[Wikicities-l] Spam cleanup script

[Tim Starling]

In response to the increasing administrative load caused by widespread
linkspam on Wikicities, I've written a new MediaWiki maintenance script,
which edits with the username "Spam cleanup script". Its function is to
check every page on every wiki against the spam blacklist at:

http://www.wikicities.com/wiki/Spam_Blacklist

If a match is found, it reverts the page to the last revision which does
not match the blacklist. If all revisions match, it blanks the page.

Some wikicities had legitimate links to sites which were blacklisted,
such as subdomains under cjb.net or netfirms.com, causing incorrect
reversions. If this happens, it is essential that you either:

* Obscure your links to the domain, either by removing the http:// from
the URL or by using a redirection script such as tinyurl.com; or
* Ask that the domain in question be removed from the blacklist (at
[[Talk:Spam Blacklist]]); or
* Remove the links from your wiki altogether.

In cases where web hosting companies tolerate spamvertised websites
hosted on their subdomains, I would suggest that it is better to take
the third option and boycott the provider rather than to find some way
to work around the inconvenience. Be sure to send an email to the
provider telling them why you are making this choice.

If you simply revert the cleanup script using the "rollback" feature,
the script will revert you back next time it's run. It's not a good idea
to leave such links on your wiki anyway, since the spam filter will
automatically reject all attempted edits that leave the link in.

It is a maintenance script not a bot, it acts on the database directly
rather than editing via the web interface (although bot is less of a
mouthful so I don't mind if people want to call it that). At the current
time, you can't block it or give it "bot" access to hide its edits from
RC. Given the handful of false positives we've seen, I don't think it's
a good idea to hide its edits anyway.

Please report bugs to me by email or IRC, except urgent requests, which
should be directed to whoever is around on #wikicities on irc.freenode.net.

-- Tim Starling