problem seems to be about as unsolvable as the e-mail
>> spam problem.   If people have any brilliant ideas about how to solve
>> it, please share them.
>
> Captchas?  (e.g. enter displayed code to save page.)
>
> (Fundamentally, I think the wiki-spam problem should not be as 
> intractable as the email-spam proble, because a wiki-entry requires 
> there to be some closed loop between the submitter and the wiki.)

Elsewhere [1], I have suggested the following to defeat human spammers:

1. External links should be modified to nullify Google PageRank [2]
2. When external links are added to a page, the "page saved" message 
should be replaced with a new message

This message:

* should explain that external links do not generate Google PageRank
* must be posted in several languages, especially Chinese

The intent is to appeal to the spammer's sense of futility to get them 
to leave peacefully. It should be pretty easy to add this to any given 
wiki. (Other techniques have been suggested to defeat 'bots.)

What do people think?

Cheers,
Chris

[1] http://www.emacswiki.org/cw/SocialSpambat
[2] http://simon.incutio.com/archive/2004/05/11/approved