View source for User talk:Asheesh

== Barrage of spam page creations on <code>[[mh:openhatch|openhatchwiki]]</code> ==

Hi [[User:Asheesh|Asheesh]], I'm [[User:Dmehus|Doug]], a [[meta:Stewards|Steward]] on [[meta:Miraheze|Miraheze]]. Stewards, together with [[meta:Global Sysops|Global Sysops]], educate users about and enforce our [[meta:Category:Global policies|global policies]], on the one hand, certainly, but they also support small wikis with few or no active local bureaucrats and administrators with problems that may arise on wikis. Recently, users [[User:DarkMatterMan4500|DarkMatterMan4500]] and [[User:HeartsDo|HeartsDo]] reported to global functionaries in our <code>'''#cvt'''</code> channel on [[meta:IRC|IRC]] that <code>[[mh:openhatch|openhatchwiki]]</code> had been inundated with a barrage of spam only accounts creating spam page creations advertising various spam websites, requiring constant monitoring, patrolling, and deleting by Stewards and Global Sysops alike.

As we are a small team hosting nearly 4,000 wikis across the wiki farm, we obviously do not have the ''scale'' of resources to track, monitor, and remediate ''all'' spam creations. So, as part of my responsibilities as a [[meta:Stewards|Steward]], as you'll note from your wiki's [[Special:Log/managewiki|ManageWiki log]], one possibility was to enable [[mw:Extension:ProtectSite|ProtectSite]] as a temporary measure to limit page creations to only users in certain permission groups. Unfortunately, following a test on a similar [[mh:permanentfuturelab|wiki]], I was unhappy with that extension's design in that it does not permit the wiki protection level to be set to <code>[[meta:Meta:Autoconfirmed users|autoconfirmed]]</code> and its logging facilities, as well as the fact I couldn't be certain if the temporary one month protection level I'd set had indeed been set correctly. So, as you'll note, I opted instead to modify your <code>(Main)</code> namespace to require <code>[[meta:Meta:Autoconfirmed users|autoconfirmed]]</code> permissions (an implicit user group granted by default to all users once they have had an account on the wiki for at least four (4) calendar days and once they've made at least ten (10) edits). Since the spam only accounts generally create fewer than three (3) pages and often only one page, this is a measure that would have minimal effect on legitimate users on the wiki, and would be remarkably effective at preventing spam from occurring on your wiki.

As always, you ''are'' of course free to revert this change, as this was designed to be an interim protective measure in absence of locally active wiki bureaucrats and administrators.

As you are the ''only'' bureaucrat on this wiki, who was briefly last active on this wiki in 2018, I'm opting to notify ''you'' of the actions taken by Stewards and Global Sysops in support of your wiki. If you have ''any'' questions at all, please don't hesitate to reach out to me either here by pinging my username (<code><nowiki>[[User:Dmehus|Dmehus]]</nowiki></code>) or on my [[meta:User talk:Dmehus|user talk page]] on Meta. As well, for a current up-to-date list of global functionaries supporting your wiki, please see [[Special:GlobalUsers]]. :)

Thanks,
<br />[[User:Dmehus|Dmehus]] ([[User talk:Dmehus|talk]]) 17:11, 13 December 2020 (UTC)