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I need help with this one. I tracked down the spammed sites and warned all the editors listed, but don't have time to clean up the spam. This is mostly old stuff, but some more recent, so it may be on ongoing concern once it is all cleaned up. Very few of the users were ever warned although many of the links have been removed over the past few months.
This is a messy one. The site "users.tpg.com.au/wookie99" has been spammed to over three dozen articles about watches. In almost every case, the link was added by a single-purpose account created and used to add the link only to one article. For example, User:Gshockfreak added the link to the article G-Shock with the comment:
"Added a very handy reference index of every G-Shock, listing by type, shape, case color, size, weight, module, water resistance, and model number."
"Added a very handy reference index of Chopard watches, listing by case material, bracelet material, size, dial color, calibre and model number."
Another account, User:Flosswax, is the only one that appears to have been used beyond this single-article pattern. Flosswax appears to have been tending to the links, monitoring the watch-related articles to restore this link when it was deleted, and to also remove links to alternative sites. Several of Flosswax's edits also occur at or near the same time as edits by the SPA accounts; this pattern, coupled with the fact that Flosswax tends to have long gaps between edits and has also added the link to articles, further illustrates the likelihood of a direct link.
I am confident that all of these accounts are related, based on their editing pattern and area of interest. All named accounts - including Flosswax - have been blocked indefinitely, the IP has been blocked for one year (as its only use here has been in connection with this matter) and the URL has been added to the blacklist. If any editors (other than the SPAs that have perpetuated this nonsense) wish to argue for the link, we can consider it, but the effort invested in spamming this URL - and the fact that it has not been added by anyone other than these accounts - suggests that it is not essential to the project's best interests. --Ckatzchatspy 09:11, 2 July 2009 (UTC)
Site spammed
users.tpg.com.au/wookie99 (can't add the template because of the filter)
Was blacklisted (may '08) by mr Mr.Z-man due to the site encouraging people to spam - www.lyricsmode.com/about/wikipedia.php
There is no evidence of copyright permission or fair-use disclaimers so per WP:COPYRIGHT (external Web site appears to be carrying work in violation of the creator's copyright). Also fails other criteria per WP:EL, popups, ect., --Hu12 (talk) 14:00, 1 July 2009 (UTC)
Interesting example of encouraging spam. The page mentioned above can still be found in Google (but not cached), however the page has been removed. Here is an archive. Johnuniq (talk) 01:33, 2 July 2009 (UTC)
I'm not sure where to go with this one. Someone has added many reference links pointing to the main page of this dictionary. However, the ref gives no clue about what part of the dictionary was used, making the reference aspect quite useless. If they weren't in refs, I'd clean them all out. Any suggestions about whether this should be cleaned up and if so, what approach to use?
I know whimemsz - he is not a spammer but a serious editor and probably our most knowledgeable editor on the topic of the ojibwe language. I suggest that you ask him personally.·Maunus·ƛ· 13:33, 4 July 2009 (UTC)
Life Story Foundation
These are old links, all cleaned up and IPs warned.
