This page discusses guidelines for identifying and removing spam on the KinkForAll wiki. For general information about the wiki, see UsingTheKinkForAllWiki.
How can I tell if a link is spam or not?
Sometimes it's immediately obvious that some part of a page is spam. Some clear indications would be:
- A link in a list of other links that has no relationship to the others. (Think, "which one of these things does not belong?") These links typically lead to sketchy commercial offerings, such as "search engine optimization" services, or try to sell well-known products like viagra.
- A comment on a page that does not discuss the actual content of the page, but rather includes many web addresses to other sites.
- Links whose text say one thing but lead to another. For example, a link that says "paypal.com" but ends up directing you to "evil-bank.ru" needs to be removed immediately.
- "Invisible" links, or text that has been added to the page and shows up in the page history but is not visible on-screen. Such clever spam typically can only be removed using the "Source" view of the page editing window. If you encounter this type of spam, you should immediately contact a wiki admin with the name and email address of the offending user account so that they can remove that account's editing access.
- Any and all links whose HTML source contain rel="dofollow", rel="follow", rel="index" or any combination of the three.
Other times, because spammers can be clever, spam is less obvious. Some things to suspect are:
- Comments on a page that does not include a solid reference to another user or part of the page.
How do I remove something I suspect is spam?
To remove spam on this wiki, simply log in and edit the page on which you found the spam. Delete the portions of the page you believe are spam and click the "Save" button. That's it.
If you're in doubt about whether something is spam or not, ask in a comment. Don't fret too much about removing spam if you're not 100% sure, as each edit is saved in the page's history. This means that if you delete something you thought was spam, but discover later that it was not spam, you can always recover the content from the page's archives.
There's this one user who's constantly adding spam! How do I stop them?
If you notice that a majority of spam is coming from a particular user account, then you might consider doing the following to get them to stop:
- If you believe the user is a human, comment on the pages they have left spam on and ask them politely to stop. Adding spam to pages is considered digital vandalism, and isn't tolerated by this community.
- If you believe the user is a robot, or if the user is a human who has not stopped spamming the wiki after your cessation request, contact a KinkForAll wiki administrator. You can do this in a number of ways:
- Send an email to the KinkForAll mailing list with the subject line: Wiki: Spam on PageName where PageName is the title of the page on which you found spam. In your email, describe which parts of the page is (or was) spam, and which user account the spam was added with.
- Send a tweet to @KinkForAll along the lines of: @KinkForAll Spam on PageName by user UserName - please block them.
Thank you for helping to keep the KinkForAll wiki clean and genuinely useful!
Spam Removal Task Force Guide to Dealing with Spammers
This section provides a few guidelines for administrators and other volunteers offering tips for dealing with spammers.
- Upon noticing obvious spammers or spam bots, it is recommended that the first action you take is to block the user account. Do this even before removing the spam, as otherwise the spammer may be able to subvert your cleanup efforts. Don't worry, blocked users can later be unblocked so this technique can also be safely used as a temporary measure.
How to Block Repeat Offenders
If you are a KinkForAll wiki admin, please read the PBWorks User Manual: Access Control page to learn how to block repeat offenders.