Tech:Spam Filter

ktip.png This page (and all pages in the Tech: namespace) is a developer discussion about a feature that is either proposed for inclusion in JAMWiki or one that has already been implemented. This page is NOT documentation of JAMWiki functionality - for a list of documentation, see Category:JAMWiki.
Status of this feature: IMPLEMENTED. This feature was included in JAMWiki 0.5.1.
Contents

[Edit]Description

Provide the capability for blocking wiki-spam.

[Edit]Author(s)

[Edit]Status

POC in Subversion. I'm heading out of town for two days, but since jamwiki.org is now getting wiki-spammed I wanted to get something started ASAP. To do items:

  • Actually block spam (currently it just logs a message). The user should be given a message about problem text when something is flagged as spam.
  • Make the spam filter configurable, and probably make it a plugin to allow differing implementations.
  • Add a GUI interface for editing the spam blacklist. If possible I'd like to make this similar to Wikitravel:Wikitravel:Local spam blacklist.
  • Topic content and subject both need to be scanned.
I've made a few additional updates, so spam is actually blocked now (not on jamwiki.org yet) and the spam filter can also be disabled. The implementation isn't very flexible - it's not possible to "plug-in" a different implementation - and that's something that should eventually be cleaned up. However, it seems to work and should provide at least basic capabilities for protecting a site from spammers until we come up with something better. As always, any feedback is appreciated. -- Ryan 16-Jan-2007 00:31 PST

The spam blacklist was implemented for JAMWiki 0.5.1. Users of JAMWiki can add patterns to their blacklist by editing the /WEB-INF/class/spam-blacklist.txt file. -- Ryan 27-Feb-2007 18:35 PST

[Edit]Comments

Feedback and suggestions are welcome - something definitely needs to be implemented soon, so this initial attempt can definitely be modified in the future; my concern is just making sure that SOMETHING is available before spam becomes a big problem. -- Ryan 13-Jan-2007 00:37 PST

Hi Ryan,

on my two wiki sites, it is already a big problem! Is there any documentation about the preliminary implemented solution, you have implemented? How can I completely remove files? And how can I remove the corresponding entries from the history? Thanks, Holger Engels

I responded to a similar query on Tech:User Permissions#Controlling Users (scroll to the end of the section), and I've added some information about handling spam at Configuration#Handling Spam. -- Ryan 17-Jun-2007 22:40 PDT