User miceduan (talk • contribs • deleted contribs • what links to user page • count • COIBot • user page logs • x-wiki • status • Edit filter search • Google • StopForumSpam • is repeatedly adding links pointing to both the above domains as references or external links in a number of articles. Some of the references are simply spam links masquerading as references, which point to the product the company sell e.g. Pogo pin. When I have removed these spam links the users has immediately undone some of them. I would like to request that somebody else warn this user for spamming and revert all additions of the link so that I don't fall foul of 3RR. Please also consider adding both sites to the blacklist. --Biker Biker (talk) 20:07, 5 July 2009 (UTC)
I gave him another warning and did some cleanup. The blogspot.com links are not reliable sources, but there are still some left. It might be worthwhile to see who put in the remaining ones in case of sockpuppetry or the use of ip addresses. --Ronz (talk) 21:51, 5 July 2009 (UTC)
Thanks Ronz. Miceduan subsequently undid all of your edits and then undid his/her own edits, which was puzzling. The situation now is that none of the links are present. I do think that adding these links to the blacklist would prevent any re-occurrence. As a side note I have just reported Miceduan for sockpuppetry (Wikipedia:Sockpuppet investigations/Miceduan) as a number of my edits in other unrelated articles were undone by an IP users shortly after Miceduan's undo/redo activity. --Biker Biker (talk) 07:40, 6 July 2009 (UTC)
Miceduan has now been banned indefinitely for sockpuppetry so I consider this spam problem closed. --Biker Biker (talk) 17:42, 7 July 2009 (UTC)
Just a note re these links. They are to the individual bio pages for people and organizations who have won the Prince of Asturias Prize (a very prestigious award in Spain). The IP adding the links resolves to the Prince of Asturias Foundation. I strongly suggest not blacklisting links to fundacionprincipedeasturias.org for other editors as they could well be needed in future to verify that an article's subject has won the award, and many also provide extra information about the subject's life or history, not currently contained in their WP article, e.g. [2], [3][4]. Voceditenore (talk) 11:22, 6 July 2009 (UTC)
Unfortunately this is a classic example of linkspamming. It will take significant time to revert all the contributions of this WP:SPA, and they have continued past two "only warning" messages (which is a hint that they will be back if links are reverted). The only good defense is to blacklist, and the only realistic alternative may be to let every similar organization add a link to every article. Johnuniq (talk) 11:39, 6 July 2009 (UTC)
So if the link is blacklisted, does this mean that no other editor can add it? Suppose for example, I wanted to reference the fact that Tamara Rojo had won the 2005 Prince of Asturias Prize for the Arts. How else could it be done? Or suppose I wanted to expand Orfeón Donostiarra (currently a very short stub). There is a lot of valuable information about the history of the choir in English at the Prince of Asturias page for the 1984 award. If I used it, how could I reference it? Voceditenore (talk) 11:56, 6 July 2009 (UTC)
