FAQ

[Griz]

started a FAQ page at the wiki a while back.
apparently, no one knows it exists. ;)

seems to me it would be good to have these all archived in one place
so that new people wouldn't have to keep asking the same questions
over and over here on the forum.
this Newbie Subforum sorta does that ...
but I thought it would be good to have it on the wiki as well.
so please check the wiki FAQ and add your questions and answers
there, even if you have asked and been answered here on the forum.
perhaps then newbies will not have to reinvent the wheel each time
they run into a problem.
http://www.darwinbots.com/WikiManual/index.php?title=FAQ

anyone is free to add FAQs there ...
things that keep coming up and would be good for new folks
just coming in to DB.
just type your stuff in there ... don't worry about the formatting ...
I'll edit the page and clean it up IF anyone every contributes.

thanks.

[PurpleYouko]

sounds like a good idea.

I will add a link into the main forum page so that new and old users have quick access.

[Griz]

sounds like a good idea.

I will add a link into the main forum page so that new and old users have quick access.

good.
and there, at the wiki, I try to add links back here ...
when you have stashed files such as sysvars2.21.txt and default.set ... etc.
as more people begin to discover and use the wiki, I think we will find it
a valuable addition to the forum here.

amazing amount of work being done there by Ollj ... whoevver he is. ;)
http://www.darwinbots.com/WikiManual/index...title=User:Ollj
see his sysvars work:
http://www.darwinbots.com/WikiManual/index.php?title=Sysvar

btw ... I have been blocking more spammers almost every day ...
they are now generating false User names and sometimes create
talk pages that they then later spam.

here's a list of Users
http://www.darwinbots.com/WikiManual/index...ecial:Listusers
many of these are bogus ...
I don't see that I can delete them, but I do block them when I see they
are just set up for spam. might take someone with higher powers than
I to delete those users completely.
seems they have some automated way of creating user names now.

blocked Fedya, Mulhed and Everwas so far today.
if anyone who is a legit user doesn't want to get blocked ...
then sign in and introduce yourself on your user page.
fail to do that and I will consider you a spammer.

here's the block list:
http://www.darwinbots.com/WikiManual/index...ial:Ipblocklist

[Numsgil]

Damn spammers.  Thanks for the effort.  I blocked about 30 ip addresses the other day.

Is there a way to make the 'create new user' more involved?  Like emai confirmation or something?

[Griz]

Damn spammers.  Thanks for the effort.  I blocked about 30 ip addresses the other day.

Is there a way to make the 'create new user' more involved?  Like emai confirmation or something?

not that I know of.
looks like they are somehow being autogenerated ...
and remain unedited until they spam.
it isn't like someone comes and signs in ...
this is somehow remotely done by some bot.
so it does no good to yell at them, Nums ...
but it does make one feel better to do so. ;) lol

it is usually talk pages that they spam ...
but you know, it doesn't really show up on the pages ...
you can only see it from the edit window ...
so I don't know why these fools even bother with it.
must get paid a certain amount for every url they add
to a wiki by somebody.
well, whoever that is, isn't getting their monies worth ...
I mean, who would actually be interested in any of these links?

anyway, there aren't many and they are easy to see from
the recent changes window. when I see them, I'll rollback
the page and block that IP for 7200 hours.
not much different than weeding the garden ...
so we'll weed 'em out.

here's the user list ...
I put a message on all the user names that seem suspect or are unknown [???]
if they don't reply with an introduction in the near future ..
then I guess we can call them bogus and block them.
I don't see any way to delete the user pages.

if one of these truns out to be a legit user ...
I forget if Bots ever signed in or not ...
I guess they should have at least taken the time to
introduce themselves so we know they are legit.
guess we should hold off until they do spam ...
then put them on the list of staying blocked or deleted.
that's proabably best.
I hate to block just an IP number ...
as those aren't unique to one user ...
but a region of the world somewhere ...
so you might be blocking other folks as well.
so I usually block them for only a month ...
make a list, and if I see the same number again ...
then permanently block it.
whaddaya goin' do?


1. Admin (sysop,bureaucrat)
2. Avugadro ..................................... ... ???
3. Bbbjayg  ........................................ suspect.  
4. Egaikrty ..................................... .... suspect.  
5. Endy (sysop,bureaucrat)  ..............    OK
Deleted/Blocked until Jan07
Deleted/Blocked until Jan07
8. Griz (sysop,bureaucrat) .................... OK
Deleted/Blocked until Jan07
10. Hvjkghj .....................................     suspect.  
11. Hyteoipnbgy ...................................suspect.  
12. Jadiscanvil ..................................... ???  
13. Kuytrewx .....................................   suspect.  
14. Lettersmithboi06 ............................ ???
15. Loyuber .......................................   ???  
Deleted/Blocked until Jan07
17. Netide ..........................................  ???
18. Numsgil (sysop,bureaucrat) ............  OK
19. Ollj ................................................ OK
20. Resfax .......................................... ???  
21. Retard .......................................... suspect.  
22. Sprotiel ......................................... OK
23. Taldor ........................................... OK
24. Ulciscor ......................................... OK
25. Zasxcdewq ..................................... suspect.  
26. Zelos ..............................................OK

I can always come back and edit this list as we sort it out.

hey ... I think we should make Ollj and maybe Sproteil sysops ...
Ollj does a lot of work and obviously cares about the site ...
and Sproteil has been helping revert pages with spam on them.
This would give them the power to rollback pages and to block the offenders

as sysops, I can make them sysops too ...
but thought I'd leave that decision up to you and endy ...
and I don't know how much time I'll have to spend there.

and we need to get PY there too. ;)
I did stick his bot tutorial there ...
but it still needs some editing and perhaps updating.

whatever.

[Numsgil]

I believe what the spammers are doing is either google bombing or soemthing like it.

The sites they link to get upped on their google rank a bit if they are linked to by other pages that google's web crawlers come across.  The higher the ranking of the linking pages, the higher the effect.  They're hoping since the links aren't visible we won't see them.

[Griz]

ah. hadn't thought of that.
makes more sense than anything I've been able to come up with as a reason.
what a bizzare world we live in, eh? ;)

[Numsgil]

yep, lol