Talk:Spam cleanup script

Wikia - creating communities

Can't find any clear documentation on:

1. how you get this script to run
2. how you can verify that it ran
3. how you can tell what it did, if anything to your wiki

1. Only staff with server access can run it. I usually do it about once a week or more if I notice a major spam attack. If you want me to run it at any time, just let me know. My contact details are on my user page.
2. currently, you can't.
3. It's edits are logged under the username "Spam cleanup script". Look at http://www.wikia.com/wiki/Special:Contributions/Spam_cleanup_script but change the www to the subdomain of your wiki.

Angela (talk) 05:16, 17 April 2006 (UTC)

I believe this script needs to be run from the command line. You navigate to the appropriate directory and run:

php cleanup.php

I don't think it can be run from the web, but perhaps I'm wrong.

What I can't find documentation in is how to use the "revert" command.

Contents 1 Has it gone bad? 2 User pages 3 Whitelist 4 Localsettings

[edit] Has it gone bad?

Angela reverted its latest move at LOTR:

http://lotr.wikia.com/index.php?title=The_Lord_of_the_Rings&diff=prev&oldid=8929

Robin Patterson 07:05, 14 July 2006 (UTC)

Any administrator on central can make it go bad by adding links to the Spam Blacklist which are too broad. I've done it myself several times ^_^. That specific edit was reverting to the last version without the blacklisted url which unfortunately was vandalism. --Splarka (talk) 09:13, 14 July 2006 (UTC)

[edit] User pages

The script deleted User:Ceashar32 on Doom Wiki earlier today.  Leaving aside the issue of whether or not the user was a real person, this seems incorrect.  User pages are not held to NPOV, and links do not in themselves violate the Terms of Use or this policy AFAICT.    Ryan W 17:01, 16 August 2006 (UTC)

It was part of a widespread spam attack on wikia, of bots creating users on dozens of wikia and inserting just a link to www.bookhe.info on their userpage. --Splarka (talk) 21:46, 16 August 2006 (UTC)

This is good, and undoubtedly what the script should be used for.  :>   My concern is that links will also be erased from User: pages just because they happen to be on the blacklist, even with no evidence that the user is a bot or has spammed/vandalized elsewhere.  That action is IMHO not supported by the policies linked above.    Ryan W 22:07, 16 August 2006 (UTC)

99% of links added to the Spam blacklist are due to commercial bot spam. The other 1% are due to specific types of vandalism such as linking to browser-crash sites or offensive images. Really there is no reason to have any such link exist even on user pages. If someone really wants a link that badly, they can put in a non-clickable plain-text link with instructions to copy/paste it to the url bar. The Spam cleanup script only removes currently-blacklisted URLs, and for good reason: the page would not be saveable on the next edit with those URLs in place, as they would trigger the Spam Blacklist. If you feel a link was unnecessarily added, you can request removal from the talk page. --Splarka (talk) 02:04, 17 August 2006 (UTC)

The script did not delete it. I deleted it. The script is made so all of its actions are reversible by any user, which means it never deletes pages - it only blanks them. I then run along after it and check every edit it makes, and delete the pages that I've confirmed are spam. In this case, a spammer created hundreds of different user accounts and added the same spam link to each of its user pages. It's the worst spam hit Wikia has ever had because most wikis don't bother to check user pages as much as they check articles, so the spam was unreverted even on the largest wikis like furry and muppet. Angela (talk) 12:41, 17 August 2006 (UTC)

Okay, that makes a lot more sense.  Thanks!    Ryan W 13:39, 17 August 2006 (UTC)

Just a nitpick, Ryan said "erased" and I said "removed", none of us accused the spam cleanup script of deleting, at least *I* didn't ^_^. --Splarka (talk) 22:00, 17 August 2006 (UTC)

No, I guess I did say "the script deleted", which anyone can see is not correct by looking at the changelog.  (That's why I like wikis: other people can clean up my imprecise language.  :>    My next comment, about reverting the addition of links even for completely isolated edits, was really the issue I had in mind, but Angela's response makes that situation sound highly unlikely.    Ryan W 23:45, 17 August 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Whitelist

Will local whitelists prevent legitimate links being removed? If so, this should probably be added to the page. -- Manticore ^{Talk | Contributions} 01:12, 5 November 2007 (UTC)

I don't know. This script hasn't been used for a long time. It probably needs adapting by now to account for whitelists etc and to be accessible via the web rather than only on the server. Angela (talk) 03:27, 8 November 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Localsettings

I've added the line to my localsettings.php, but I get an error:

Warning: main(../maintenance/commandLine.inc) [function.main]: failed to open stream: No such file or directory in /home/researc6/public_html/wiki/cleanup/cleanup.php on line 9

When I go to my wiki. Anyone know what that is? Thanks. Jeremymiles 03:00, 11 November 2007 (UTC)

You need to install the extension, not just add the line in localsettings. If you still have problems after that, please ask on the MediaWiki users forum. Or move your wiki to Wikia and we'll handle all that. ;) Angela (talk) 07:50, 13 November 2007 (UTC)