There is no good solution. How should the linkspam be handled? How should linkspam for other sites be handled? A few of the edits from this IP that I checked put their site at the top of the list, another certain sign of spamming. I suggest that all edits from this IP be reverted, and a check made that have gone away. Then you might like to add references to the articles you mentioned (genuine improvements to the article, with useful information sourced to the site). Johnuniq (talk) 01:53, 7 July 2009 (UTC)
I understand the need to be vigilant about spam and revert it, and that the IP who added all the links was "spamming" by Wikipedia's definition. But I sometimes argue here for the baby not to be thrown out with bathwater by blacklisting the link(s) themselves, especially when the site has very useful contents for future editors. In this case it is an official Spanish government site, with no advertising, and nothing to sell. I made similar arguments for history.nyphil.org. Voceditenore (talk) 09:19, 7 July 2009 (UTC)
User:Johndrod has been adding many external links to authors published by Faber and Faber. In the instance of the one added to Philip Larkin nothing useful was on the page: it was purely a link to a sales page almost-instinct 15:40, 7 July 2009 (UTC)
Added ((LinkSummaryLive)) for easier review of the appropriateness of links to the involved domain. --15:56, 7 July 2009 (UTC)
The other links are to sales pages also; while there is some minimal biographical and critical information about on some of the sales pages, they add nothing to what is already available in the main Wikipedia articles. Macspaunday (talk) 17:01, 7 July 2009 (UTC)
I have removed almost all of the spam. This needs to be monitored. Johnuniq (talk) 08:42, 8 July 2009 (UTC)
Problem accessing one of the project archive pages
I'm trying to access the archived discussions page from July 2007 (Wikipedia_talk:WikiProject_Spam/2007_Archive_Jul). It keeps coming up a blank page. If I right click and save the page locally, it's all present, but when I try to just click on it and go to it, it comes up empty. June seems OK as does August and random other archived discussion pages. I want to refer someone to a discussion that's archived there but obviously I can't if they can't get to it. Please help! Thanks --Bookgrrlholler/lookee here 14:43, 9 July 2009 (UTC)
User spamming link onto multiple articles. Some specific digitized documents may be appropriate (and could be valuable sources in some cases); but the generic high-level links being added fail WP:ELNO #9 & #13. --- Barek (talk • contribs) - 20:01, 9 July 2009 (UTC)
Affiliate tagged adbrite.com URLs
Is there a way to blacklist affiliate tagged URLs while allowing the root URL? The article AdBrite is targetted by people wanting to insert their affiliate-tagged adbrite.com links (see the history); in particular the person who owns adbrite.com/mb/landing_both.php?spid=109895&afb=125x125-1 is very persistent indeed, keeps coming back from new IPs in the 41.23x.x.x range and patently disregarding WP:SPAM. Here is their reaction to the spam4im warning I placed last night. That particular IP, 41.237.105.31, was blocked for 48 hours, but the same affiliate tag was reinserted in the article from 41.237.109.206 within two hours. Unfortunately I don't suppose adbrite.com can be blacklisted because the root URL should be in the article.
