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The MediaWiki:Spam-blacklist exists primarily to control widespread spamming and disruption of Wikimedia Foundation projects. It is intended as a last resort for persistent spamming on the project, by multiple individuals or IP addresses. Mediawiki:Spam-blacklist is meant to be used by the spam blacklist extension. Unlike the Meta spam blacklist, this blacklist affects pages on the English Wikipedia only. The MediaWiki:Spam-blacklist is a page in the MediaWiki namespace, which only administrators may edit.

www.spammydomain.com blocked by the spam filter

Before blacklisting, please consider the following:

  1. Does the site have any validity to the project?
  2. Have links been placed after warnings/blocks?
  3. Would referring this to our anti-spam bot, XLinkBot be a more appropriate step?
  4. Is there a WikiProject Spam report?
  5. Have all other avenues for dealing with the problem been explored or tried?
    1. Can the problem be controlled by page protection?
    2. Can the problem be controlled by blocking a single user? Accounts which exist solely to spam can and will be blocked uncontroversially.
    3. Fixed IPs with solely external link contributions can probably be blocked uncontroversially.
    4. Open proxies should be blocked outright.
  6. Ensure all links have been removed from articles and discussion pages before blacklisting.

Overview

Admins, if you seek to blacklist an external link then please ensure you proceed in the following order (full details of each step given in the rest of this help page):

  1. Evidence- There should be clear evidence of disruption, persistent spamming or otherwise simply violates Wikipedia's policies or guidelines:
    • Request details – A clear request already in existence that describes the situation. If this has not yet been created by another editor (eg at MediaWiki talk:Spam-blacklist#Proposed additions), then you will need to create your own full description that shows persistent spamming and the involved registered or IP-anon users. This is required so that others may later review the reasons for the blacklisting. So please add a request to MediaWiki talk:Spam-blacklist#Proposed additions. (Then click on the "History" tab as you will later need the version number of the article as evidence – see part 3).
    • Blatantly inappropriate (porn, shock, etc. links of this nature are self evident), refer to a Special:Contributions of an account adding this link.
    • Special:Contributions of several accounts (socks) pushing the link.
    • Link-report (e.g. from User:COIBot) showing widespread abuse and little or no proper use.
    • OTRS ticket (off-wiki proof).
    • Mail to the foundation (for extreme cases, off-wiki proof) .
  2. Blacklist – Add the external link to the MediaWiki:Spam-blacklist. To do this you must have some competence with regex or innocent sites may be blocked as well. If you require help please run through the history on the list & ask someone for help.
  3. Log your action – Finally add a log of your action to MediaWiki talk:Spam-blacklist/log. You will need in this log entry to link to the original request details (i.e. link to request of part 1 above).

Handling additions

Listing should include compelling evidence of a problem. Admins, if you yourself wish to blacklist an external link, you too will need to ensure that there is a description of the evidence why blacklisting is required. WP:SBL#Proposed additions is usually used by admin if no thread at WP:AN/I, WT:WPSPAM, talk pages etc, but remember to close your own proposal with a {{done}}.

Links and diffs from multiple projects and multiple articles should be described at MediaWiki talk:Spam-blacklist:

Requests may include the following templated details (do not use "subst:" with these templates):

  • {{IPSummary}} – to report anonymous editors suspected of spamming: e.g. {{IPSummary|127.0.0.1}}
  • {{UserSummary}} – to report registered users suspected of spamming: e.g. {{UserSummary|Jimbo Wales}}
  • {{LinkSummary}} – to report spam domains: e.g. {{LinkSummary|spammydomain.com}} -Do not include the "http://www." portion of an URL inside this template
  • Also, please include links ("diffs") to sample spam edits.


Delisting should include compelling evidence that the original problem no longer exists or is no longer a risk. For example, a hijacked or cybersquatted domain may have been returned to its rightful owner, or a site which was being used to link copyright-violating content may have cleaned up its act.

Before approving or denying a listing, please familiarise yourself with the original reasons for Blacklisting the domain. Archived debates can be found with the Archive Search tool. To locate a specific url, in the Log Use the "Search spamlists tool". When using the "Search spamlists" tool, be sure to type in the user-defined language, e.g. en (English Wikipedia), fr (French Wikipedia)...etc.

Keep in mind Wikipedia's core content policies:

The following table may help in assessment of suitability of an external link:

Criteria Link Content Violation of privacy Addition Frequency / Volume Account / Intention
Links to potentially include Highly reliable Completely respectful of privacy Isolated event High-volume established editor
↕ ↕ ↕ ↕
Links to exclude Unreliable Attack site Campaign Spam only account
Relevant authorities
  • This table is a guide to your decision making in adding, or removing a link.
  • Links from accounts that appear, based on their edit history, to exist for the sole or primary purpose of promoting a person, company, product, service, or organization in apparent violation of Conflict of interest or anti-spam guidelines should rarely be considered. Jumping links ("moving ones own link "UP"), use of Tor network open proxies and zombie computers is indicative of bad faith additions.


Close the request entry using either {{done}} or {{not done}} as appropriate. The request should be left open for a week maybe as there will often be further related sites, information or an appeal in that time.

Please note: The MediaWiki:Spam-blacklist is not the Wikipedia complaints department, nor is it intended to help users with their grieving process. Vexatious requests should be speedily closed.

