Help:Spam

WikiSpam includes unwanted advertisements and links to other websites.

How does Wikia fight spam?
Wikia fights WikiSpam in many ways:
 * 1) A Spam Blacklist prevents known spam links being saved in a page. All users can suggest additions to the list at Wikia:Talk:Spam Blacklist.
 * 2) A Spam cleanup script automatically reverts edits that add a URL from the Blacklist.
 * 3) Captchas for external links added by unregistered users and for account creation.
 * 4) A tool (LookupContribs) which allows the Wikia staff and certain users to check for edits by a particular user across all wikis.
 * 5) NoFollow links are added to all external URLs. See the Google blog for details.
 * 6) Old revisions of articles are not indexed by search engines.
 * 7) Regex blocking of particular phrases
 * 8) Blocking of spammers across all wikis
 * 9) A tool for searching for spammers using multiple usernames
 * 10) Janitors aren't exactly a tool, but they are a group of highly dedicated volunteers with admin access on all wikis who can help you deal with spam
 * 11) Bots using algorithms that they run against an IRC feed of all recent changes to automatically detect spam
 * 12) A tool to mass delete page titles created by spammers
 * 13) One-click reverting for admins and users who have been assigned "rollback" status
 * 14) "Protectsite" for the most severe cases of spam attacks allowing admins to temporarily lock down the wiki against uploads, account creations, or edits.
 * 15) Title blacklist for preventing re-creation of spam pages
 * 16) Whitelists for local wikis to counteract the above blacklists.

What are the types of spam and how do we deal with it?
Spam articles, where the aim is to promote a particular company rather than to provide useful content to readers of the wiki, should be rewritten or deleted.

External link spamming is often carried out by robots that may be spamming many wikis at once. Their aim is to improve their search engine rankings, rather than to directly advertise their product. If you see this, please inform other members of the community, in the Wikia IRC channel or at the Wikia:Talk:Spam Blacklist so spam by the same user on other wikis can be quickly reverted. If the same URL is being spammed repeatedly, please ask for it to be filtered at Wikia:Talk:Spam Blacklist. If you are an admin on the wiki being spammed, you can block the user or IP doing the spamming.

What is the spam filter message?
The following message will be displayed when you try to save a page which contains a URL in the blacklist:

See also Help:Captcha for an anti-spam feature.

What are some external links to information on WikiSpam?

 * Wiki Spam
 * Anti-spam features of MediaWiki
 * Wikipedia
 * Wiki
 * MeatBall
 * CommunityWiki
 * chongqed.org, fighting wiki spam
 * WikiProject Spam at Wikipedia - contains advice for finding and dealing with link spam.
 * Dissuade Interaction
 * Vandalism is not a game