There are another affiliate tagged versions as well. All start with adbrite.com/mb/landing_both.php?spid= . Sometimes you see the spammers change each other's affiliate spam to their own - it's like birdwatching or something.
The list below is not exhaustive, but should be sufficient to show the pattern. All the 41.x.x.x IPs plus the user Awanta inserted the same tag.
I've asked for semi-protection of the page. --bonadeacontributionstalk 16:57, 11 July 2009 (UTC)
Affiliate tagged URLs can be blocked without blocking the root URL (for example, we've added PayPal affilliates to the WP:SBL in the past). In this case, it appears that all of the affiliate URLs use "mb" after the adbrite.com root. I only have a basic understanding of the regex coding; but I think we need \badbrite\.com/mb added to the blacklist in order to block www.adbrite.com/mb/. I would suggest submitting a request at WP:SBL due to the repeated abuse. --- Barek (talk • contribs) - 17:08, 11 July 2009 (UTC)
Links to Google Doodle are turning up in hundreds of articles. I reverted this one but would like a view from the project on whether or not to consider this straightforward spamming. SpinningSpark 22:46, 9 July 2009 (UTC)
I agree that it is unhelpful for Mosesofmason or any other user to add trivia to articles. I suppose there may be exceptional cases, but in general I would recommend reverting all such additions. Searching for "google doodle" suggests there are 21 pages that still exist, although several of those appear OK. Johnuniq (talk) 12:10, 10 July 2009 (UTC)
Ok, I have removed the ones that appear to be pure trivia, but left those in articles that have some actual connection with Google. There was also some discussion at WP:ANB#Google doodle (which will probably end up in this archive or this archive if anyone needs to find it in the future. SpinningSpark 10:14, 11 July 2009 (UTC)
Link to child pornography in article: "List of people who have beaten Emanuel Lasker in chess"
Repeated spamming of community networking pages onto multiple city articles - continued beyond 4th/final warning - user does not discuss, simply continues spamming. --- Barek (talk • contribs) - 23:50, 14 July 2009 (UTC)
Being spammed mostly through a dynamic ip, mostly the past month. It looks like a hosting service for blogs and the like, though it would be helpful to have confirmation from someone fluent in Serbian. I've requested it be given to XLinkBot User_talk:XLinkBot/RevertList#tt-group.net. --Ronz (talk) 15:40, 15 July 2009 (UTC)
I checked several edits, and the user is clearly using Wikipedia to promote an organization. However, it is more difficult to handle than usual because there is some merit in many of the edits, it's just that each edit seems to have about 20% content on the topic, and 80% on the glory of the organization. I'll try to do some clean up later. Johnuniq (talk) 00:51, 16 July 2009 (UTC)
I agree there is some merit in some of these. I cleaned up a few of the more overtly promotional ones but am stopping because my annoyance is beginning to show up in my edit summaries. --CliffC (talk) 02:06, 16 July 2009 (UTC)
Continuing under 90.215.8.44, Temp block issued--Hu12 (talk) 16:17, 17 July 2009 (UTC)
TripAdvisor related sites
Mabeza (talk·contribs) has been editing TripAdvisor, creating linkfarms on the page by adding every related TripAdvisor website. They're inserting into the body of the article (description section) links to each of the travel brands owned by Trip Advisor Media Group, as well as links to each of the different language versions of the main TripAdvisor website. I've removed the links twice now. The first time I simply gave the reasons in the edit summary - the user reverted that and restored the links with no comment or reason - so the second time I posted a warning to the user's talk page.
