User talk:Gboyers/archive9

Comments on LiquidThread plugin, among others

My two cents on the LiquidThread plugin: It's cumbersome, to me at least. The fact that I was unable to even reply on your talk page (the expanded interfaces never completes loading, and on one occasion it redirects me to your userpage instead), and had to create a new section on it instead, shows it's already a problematic feature to a user.

If you insist on implementing this fully on users' pages, make it an optional thing. I'm already thoroughly annoyed that I can't turn off that infernal overhead edit toolbar (the preferences don't work), and I'm pretty much fine organizing my discussions the old fashion way; it's actually more reliable.

I actually came to discuss something else, but I'll just leave that for later. - ZS (talk) 18:22, 1 December 2011 (UTC)

Combatting spambots

Hi. Do you think there can be an automated way to combat the spam pages from being created in the first place? All the spam pages have linked to the same website. Maybe have an automatic way to prevent users from posting that website link?--spaceeinstein 21:14, 1 December 2011 (UTC)

We have a number of measures in place. I won't discuss them in public. Ask me on the forums. gboyers ^talk 21:20, 1 December 2011 (UTC)

Hi, not meaning to hijack someone elses discussion but I have a quick question about this. What am I as a normal member supposed or encouraged to do when I spot a spambot? I've noticed there seems to be an increasing amount of them coming here, and if no staff is online it could take a while to get removed and the Recent Edits could be covered up in other legit edits by that time. I don't know what other systems you have here but sometimes I think that a simple Report button would be a simple way to tackle it. Is adding the spam template appropriate or is it just "adding-fuel-to-the-fire" (i.e. adding edits to completely unnecessary pages)? Should I just do nothing and let the staff handle it when they come online? --Andreaz1 (talk) 21:39, 1 December 2011 (UTC)

That's a good question, although actually our spam attacks aren't that common at all. The first thing you should do is notify a staff member calmly and factually, or email webmaster at grandtheftwiki. Please be aware of NSfV, so don't run around saying how good the spammers are, because that's what they want. Then you can help revert the damage silently, without making a fuss. For spam pages, remove all content and add {{delete}}. For spam edits, go to Page History, click on an old/clean version of the page, hit edit and re-save that version. Don't worry too much about a couple of spam edits, just make sure the staff know - everything can be reversed/fixed later. If there's a seriously major attack (which has never happened) then that's when you need to make sure I am contacted so I can stop it, but 100% of the attacks we've had can be fixed. gboyers ^talk 23:35, 1 December 2011 (UTC)

Vandals

Hey Gboyers, out of curiosity, do you know if these recent vandals are from Wikia?--MrLanceVanceDance (talk) 22:56, 2 December 2011 (UTC)

The spam bots are not, but I've not seen any traditional vandalism. Which accounts do you mean? Also - this sort of thing should go on the forum, not here. gboyers ^talk 23:00, 2 December 2011 (UTC)