Wiki Spam generally consists of obtrusive or repetitive editing in order to promote a person or business. It is a form of Wiki Vandalism. There have been many spam attacks on the Wiki in it's first few years, such as from banned user accounts JackLee and CnRambler. Both users seemed to be posting from China, but may have been using hacked computers. It appeared that they were attempting to raise their ranking in search engines. Other types of spam include businesses in the area attempting to add several pages and links about their own business in the Wiki. This latter usually isn't malicious, and tends to come from a misunderstanding of how the Wiki works. For a while, concern over these types of spam led to debate about how to deal with it: perhaps implement a ![[WWW]](http://wikispot.org/wiki/eggheadbeta/img/sycamore-www.png){kind=small}
CAPTCHA, or increase the number of moderators with admin status. It all worked out in the end though, as spam (both intentional and unintentional) was either reverted, deleted, or properly integrated by Wiki denizens, allowing life to move on smoothly. Huzzuh.
Wiki Spam tends to have several of these characteristics:
-
Frequently, but not always, the user has chosen a name that is very generic (like "JohnSmith"), resembles usernames designed to conceal user identity at other websites (i.e. "ILoveDogs86"), or is the name of a famous person who would not likely find or care about this website (like "BarackObama"). These methods all ensure wiki anonymity, which tends to be discouraged.
-
The user posts only a few times shortly after creating the account, and then disappears from the site (or no longer uses that username).
-
Spam content is usually either shameless promotion of a business, either as a new page creation or as numerous successive 'comments' postings from the same IP address within a short period of time.
-
Spam content often has little or nothing to do with Davis or the DavisWiki.
-
Most importantly, the user is unresponsive or belligerent when other members of the wiki community try to inform or engage him or her.