The user is an SPA - but I'm uncertain if it's a COI user, or simply a well intentioned user of the site - so I chose to report it here instead of at COIN. --- Barek (talk • contribs) - 20:03, 15 July 2009 (UTC)
I would appreciate if someone else could take a look at this article. The user has again restored the linkfarm to the TripAdvisor page, but in the EL section this time. I warned the user a second time, and removed the links - but they've restored them again. Combined with the user's other edits, to me the page is beginning to look more like an advert again. --- Barek (talk • contribs) - 15:26, 16 July 2009 (UTC)
I would welcome some expert oversight on Burgh Island, where contributors are using the talk page to justify repeatedly adding spam links. Is my "spam detector" calibration perhaps set at too sensitive a level?--Old Moonraker (talk) 16:48, 16 July 2009 (UTC)
Link being inserted by an edit warring dyanmic IP user Triplestopx3 18:44, 16 July 2009 (UTC)
Certainly this should be blacklisted. It has failed as a source at the WP:RS noticeboard. The Wiki-article for the website was also AfD'd as it was determined to be an amateur fansite run by a carpet salesman. Sock tags on some of the ip addys guilty of re-adding the site indicate that the dynamic IP may belong to User:Prophaniti who had a history of adding the link (and defending it) and may also have some sort of COI attachment to the site. The Real Libs-speak politely 19:21, 16 July 2009 (UTC)
For reference, here are some additional discussions about the site that I located:
There may be more - this was just the relevant links from the first page or two of search results. --- Barek (talk • contribs) - 17:34, 17 July 2009 (UTC)
Repeated addition of linkspam to multiple dentistry related articles by SPA user over the past three months. --- Barek (talk • contribs) - 03:02, 19 July 2009 (UTC)
comment The main company may none the less be notable & even some of its projects may be . Magellan Development; I've declined a G11 speedy as I consider that article basically informative, removed a good deal of spam from the content, and moved it to Magellan Development Group. Some further editing is needed. DGG (talk) 19:55, 20 July 2009 (UTC)
Link being inserted by an edit warring dyanmic IP user Triplestopx3 18:44, 16 July 2009 (UTC)
Certainly this should be blacklisted. It has failed as a source at the WP:RS noticeboard. The Wiki-article for the website was also AfD'd as it was determined to be an amateur fansite run by a carpet salesman. Sock tags on some of the ip addys guilty of re-adding the site indicate that the dynamic IP may belong to User:Prophaniti who had a history of adding the link (and defending it) and may also have some sort of COI attachment to the site. The Real Libs-speak politely 19:21, 16 July 2009 (UTC)
For reference, here are some additional discussions about the site that I located:
There may be more - this was just the relevant links from the first page or two of search results. --- Barek (talk • contribs) - 17:34, 17 July 2009 (UTC)
Wfgillis (talk • contribs • deleted contribs • what links to user page • count • COIBot • user page logs • x-wiki • status • Edit filter search • Google • StopForumSpam • Spam account being used only to continously create an article advertising a non-notable company ("FNC, Inc.") with whom he is employed, in addition to loading it with spam links. He has been at this for the past few months despite several warnings. The article has been deleted three times under G11 since its initial creation, but he has since posted the article a fourth time on his userpage. sixtynine• spill it • 04:48, 17 July 2009 (UTC)
All of User:86.166.106.177's contributions are spam. User is spamming again after being given a last warning. --Killing Vector (talk) 23:40, 19 July 2009 (UTC)
I just now removed text similar to "Distrbuted in the UK for Castrol by Nielsen CDG on their online shop www. nielsencdg.co.uk" from a handful of articles, can't say how they got there. --CliffC (talk) 00:27, 20 July 2009 (UTC)
There seems to be an inordinate number of recent links and images from this Wiki with one user. Essentially personal site spamming. It's being used as a source as well when it's clearly not reliable. Yworo (talk) 04:08, 23 July 2009 (UTC)
OK, I think this is the responsible user, based on the article Super OS (created by this user), which has 13 references to this site. All the other references appear to be to blogs, so IMO the article is spam as well. Yworo (talk) 04:33, 23 July 2009 (UTC)
User:Hacktolive is not spamming, but states that hacktolive.org is "my homepage" (a wiki with a single user named Hacktolive).
