Wikibooks talk:Administrators' noticeboard/Archive 1

Origins
Initial text adapted from en:Wikipedia:Vandalism in progress. --mav 23:50, 18 Aug 2003 (UTC)

I've removed large chunks from the page. But, I think the simpler layout will benefit contributors. (Donovan|Geocachernemesis|Interact) 01:33, 2 August 2005 (UTC)


 * Much clearer now. This page is beginning to feel like it should be interpreted as 'Requests for banning', analagous to 'Votes for deletion'. I'm wondering if we shouldn't perhaps adopt the more traditional format of the VfD page, where new requests are placed at the bottom with '==' headings, using the '&section=new' hack, and get processed incrementally by admins. There wouldn't need to be any voting, as it ought to be obvious from a user's contribs whether they're a vandal or not. - Aya T C 23:19, 2 August 2005 (UTC)


 * Feel free to rewrite it, the simpler the better. (Donovan|Geocachernemesis|Interact) 00:20, 3 August 2005 (UTC)


 * I'll leave it for now, since there are more important things to do, and no-one actually seems to use the page except you and I, especially now that we have sufficient admins in place to swiftly block vandals. - Aya T C 19:19, 3 August 2005 (UTC)


 * That's very concise and easily followed. :) (Donovan|Geocachernemesis|Interact) 00:19, 6 August 2005 (UTC)

Ass Pus attacks
There must be something more that can be done about this idiot. Is it possible to track him down? Certainly where I am living the last image he uploaded (the infamous goatse image) would be considered porn and potentially he could be charged with illegal distribution of pornography as a criminal charge. Any other ideas? Kicking him off his ISP to make life harder for him? --Rob Horning 08:56, 5 August 2005 (UTC)


 * I've already spoken to the server administrators. The problem is with Privacy policy. If a user registers for an account, then we can't do an IP block, so he can create infinite numbers of accounts, and retain his anonymity. Perhaps if the community voted to remove this restriction? I'll check if it can be negotiated. - Aya T C 16:17, 5 August 2005 (UTC)


 * Update: Under point '5' of Privacy policy, it seems this information can be released, but doesn't specify a means for doing so. I'm attempting to find out the correct process for releasing this info. - Aya T C 16:30, 5 August 2005 (UTC)


 * Update: After having chatted to some of the devs/sysadmin types (who must really hate me by now), it seems they all come from different IP addresses with different open proxies. Point is, there's no reasonable way to block the person (or people) who are doing it completely, without compromising the ability for newbies to use the system in a valid fashion. The best we can do is get IP addresses for users vandalising via open web proxies, and block those. See also Proxy blocking. - Aya T C 19:30, 5 August 2005 (UTC)


 * I am wondering if with the IP address we can do something like SpamCop where we will send annoying e-mails to the ISP complaining about vandalizing web pages. It seems as though that is also by itself illegal in many juristictions, perhaps even Florida (where these servers are physically located) as this is a form of assult.  Certainly if somebody put up some of the images that this vandal has been using in a supermarket, newspaper page, or other public forum they could get arrested for public lewdness.  Even with open proxies (except for awful places like Chinanet that don't care about the rest of the world...only if it affects chinese citizens will they complain) they do have tracelogs to find the dial-up phone number or DSL connection at some point in the routing.  If it is a corporate internet, the dude would be instantly fired.  It is possible to find out exactly who is doing this, if the ISPs will only cooperate.  As the server farm is in Florida, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission may also be able to help out in terms of applying legal pressure, or sending a goatse image to a senator might just do the trick (if you can explain this is the garbage kids are seeing on supposedly "kid friendly" internet pages like the Wikijunior page that was attacked in the last round).  Since we would know the time and the IP address, this information can be traced to a specific individual.  Technically the data is available, and I do think there would be people that could help out and put this idiot behind bars.  If there needs to be a law written to stop an idiot like this, I am politically active enough I might be able to get some action... particularly on how shocking images like this would be to a typical legislator.  --Rob Horning 20:14, 5 August 2005 (UTC)


 * Because this guy is an attention seeking vandal, the less attention they receive the, less active they will be. We can fix the damage caused quite easily, so I wouldn't worry about them too much. But, I agree that we should also be applying pressure to track them down too, because they are a poor example for new contributors to Wikibooks. (Donovan|Geocachernemesis|Interact) 00:28, 6 August 2005 (UTC)

New procedure
For account-based vandalism attacks (especially ass pus), if you email the details to  then he will attempt to mass-block the IP on all Wikimedia wikis. Be sure to include:


 * The fact it originated on en.wikibooks.org
 * The username of the vandal

Aya T C 15:39, 8 August 2005 (UTC)