Folks,
There is a discussion on our Wiki re: requiring registration before allowing 
changes to be made to the POV-Ray wiki.  We are getting a spate of "spam" 
and "vandals" and, if our wiki continues to grow, it is going to become an 
increasing pain to keep fixing.

Tom,
Is this even a possibility based on the technology of the Wiki software and 
server?

Community,
What say you assuming it is possible?

Neil

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Neil Kolban wrote:
> Folks,
> There is a discussion on our Wiki re: requiring registration before allowing 
> changes to be made to the POV-Ray wiki.  We are getting a spate of "spam" 
> and "vandals" and, if our wiki continues to grow, it is going to become an 
> increasing pain to keep fixing.
> 
> Tom,
> Is this even a possibility based on the technology of the Wiki software and 
> server?
> 
> Community,
> What say you assuming it is possible?
> 
> Neil 
> 
> 
Doesn't seem too onerous to me.  typical for our time.

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"Neil Kolban" <kol### [at] kolbancom> wrote in message 
news:42000656$1@news.povray.org...
> Folks,
> There is a discussion on our Wiki re: requiring registration before 
> allowing changes to be made to the POV-Ray wiki.  We are getting a spate 
> of "spam" and "vandals" and, if our wiki continues to grow, it is going to 
> become an increasing pain to keep fixing.
>
> Tom,
> Is this even a possibility based on the technology of the Wiki software 
> and server?
>
> Community,
> What say you assuming it is possible?
>


While I've only made one small change on the site so far, I believe that 
registration is a reasonable precaution.  While it may be possible that some 
would decide not to post anything if they were forced to register, they're 
already logged by their IP's.

I still plan to upload some of my objects.  I just haven't gotten around to 
it yet.

-- 
Jeremy
www.beantoad.com

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IMHO a forced user registration is the only way to go. Yesterday I fixed 
two things mixed up by vandals, and while I was fixing the second, that 
unbelievably stupid guy f*cked up the first thing I already fixed again. 
It's simply annoying and it takes time from me which I ranter spent on 
improving the content of the wiki.

So please, if it's possible, force user registration. If it's not 
possible at all (technically), I'd even suggest using a Wiki-software 
which allows us to do so.


Florian
-- 
camera{look_at-y*10location<8,-3,-8>*10}#local a=0;#while(a<999)sphere{
#local _=.01*a-4.99;#local p=a*.01-5;#local c=.01*a-4.995;<sin(p*pi)*5p
*10pow(p,5)*.01>sin(c*c*c*.1)+1pigment{rgb 3}}#local a=a+1;#end
/******** http://www.torfbold.com ******** http://www.imp.org ********/

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Florian Brucker wrote:
> 
> So please, if it's possible, force user registration. If it's not 
> possible at all (technically), I'd even suggest using a Wiki-software 
> which allows us to do so.
> 
> 
> Florian

I will work on this.  I also will ban some IP addresses as well. It 
should be fairly straightforward.

Post a reply to this message

Neil Kolban wrote:

> Community,
> What say you assuming it is possible?

I'm in favour of a vandal-repelling wiki. Using user-registration with 
email (opt-in) confirmation and password protected logins to allow edits 
gets my vote.
How does the Wiki of all Wiki's handle this? 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Why_create_an_account

-- 
Maurice

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"Neil Kolban" <kol### [at] kolbancom> schreef in bericht
news:42000656$1@news.povray.org...
> Folks,
> There is a discussion on our Wiki re: requiring registration before
allowing
> changes to be made to the POV-Ray wiki.  We are getting a spate of "spam"
> and "vandals" and, if our wiki continues to grow, it is going to become an
> increasing pain to keep fixing.
>
A vandal-repelling wiki is the best option I believe. Registration should be
compulsory.

Thomas

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It looks like we are still "under attack".  This time it is getting a little 
more malicious.  Someone is deleting images from the wiki.  Luckily, they 
hadn't been deleted (yet), but it is only a matter of time.

Anything we can do to help Tom?  If needed I can give you time (and if 
needed a little monies)....