This looks like a case of misguided enthusiasm, but it is indistinguishable from WP:PROMOTION and needs to be severely pruned back. Johnuniq (talk) 08:15, 23 July 2009 (UTC)
I am SF007, first of all let me point out that Yworo seems to have been a little disruptive lately, involved in "reversion-wars" to remove a (possibly) controversial image from the Linux article [23][24][25][26], claiming there was consensus not to include that, when in fact, there were no discussions related to that on the talk page (at the date of the comments), and he/she was the one acting against consensus. He/she seems to have not been very polite in the talk pages [27]. Now how is this relevant? I don't really like to point fingers to editors but... On one edit this editor removed a link the hacktolive.org site [28], claiming it was not a reliable source, and adding a [citation needed] tag, despite the fact that it is very easy to "prove" that the image was real, not to mention anyone can try "Portable Ubuntu for Windows", and the CoLinux page seems to have factual info, even lifehacker talks about this. I mean I am all for the inclusion of reliable sources, but... what more "proof" can we get?!? It is well known on wikipedia that "small" or even "medium-sized" open source projects sometimes are very hard to source properly. It can also be noted that in the "vendetta" against the Linux + Windows image, that editor tagged it for deletion because of the "high resolution of the image" and because the fair-use notice was not valid for the Linux article (reasons that I do not consider valid because the first problem can be solved by uploading a smaller image, and the second one by removing it from the Linux article and/or discussing is it is appropriate for the Linux article)
Regarding the links, first of all let me point out that I have uploaded many many images, and most of them come from the hacktolive.org website, so it is to be expected that I link to that site to provide the original source of the image. If you look carefully, you probably see most of the links are on pages that are not articles, like pages from images (explained above). Regarding the articles themselves, I have to say I have used this site to help source and/or create articles, when no better references are available, I agree this might not be the best source, but I always think it is better to have semi-reliable sources than none at all. And I am not against external links if they are useful and/or are relevant and do not add clutter and are not spam/crap ([29]). I would also like to point out more "spam" from me: if you look at my wikimedia commons contribution you can see I have also uploaded hundreads of images (many from the hacktolive.org site, but not all). Now, what makes me sad is that this seems to be an editor more concerned about windows vs Linux wars (or Firefox hate, or whatever reasons he/she has for hating that images) than to really "uncover spammers". I hope you see "the big picture" and you can see I have created many articles, and I add many links and the hacktolive.org links are just a small portion of the total links, for example, I have edited more than 3359 DISTINCT articles, so these links are just a tiny portion of my edits. On another note, no, I am not the owner of the site, however, I do admit I am an user of Super OS and use that site for personal tips. And regarding the copyright of the text, images, I contacted the owners and they told me it was perfectly OK to use the content and that everything they made could be copied freely for any purpose. SF007 (talk) 13:15, 23 July 2009 (UTC)
This user now seems to have simply removing all links to the hacktolive.org website. including removing other semi-reliable links and entire sections and information that might very well be relevant [30][31][32]. I don't really care about this, but I think it is a bit disruptive to simply remove all links without even waiting for my reply and/or read opinions from other users. I won't get into silly reversion-wars or make wiki-drama, but I think it was a bad move to remove entire sections without even a discussion first [33]. SF007 (talk) 13:32, 23 July 2009 (UTC)
No discussion is needed for reversion of spamming. Yworo (talk) 13:41, 23 July 2009 (UTC)
Yes, but this was not spam like I explained. And even if some editors consider that the links should be removed, it was better to wait for the end of the discussion first. SF007 (talk) 13:47, 23 July 2009 (UTC)
It is spam, because the site is neither a reliable source nor an allowed external link. The external linking policy requires that Wiki's be active multi-user sites. See point 12. If you argue that it's not an "open" wiki, then it falls under point 11, a personal website. Yworo (talk) 13:51, 23 July 2009 (UTC)
First of all, those pages are guidelines, not policy, and even if they were policy, we should never do things blindly "because rules say so", second: I have already explained the reasoning for the links (above). SF007 (talk) 14:06, 23 July 2009 (UTC)
Following guidelines is not doing something "blindly" -- there is absolutely no encyclopedic purpose served by adding those links. WP:IAR is only for cases where the end result improves things, certainly not for cases that make things worse. DreamGuy (talk) 14:40, 23 July 2009 (UTC)
You missed my point, I am not arguing for the links to be there, like I said, I don't care, all I was trying to explain was that we should not do things JUST because it is in the guidelines, without even giving it some thought (not saying that was the case). The whole point was that I usually support the addition of semi-reliable links when there are not better ones, but again, I am not saying "We should ignore all rules and put the hacktolive.org links there", far far from that. It was just to make a point. SF007 (talk) 14:46, 23 July 2009 (UTC)
Wikipedia owes much of its success to its openness. However, that very openness sometimes attracts people who seek to exploit the site. This appears to be such a case. Wikipedia is based upon collaborative, good faith editing, and consensus. Attempting to exploit Wikipedia for the primary purpose self-promotion is a serious matter.
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.
In addition hacktolive.org links Have no editorial oversight (see WP:RS):
By making the decision to argue or add your own link, is an incompatibility between the aims of Wikipedia and you, the webmaster, because your not neutral. Adding your own site is "promotion" and a conflict of interest period.--Hu12 (talk) 02:19, 24 July 2009 (UTC)
Not clearly spam. Gomolo.in is a Hindi-Bengali movie database like Imdb, so a lot of links from Hindi-Bengali movies can normally be expected.
There seems to be a COI case against Vuttaa (talk·contribs) due to the same name being the email username of the registrant of Gomolo.in. He may not be aware of WP:COI, so give him a chance to declare COI and follow the editing rules.
