Wiki vandalism
From Wikinfo
Wiki vandalism is generally defined as editing a wiki in a way that is intentionally disruptive or destructive. There are four generally acknowledged types of vandalism: deletion of legitimate information, insertion of nonsense or irrelevant text, addition of commercial links (spam), and policy violations specific to that wiki.
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Administrative response
Administrative responses vary from wiki to wiki, but most vandals are blocked by username or IP address when it becomes clear they aren't simply experimenting. To mitigate spam, some wikis automatically add the "rel=nofollow" attribute to all external links, which tells search engines to ignore those links and thereby largely negates any incentive to spam that wiki. Violations of policy are often severely dealt with by extended or indefinite blocks once it's clear that the user isn't simply ignorant of the rules. Servers known as open proxies allow users to circumvent blocks by changing their apparent address, and are often indefinitely blocked upon detection until they are closed.
Systems of wiki etiquette often exist to help prevent mistaken accusations of vandalism. However, such systems sometimes incite vandalism by giving administrators too many justifications for action, which may breed resentment among a wiki's members.
Although the majority of public wikis shun mandatory registration, most popular wiki engines (including MediaWiki, MoinMoin, UseModWiki, PmWiki, and TWiki) provide ways to limit edit permissions. Many engines allow individual users to be blocked as editors by blocking their particular IP addresses or usernames. However, some Internet service providers regularly assign a new IP address, some within a single session (AOL is infamous for this), so IP blocks can often be circumvented relatively easily and may prevent legitimate users from editing. Entire IP ranges can be blocked to stop vandals, but this may affect many legitimate users.
Most wiki software allows protection of pages from edits by ordinary users. Generally, wikis avoid protecting pages except as a last resort, and only keep pages protected for a short time. As an emergency measure, some wikis allow the database to be switched to read-only mode, while others enforce a policy by which only established users—registered prior to an arbitrary cutoff date—can continue editing. In general, vandalism can be reverted quickly and easily. More problematic, though, are the deliberate insertion of minor or subtle errors, such as changing album release dates on discographies or census numbers. Page protection and read-only modes are popularly considered to be against the basic wiki philosophy, and are therefore usually avoided.
Prevalence
It is difficult to find or create general statistics on the prevalence of wiki vandalism. Controversial or high-traffic topics seem to attract the most vandalism. Small wikis rarely have unmanageable vandalism problems, since they are protected by their relative obscurity. Even very politically charged ones such as openpolitics.ca, dkosopedia, or sourcewatch usually receive only a few attempts at vandalism from those opposed to their ideology. In general, spam(bots) are the most common vandals on small wikis.
Motives
Attributing motives is often difficult, since vandals generally refrain from joining serious discussion. However, there are several popular explanations.
- Breaching experiments, to see what one can do without punishment.
- Scorn or dislike for a project, expressed by attempts to sabotage or damage it.
- A desire to annoy or incovenience other members, often for personal or political reasons.
- A distraction from something in a person's life, or as a way to vent real-life or wiki frustration.
- A sense of being cool, since they may attract attention on the project.
- Vanity or vainglory, editing artices about oneself or related to oneself.
- The motive for spam is typically monetary compensation or increased traffic to a website owned or participated in by the vandal.
See also
References
- Adapted from the Wikipedia article, "Wiki_vandalism" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki_vandalism, used under the GNU Free Documentation License