Adding entries to the blacklist

Warning: Please do not do this unless you are familiar with regex – the disruption that can be caused is substantial.

  • Make the entry at the bottom of the page MediaWiki:Spam-blacklist This is the actual blacklist.
  • Write a regular expression to match the target domain. For example http://www.spammydomain.com would read:
    \bspammydomain\.com\b

Having blacklisted the url you will next need to:

  1. Remove any remaining urls from articles and remove the http:// from discussion pages (archived or urls on non active pages need not be removed).
  2. Log the entry as described in the next section

Logging entries on the blacklist

Note: if you do not log your entries it may be removed if someone appeals and no valid reasons can be found.

You must bear in mind that if someone challenges a blacklisting in 6 or 12 months time any admin dealing with such a request must be able to find the reason for the listing. The admin who places the entry on the list may not be around and, if there was no "actual" request the archives will be no use. Indeed they will only be helpful if there is full detail in the request including permanent links for example. Logging a request is essential for future reference.

Add your log entry to the relevant dated section of MediaWiki talk:Spam-blacklist/log. Warning: if you do not log any entry you make on the blacklist, it may well be removed if someone appeals and no valid reasons can be found. 

\bspammydomain\.com\b           # your username   # See (your link to evidence)
  • Logging multiple domains
#:                             # your username   # See (your link to evidence)
  \bspammydomain\.com\b 

  \bspammydomain\.net\b 

  \bbadsite\.com\b 

  [badsite]{3}\.com

For single entries, write the entry, name, and reason on one line in columns seperated by the '#' symbol. For multiple entries, write your name and reason on one line beginning with " #:", then list the entries on new lines below indented by three. Note the space before the regexed urls (and #), these spaces are only added on the log page.

Linking to WikiProject Spam requests

For Spam reports or requests originating from Wikipedia_talk:WikiProject_Spam use template {{WPSPAM|0#section_name}}

(cur) (last) 13:29, 7 January 2008 A. B. (Talk | contribs | block) (36,641 bytes) (→Blacklist logging – What is "correct oldid"?) (rollback | undo)

(cur) (last) 13:22, 7 January 2008 Hu12 (Talk | contribs | block) (36,448 bytes) (→Connexia S.r.l. Spam) (undo)
(cur) (last) 04:44, 7 January 2008 A. B. (Talk | contribs | block) (35,873 bytes) (→top-reviews.co.uk – blacklisted – see [[MediaWiki talk:Spam-blacklist#top-reviews.co.uk]) (undo)

(cur) (last) 23:33, 6 January 2008 Igorberger (Talk | contribs | block) (35,542 bytes) (→Social engineering malware) (undo)

  • Url will read == http://en.wiki.x.io/w/index.php?title=Wikipedia_talk:WikiProject_Spam&oldid=182725895
  • Select the section being logged from the Contents menu
  • Insert the oldid 182725895 a hash "#" and the Section_name (Underscoring_spaces_where_applicable):
{{WPSPAM|182725895#Section_name}}
  • results in your link to evidence:

See WikiProject Spam report

  • Example in log:
\bspammydomain\.com\b           # your username   # See WikiProject Spam report
MediaWiki

Linking to External links/Noticeboard requests

For Spam reports or requests originating from External links Noticeboard use template {{WPELN|0#section_name}}

(cur) (prev) 20:14, 9 November 2009 Hu12 (talk | contribs | block) (22,353 bytes) (→Template for linking and logging) (rollback | undo)

(cur) (prev) 20:10, 9 November 2009 Hu12 (talk | contribs | block) (22,233 bytes) (→Template for linking and logging: new section) (undo)
(cur) (prev) 04:30, 9 November 2009 Will Beback (talk | contribs | block) (21,257 bytes) (→"Aesthetic Realism is a cult": some pages can be used as sources) (undo)

(cur) (prev) 03:12, 9 November 2009 Themfromspace (talk | contribs | block) (20,789 bytes) (→"Aesthetic Realism is a cult": questions) (undo)

  • Url will read == http://en.wiki.x.io/w/index.php?title=Wikipedia:External_links/Noticeboard&oldid=324900252
  • Select the section being logged from the Contents menu
  • Insert the oldid 324900252 a hash "#" and the Section_name (Underscoring_spaces_where_applicable):
{{WPELN|324900252#Template_for_linking_and_logging}}
  • results in your link to evidence:

See External links/Noticeboard Item

  • Example in log:
\bspammydomain\.com\b           # your username   # See External links/Noticeboard Item

Linking to MediaWiki talk:Spam-blacklist requests

For Spam reports or requests originating from MediaWiki talk:Spam-blacklist, use template {{/request|214252815#section_name}}


  1. Select the talk history tab, click the most current date and time to retrieve the oldid# (ie. permalink) version;
    • Url will read similar to == http://en.wiki.x.io/w/index.php?title=MediaWiki_talk:Spam-blacklist&oldid=213416274
    • Select the section being logged from the Contents menu
  2. Insert the oldid 213416274 a hash "#" and the Section_name (Underscoring_spaces_where_applicable):
  3. {{/request|213416274#Section_name}}
  • Example in log:
\bspammydomain\.com\b           # your username   # request

See also


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