[OSGeo-Discuss] Hacker on the wiki

[Arnulf Christl]

Frank Warmerdam wrote:
> Ari Jolma wrote:
>> Somebody with username Grifferz had inserted a very long list of URL's 
>> to online casinos etc. to http://wiki.osgeo.org/index.php/Main_Page. 
>> The list was not visible at least on Firefox. I edited the crap away.
>>
>> I have limited experience with wikis. Is this something that we just 
>> have to live with in the future?
> 
> Ari,
> 
> If this continues to be a problem, we would likely need some sort of
> approval process for new registrations.
> 
> Best regards,

Hi,
we can remove "create you own account" functionality any time. Then one 
would have to request for an account and Users with Sysop privileges 
would have to create them manually. We (sort of) decided (never 
officially voted) to operate the Wiki completely open. If this does not 
work we will have to take measures.

As it is, existing users can also be blocked by users with Sysops 
privileges (currently Frank, me and Benjamin Thelen). Any user can be 
granted these privileges (or responsibilities) if we need more sysops to 
get the job done.

User Grifferz did nothing but spam the Wiki as can be seen in the user 
contribution log:
http://wiki.osgeo.org/index.php/Special:Contributions/Grifferz
and the corresponding page history:
http://wiki.osgeo.org/index.php?title=Main_Page&diff=prev&oldid=2760

which is a good reason to block it (him or her or spambot) from further 
editing. If it objects, it can protest on the discuss mailing list. If 
it is a spambot it will have trouble writing an email though.

Users can be blocked for these stretches of time:
2 h
1 day
3 day
1 week
1 weeks
1 month
3 months
6 months
1 year
infinite

In my role as WikiSysop I blocked user Grifferz for one week now (I 
never ever did this before, this is unprecedented).

Best, Arnulf.