The other users listed may just be normal movie editors. Wait for the result of checkuser if that's justified in this case. Milo 07:50, 24 July 2009 (UTC)
Even if the editor's intent is to promote gomolo.in, that doesn't make any reference to gomolo spam. I've taken a good look at the website, and it's a valuable source of information. How can the gomolo templates and article be spam and the IMDB ones not? Seriously, I don't get it. They are both commercial sites. --Milkbreath (talk) 10:41, 24 July 2009 (UTC)
Pointing out that IMDB links exists in articles doesn't prove that the link in question should also exist. Links to commercial sites can often be appropriate. Links to sites (such as in this case) for the purpose of using Wikipedia to promote a site are not. It is quite evident that the accounts and IP are only contributing to Wikipedia in order to promote Gomolo.in. One just needs to look a their contributions. Of the hundreds of links spammed very few of these links (if any) have been added to wikipedia by accounts other than the those above. The accounts above made have few or no other edits outside this topic, and appear, based on their edit history, to exist for the sole or primary purpose of promoting Gomolo.in in apparent violation of Conflict of interest and Wikipedias anti-spam guidelines1. A handfull of Single purpose accounts mass spamming their own links and adding self-created-spam-templates to Wikipedia does not a valuble source make.--Hu12 (talk) 15:17, 24 July 2009 (UTC)
Ah. So you are saying that the behavior of this editor can be ascribed to malevolence on the part of the site itself. I suppose that's reasonable, but it wouldn't stand up in a court of law, maybe, absent solid evidence that he was acting under their auspices. Whatever the truth of that, I still say that gogmolo.in is a legitimate external link in articles about Hindi- and Bengali-language movies and actors. Do you suppose that if I were to insert such a link manually on a case-by-case basis that anybody would mind after all this? --Milkbreath (talk) 15:54, 24 July 2009 (UTC)
Taking the points you made, there's a frequently mentioned exception that WP guiderules are "not a suicide pact". In other words, the WP:COI editor(s) shouldn't have done it the way they did it, and shouldn't do it that way in the future, but what they did is useful and therefore not spam. Milo 19:43, 24 July 2009 (UTC)
I don't think that this is saying 'gomolo.in is spam', it says 'the editors seem to be spamming'. I must note, some of the accounts named here add a lot more than only gomolo.in, though there are also role accounts.
Top 10:
<Removed username, though is listed above>
106 additions of this domain, but also a lot of other domains. Don't think this is a spammer
2 additions, only this link. Rest of edits is template-linking (not recorded by bot), may be a COI editor
To go back to IMDB, if an editor, who may be or may not be involved in IMDB, would only add external links to IMDB, I would also warn him for spamming, even if the link itself is not spam. Here some of the editors mentioned here may just need some coaching. --Dirk BeetstraTC 20:13, 24 July 2009 (UTC)
Found a gold farming spammer and his/her mates: more info here. (I posted it in the wrong place; sorry about that.) --DanielPharos (talk) 12:47, 24 July 2009 (UTC)
IP hopping user, that so far all originate from SingNet, spamming link to a site that sells a get-rich-quick guide. Blatant spam, with no value to Wikipedia. --- Barek (talk • contribs) - 16:32, 24 July 2009 (UTC)
This message [37] indicates the necessity to Blacklist this website: SaintTitan.com.
IPs have been spamming Henri Matisse and especially Francis Bacon (painter) non-stop for a week. We have deleted a half dozen IPs adding the website so far, at least twice each.
Please block the website...thanks...Modernist (talk) 23:48, 24 July 2009 (UTC)
Seconded: most of these IP addresses have spammed several times. Because they all come from Carphone Warehouse's >106 dynamic pool, blocking the destination site is really the only solution. I've checked it from a variety of angles and it doesn't add any value as an external link .- Pointillist (talk) 00:24, 25 July 2009 (UTC)
Lasting Tribute is a commercially run tribute/memorial site run by UK newspaper publisher Northcliffe Media. All pages contain large amounts of advertising for "gifts" and memorials sold by the site. Fundamentally I think it is wrong to commercially exploit the memory of dead people in this way. This is a pure commercial site, containing little encyclopaedic content - most Wikipedia articles which have a link to Lasting Tribute also have links to other obituaries for the subject of the article. I believe it fails WP:ELNO on a number of counts and should not be allowed on Wikipedia. --Simple Bob (talk) 13:58, 26 July 2009 (UTC)
