Wiki locked?

I dropped by wiki today for some reason I forgot. I thought I'd update
my details while I was there. But now it wants a code word. I spent the
next hour or so trying to find out what it was all about - apparently
it's something to do with bots - but I still don't know how to go about
getting a code word. Anybody know how to get in?

On 17 Apr 2005 12:42:33 -0700, "Paul Sinnett" <paul_sinnett@yahoo.co.uk>
wrote:

>I dropped by wiki today for some reason I forgot. I thought I'd update
>my details while I was there. But now it wants a code word. I spent the
>next hour or so trying to find out what it was all about - apparently
>it's something to do with bots - but I still don't know how to go about
>getting a code word. Anybody know how to get in?

Most of the time, the code word has been displayed on the edit screen so you
can just read it and type it in.  Try back later or in a day, and you'll
probably be able to make your changes.

> >I dropped by wiki today for some reason I forgot. I thought I'd
update 
the 
apparently 
about 
>
> Most of the time, the code word has been displayed on the edit screen
so you
> can just read it and type it in.  Try back later or in a day, and
you'll
> probably be able to make your changes.

The problem with that is I don't have any control over when ideas come
to me. If I can't rely on it to be open when an idea comes to me, I'll
have to find somewhere else. Maybe they could implement some kind of
login?

On 18 Apr 2005 11:03:31 -0700, "Paul Sinnett"
<paul_sinnett@yahoo.co.uk> wrote:

>The problem with that is I don't have any control over when ideas come
>to me. If I can't rely on it to be open when an idea comes to me, I'll
>have to find somewhere else. Maybe they could implement some kind of
>login?

3x5 cards? :)

--
Ron Jeffries
www.XProgramming.com
I'm giving the best advice I have. You get to decide if it's true for you.

I, too, just went there today to tweak a few bits of information, and
then I realized I should update my own information, but found the code
word crap.

It would be nice for someone who can edit pages to put a page on what
the code word is all about, even if they're not going to spill the
beans on what it is.

This change makes Wiki a bit less useful to me, mostly because now I
know I'll probably not be able to chime in on my own.

I find the following bit ironic, from http://c2.com/cgi/wiki?WhyClublet

> Open and shut case?
>
> 12-15-2004 Why appears to be open again, but I do
> not like log-in or the "Application To Edit" process.
> Have "applied" to edit, will see what happens.
>
> For some value of open. RichardDrakes view of a
> wiki is radically different to that of most of the rest of
> us. Effectively he is retaining GodKing rights.
>
> Indeed, this does seem to be the case.

Oh my how history repeats itself.  A post on Ward's Wiki chastizing for
something that provides access when Ward's doesn't provide any access
at all (at least, none that I've been able to get in various hits over
the past 24 hours).

Tom Plunket wrote:

> Oh my how history repeats itself.  A post on Ward's Wiki chastizing for
> something that provides access when Ward's doesn't provide any access
> at all (at least, none that I've been able to get in various hits over
> the past 24 hours).

Ward's Wiki had an incredible Spam infestation, as late as a couple months
ago. I suspect that perverted computers all over the world were aiming at
it. IP blocking no longer worked.

Before the code number thing, for each Wiki page you hit, you get a tonne of
spam. Sometimes it erased the existing content. You'd have the choice to
help clean the page (and figure out _how_ to, including correctly reporting
the spammer and correctly replacing the content), or you could just leave
the page and hope someone else had more free time. So anyone who hit the
Wiki would have to spend more time cleaning it than reading it.

Since putting the code word thing in place, the Wiki has been readable. Tom,
if you can think of a better system, Ward has let me know he's all ears.

--
Phlip
http://industrialxp.org/community/b...tUserInterfaces

Phlip wrote:
> Since putting the code word thing in place, the Wiki has been
> readable. Tom, if you can think of a better system, Ward has let
> me know he's all ears.

No argument about the motivation. Some wikis are all spam and no
content now. but it does make http://c2.com/cgi/wiki?WhyWikiWorks ring
hollow now.

As for a solution, how about a white list for editors:

If you submit a change and you are not in a white list of editors, your
change goes into a queue.

If you are already in the white list of editors and you want to read a
page but there's a queue of unverified changes, you are first taken to
a page explaining the spam problem, and (as someone interested in
improving wiki) what you can do about it. And what you can do about it
is click (hot ot not style) on whether the oldest queued edit is human
or spambot. And then you carry on to your chosen page. Humans are added
to the white list, robots added to the blacklist.

Phlip,

> Since putting the code word thing in place, the Wiki has been readable. To
m,
> if you can think of a better system, Ward has let me know he's all ears.

My two spam-free Wikis don't require a code word or logging in. I'm not
sure anyone has noticed... All I had to do was prohibit what spammers
most want to contribute to a wiki, that legit contributors have little
interest in providing.

Laurent

Laurent Bossavit wrote:

> My two spam-free Wikis don't require a code word or logging in. I'm not
> sure anyone has noticed... All I had to do was prohibit what spammers
> most want to contribute to a wiki, that legit contributors have little
> interest in providing.

On your site, I can't edit pages that already have http: tags, even to take
them out.

And spammers often just leave out the http: tags and their customers still
pay them.

I think Ward's solution is a little more subtle than you realize. Or maybe
it's more subtle than I realize...

--
Phlip
http://industrialxp.org/community/b...tUserInterfaces

Ron Jeffries wrote:

> I haven't figured out what this is all about. Is the code not that
> number listed on the edit page?

Do some people not see it?

Tom, why can't you edit?

--
Phlip
http://industrialxp.org/community/b...tUserInterfaces