Neil

"Tom Galvin" <tom### [at] impnospamorg> wrote in message 
news:4200b1e3$1@news.povray.org...
> Florian Brucker wrote:
>>
>> So please, if it's possible, force user registration. If it's not 
>> possible at all (technically), I'd even suggest using a Wiki-software 
>> which allows us to do so.
>>
>>
>> Florian
>
> I will work on this.  I also will ban some IP addresses as well. It should 
> be fairly straightforward.

Post a reply to this message

in news:4208c3ba@news.povray.org Neil Kolban wrote:

> It looks like we are still "under attack".  This time it is getting a
> little more malicious.  Someone is deleting images from the wiki. 
> Luckily, they hadn't been deleted (yet), but it is only a matter of
> time. 

Sometimes I have the feeling that the things that happen to images are a 
bug in the wikiware as they started happening right after the wiki was put 
up and its location was not yet known on the various searchengines.

Loggin in with the current wikiware does not seem to be possible, it's a 
rather old and unsopported version. Development was stopped in 2002, but 
in 2004 somebody picked it up again. The current versions options can be 
found at http://www.openwiki.info/ow.asp?OpenwikiVersusOpenwiki2004 It 
seems to have some spam plug-in.
Another wikiware, loaded with features is MoinMoin.

Ingo

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ingo wrote:
> Loggin in with the current wikiware does not seem to be possible, it's a 
> rather old and unsopported version. Development was stopped in 2002, but 
> in 2004 somebody picked it up again. The current versions options can be 
> found at http://www.openwiki.info/ow.asp?OpenwikiVersusOpenwiki2004 It 
> seems to have some spam plug-in.
> Another wikiware, loaded with features is MoinMoin.
> 
> Ingo

I have added a password to the edit feature.  It is "povray".  This 
should cut down on a good bit of the spam, until the next version of 
OpenWiki reaches a stable release.

Post a reply to this message

Tom,
I am sure we are going to get some flak for this but I am 110% with you.

If we had to switch to an alternate wiki engine (not that I want to, I kinda 
like this OpenWiki tool), what options do we have?  Do you own your own 
server?  Can you install arbitrary packages?

Neil

"Tom Galvin" <tom### [at] impnospamorg> wrote in message 
news:42092160$1@news.povray.org...
> ingo wrote:
>> Loggin in with the current wikiware does not seem to be possible, it's a 
>> rather old and unsopported version. Development was stopped in 2002, but 
>> in 2004 somebody picked it up again. The current versions options can be 
>> found at http://www.openwiki.info/ow.asp?OpenwikiVersusOpenwiki2004 It 
>> seems to have some spam plug-in.
>> Another wikiware, loaded with features is MoinMoin.
>>
>> Ingo
>
> I have added a password to the edit feature.  It is "povray".  This should 
> cut down on a good bit of the spam, until the next version of OpenWiki 
> reaches a stable release.

Post a reply to this message

Neil Kolban wrote:
> 
> If we had to switch to an alternate wiki engine (not that I want to, I kinda 
> like this OpenWiki tool), 

Me too, but I am not wedded to it.


>what options do we have?  

Like what?


>Do you own your own server? 
Yes

> Can you install arbitrary packages?
> 
Yes

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Tom,
Assuming that OpenWiki can not be secured (I don't know that to be true or 
not), what alternate Wiki software products *could* be securable?  Let us 
not exclude a package just because it is fee and not free... if needed, we 
can have a "whip around" and maybe get enough to pay for the service.

Neil

"Tom Galvin" <tom### [at] impnospamorg> wrote in message 
news:420b5c5c$1@news.povray.org...
> Neil Kolban wrote:
>>
>> If we had to switch to an alternate wiki engine (not that I want to, I 
>> kinda like this OpenWiki tool),
>
> Me too, but I am not wedded to it.
>
>
>>what options do we have?
>
> Like what?
>
>
>>Do you own your own server?
> Yes
>
>> Can you install arbitrary packages?
>>
> Yes

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On Thu, 10 Feb 2005 20:10:08 -0600, Neil Kolban wrote:

> what alternate Wiki software products *could* be securable?

