Spamda

Note: There IS a public release of spamda, but it is still full of bugs at the moment. A full version was planned to be released in 2007.

Spamda is a multi-wiki anti-spam program to assist users in identifying and reverting spam. For more information, please visit #Spamda on freenode

spamda logo

Overview

Spamda showing a diff from English Wikipedia

Spamda takes the feed from the LinkWatcher bot in all the anti-spam channels (such as #wikipedia-en-spam, and #wikipedia-swm-spam) through another bot that distributes all the new links added to Wikipedia evenly among users. This means that if 5 Spamda users are watching the english spam feed, user #1 will only get 1 in 5 messages. User #2 will get a different message, still 1 in 5, etc...

When a diff of a new link addition is received from the bot, it is displayed to the user and the user will have the option to revert, revert and warn with warnings like "spam1", or just leave it. If it detects previous warnings on the user talk, you will also get the option to do a "spam+1" revert&warn, which will warn the user one warning higher than their current warning.

Using

1) Register

To register, you must complete the following steps:

1. Add your Meta username, your username on the wiki you are most active on, and a diff of confirmation to the request showing that you on meta are the same user as you on the other wiki to Spamda/Approvals using the template specified on that page
2. Wait for a mod to approve/decline you. They will leave the notice on your meta talk page.

A current list of approved users was supposed to be found at http://tools.wikimedia.de/~spamda/?mode=list (Attention: toolserver account expired!).

2) Download

Download it from Spamda/urlrelease and run the main .exe file

Moderators

A current, up-to-date list of mods can be found at Spamda/url?mode=mods

System Requirements

Because Spamda was written in Visual Basic 6, it is only compatible with Microsoft Windows.

• Microsoft Windows 98+
• Internet Explorer version 4+

Advantages and disadvantages to using spamda instead of a real irc client

Advantages:

• Your IP address will be hidden if you don't already have a cloak because the client doesn't actually join the channel, but interacts with a different bot.
• You get the feed distributed (if you choose too) which means you will get less diffs to look at and you can spend more time on them
• You don't need to bother with setting up an IRC client. If you have no idea how to work irc, just load the spamda client and it will take care of all the irc stuff for you
• And most importantly: 'you have revert tools right there infront of you' instead of having to click a diff link through your client then dealing with JS reverts

Disadvantages:

• It does not run on Linux or Mac OS/unix

(Ed:It just about does run on Linux - it loads diffs through the IRC network but it crashes when reverting, so hopefully not a massive problem, you'll probably need IEs4 Linux and the necessary MSWINSCK.OCX files installed under WINE to make it run that far)

Bug reports

If you have a bug or feature request, please report it at: Spamda/urlbugs-report

• To search the bugs, please visit Spamda/urlbugs-search
• To view all open bug requests: Spamda/urlbugs-current
• To report a bug or feature request: Spamda/urlbugs-report

Tips

How to deal with JS errors

If you are getting JS errors, and you don't use Internet Explorer as your regular browser, you can do this to stop your monobook from being read in IE: (note, this applies to any other tool that uses IE such as VandalProof and AWB)

Instructions:

1. Move your User:Yourname/monobook.js to User:Yourname/monobook-noie.js
2. On User:Yourname/monobook.js put the following (be sure to replace YOURNAME with your name):

   if(navigator.appName.toLowerCase().indexOf('microsoft') == -1) {
       document.write('<script src="http://'+document.location.host+'/w/index.php?title='+escape("User:YOURNAME/monobook-noie.js")+'"></script>'); 
   }

3. Then hard-reload your browser (ctrl+F5)

And you're done! You should no longer get errors in your monobook from IE, because that prevents it from even loading in IE.

More info

To find out more information, please visit these channels on freenode:

• #Spamda - the official Spamda channel
• #wikipedia-spam-t - The channel to discuss the wikipedia anti-spam project

Also, for a list of channels and even more info on spam, see User:Eagle 101/Spam