I did a bit of research and it seems that a number of the existing links to this site were added by a small number of users who did nothing but add this link. --Simple Bob (talk) 18:21, 27 July 2009 (UTC)
This is a followup to my earlier posting on this page. I'm still requesting that something be done about this link. It was placed at WP:SBL where it sat for weeks until it was removed without any statement or action done. See the earlier posting for relevant background information about this link. This is still a problem as the link was just recently reinserted. ThemFromSpace 04:26, 28 July 2009 (UTC)
Spamming of a non-notable blog that fails WP:ELNO #11. All entries on the blog are by a Charles Roring, for whom I can only locate mentions on blogs and social networking sites - unable to establish as being a recognized authority. --- Barek (talk • contribs) - 17:32, 28 July 2009 (UTC)
Added another IP that tried adding the link again - it's in the same range as existing IPs. --- Barek (talk • contribs) - 20:47, 28 July 2009 (UTC)
And another user account (not IP this time, but username suggests a COI issue). --- Barek (talk • contribs) - 20:50, 28 July 2009 (UTC)
Please do something about this spammer. Mieciu K (talk) 00:18, 25 July 2009 (UTC)
Can you spell out the problem please? I looked at a couple of edits and they seem to be correcting a URL (if you click the old URL, it redirects to the new URL). Johnuniq (talk) 02:42, 28 July 2009 (UTC)
www.russianmilitarytrucks.com is a commercial site that sells Warsaw Pact ex-military vehicles, one of dozens of such sites on the internet, www.russianmilitarytrucks.com does not hoast any unique content that adds any value to wikipedia, adding www.russianmilitarytrucks.com to every wikipedia page where someone might click it is spamming. Mieciu K (talk) 00:11, 29 July 2009 (UTC)
The most recent (April) two edits by 80.41.174.250 are this and this. In each case, the edit changes "www.zil131.com" to "www.russianmilitarytrucks.com". If I visit the zil131.com address, my browser is redirected to the russianmilitarytrucks.com site, and the page says "Welcome to Russian Military Trucks.com (formerly Zil131.com)". The site sells merchandising but that appears to be a secondary issue. Using a browser with scripting disabled the site offers pictures and manuals for various trucks, and does not push marketing, so it still looks ok to me. Johnuniq (talk) 05:04, 31 July 2009 (UTC)
Can someone else take a look at this and provide input on if they view it as meeting WP:ELNO guidelines? I've removed it twice and warned the user - but they've re-added the link again. I can find no indication that the owner of the blog is an authority in the field, nor do they appear to meet WP:BIO guidelines. --- Barek (talk • contribs) - 00:13, 31 July 2009 (UTC)
Not a recognized authority judging by the bio on the blog. I ran a few searches, and came up with nothing to demonstrate he's a notable expert. He only recently received his MBA. --Ronz (talk) 00:36, 31 July 2009 (UTC)
Indeed, and it's a relatively new blog too. If NYT talks about it, I'd be inclined to think it's worthwhile- otherwise, it seems like linkspam/refspam. tedder (talk) 04:20, 31 July 2009 (UTC)
Why do you think that the official national tourist organisation is a spam link? It seems a perfectly justifiable addition to relevant articles in the same way that wikitravel would be added. --Simple Bob (talk) 20:46, 30 July 2009 (UTC)
Official or not, 160 links added consecutively by an anon IP, at one sitting with multiple additions per minute is spam.
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.
Clear disruption, well intentioned or not by 194.177.192.8--Hu12 (talk) 20:55, 30 July 2009 (UTC)
Would like some other eyes to look at this one ... this URL is clearly primarilly a means of soliciting business / referrals to lawyers, although there is some legitimate text on each link. To me, it's spam ... would would like a second opinion. --- Barek (talk • contribs) - 21:52, 30 July 2009 (UTC)
It is spam because the content of the legalmatch.com web site is very superficial and is clearly designed to attract search engine hits (it has lists of obvious topics with no or very little actual content). I'm sure it's well intentioned (after all, it would be impossible to provide legal advice via a web site), but the links I checked did not add any value to the article. Johnuniq (talk) 07:17, 31 July 2009 (UTC)
DemandStudios.com is an online content creation studio that provides writers, filmmakers, copy editors, transcribers and proofreaders with freelance work1. therefore;