Mediawiki looks to me like it's potentially securable - at a minimum, it
can require authentication to make any changes at all.

It's the software used by Wikipedia and other projects like that - seems
pretty decent.

Jim

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Thanks Jim, that does indeed look promising.

Tom,
Are you able to host a "Unix" based Wiki?

Neil

"Jim Henderson" <nos### [at] nospamcom> wrote in message 
news:pan### [at] nospamcom...
> On Thu, 10 Feb 2005 20:10:08 -0600, Neil Kolban wrote:
>
>> what alternate Wiki software products *could* be securable?
>
> Mediawiki looks to me like it's potentially securable - at a minimum, it
> can require authentication to make any changes at all.
>
> It's the software used by Wikipedia and other projects like that - seems
> pretty decent.
>
> Jim
>

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Glad to be able to provide a contribution. :-)

For what it's worth as well, if running on Windows is a requirement,
there's a page at
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Running_MediaWiki_on_Windows that describes
how to set it up.  MySQL has to be used for the database, but there are
Windows versions of that package; it can also use either Apache or IIS and
requires PHP support.

There are a few other requirements, but I've found in my look at it
(installed on Linux to play around with) that the documentation is quite
good - and of course provided in a Wiki format itself. :-)

Jim

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Tom Galvin wrote:
> I have added a password to the edit feature.  It is "povray".  This 
> should cut down on a good bit of the spam, until the next version of 
> OpenWiki reaches a stable release.

The password is a good idea, however, right on the home page you tell 
what it is:  "...There is a password to edit this wiki, in order to keep 
the spam down. It is the name of this raytracer without the hyphen in 
all lowercase letters..."

Kinda defeats the purpose of using a password, doesn't it?

I don't have any realistic suggestions on how one could be distributed 
either.  Giving it out here in the newsgroups is okay, but also rather 
limiting.  I certainly would never suggest that the use of the Wiki 
should be limited to *only* those who peruse these groups.

Just my (not very helpful) thoughts...

       -=- Larry -=-

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Larry Hudson wrote:
> Tom Galvin wrote:
> 
>> I have added a password to the edit feature.  It is "povray".  This 
>> should cut down on a good bit of the spam, until the next version of 
>> OpenWiki reaches a stable release.
> 
> 
> The password is a good idea, however, right on the home page you tell 
> what it is:  "...There is a password to edit this wiki, in order to keep 
> the spam down. It is the name of this raytracer without the hyphen in 
> all lowercase letters..."
> 
> Kinda defeats the purpose of using a password, doesn't it?

It does defeat the scripts.

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On Sat, 12 Feb 2005 08:18:56 +0100, Maurice wrote:

> It does defeat the scripts.

Arguably only until someone figures out how to script the authentication. 
Having a username/password combination also doesn't defeat the scripts,
but it does require that an account be created, and an account that's been
created could be disabled.

Password-only solutions tend to be very short term stopgap solutions
because there's only one factor in the authentication mechanism, and
that's easy to spoof.  (This is actually an area I can claim a fair degree
of expertise in)

If someone's figured out how to stuff vandalism into a form, then
presumably they can feed a password string into another form in advance of
the vandalism, and such a move would, by its very nature, be a trivial
modification to the script when the password is something that's
publicly available.

Jim

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Larry Hudson wrote:

> 
> The password is a good idea, however, right on the home page you tell 
> what it is:  "...There is a password to edit this wiki, in order to keep 
> the spam down. It is the name of this raytracer without the hyphen in 
> all lowercase letters..."
> 
> Kinda defeats the purpose of using a password, doesn't it?
> 

Well it has been a week, and it seems our vandals were not that bright. 
  Someone please correct me if I am wrong, but it seems there has not 
been  any defacing since I made that simple change.  If that is the 
case, then I think I shall adhere to the KISS principle, and leave 
things as they are.

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