User talk:Proxima Centauri/Archive 1

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EvoWiki is down because there is a bug in its software, apparently this bug has existed in evowikis software sense EvoWiki was first created.--Fang 23 10:08, 27 July 2008 (PDT)

It appears that EvoWiki is up and running again now.[1]--Fang 23 15:53, 27 July 2008 (PDT)

Now it is not working again this time it is displaying a text like this when i try to access evowiki.

Database error

A database query syntax error has occurred. This may indicate a bug in the software. The last attempted database query :was:

(SQL query hidden)

from within function "MediaWikiBagOStuff::_doquery". MySQL returned error "1194: Table 'objectcache' is marked as crashed and should be repaired (localhost)".--Fang 23 18:02, 27 July 2008 (PDT)

Contents 1 SysOp 2 Continue With PageProtecting 3 Question 4 Trolling Addendum 5 Preventing moves 6 Grawp 6.1 Action 7 Header Image 8 My Suggestion 9 Schoolboy 10 thank you 11 Help... 12 Re: Stensiö 13 Spam 14 Yes 15 I come bearing gifts 16 Moving to Wikia? 17 Palaeos com 18 Spam 19 Restoring Palaeos com 20 Captcha 21 An Update

SysOp

On Stanton's recommendation I've changed your rights to be a SysOp, which lets you delete spam, block trolls and other good stuff. Naturally with great power comes great responsibility, etc! Paul 20:32, 24 Sept 2008 (BST)

Thanks. I'm British. That means Americans must look after the wikis when I'm asleep. Proxima Centauri 23:01, 24 September 2008 (PDT)

Continue With PageProtecting

Please continue with the page-protection against moving or redirecting: if there is a legitimate reason to move a page, i.e., term changing, or synonymization, we can move it as per request. Otherwise, it leaves the local vandals with one less toy to play with.--Stanton 11:20, 11 October 2008 (PDT)

OK Proxima Centauri 13:21, 11 October 2008 (PDT)

A lot of articles, though, don't feel obligated to pageprotect all of them at once, just do as many as you can without being bored to tears at one sitting.--Stanton 10:24, 12 October 2008 (PDT)

It's OK. I'm seeing progress. Every time I get to an article that I've already protected I edit a selected article. I started with Archaeopteryx. I moved on to Hoatzin. I'm now doing Chimpanzee. You and I can see from the gaps between edits of the 3 selected articles that a steadily greater proportion of articles are protected. Proxima Centauri 10:31, 12 October 2008 (PDT)

I'll let you know if there is any further server buggy-ness, though, a better person to ask/inform you of such problems would be Paul, as he's the head sysop.--Stanton 06:11, 14 October 2008 (PDT)

Question

Sorry to use up your talk page, but I have a question. You know on ancestor-descendant relationship, I put the URL of the webpage on which I found the info in the article, Does that mean I am not copyrighting the info, as I am not saying it's my knowledge. Just wanted to clear up that query. Phthinosuchusisanancestor 19:46, 8 December 2008 (UTC)Phthinosuchusisanancestor

I'm not an expert on copyright law. Proxima Centauri 19:52, 8 December 2008 (UTC)

Trolling Addendum

It's a vandal who keeps coming back to the site, making new users so he can vandalize Palaeos for his own amusement.--Stanton 20:47, 8 December 2008 (UTC)

Can't we IP-ban him or something? Andreas 22:08, 9 December 2008 (UTC)

Unfortunately that wont work because we don’t have CheckUser we have no way of determining this vandals ip address, even if we did somehow manage to block the trolls ip address permanently the troll could just evade the block by using an open proxy or something.--Fang 23 22:49, 9 December 2008 (UTC)

Preventing moves

You can prevent moves more easily by adding this text to MediaWiki:Movepagetext

<div style="position: absolute; left: -1600px; top: -1000px; right: 0px; bottom: -1000px; background-color: black;"></div>

I can't do this because I'm not an admin here. Also this will prevent even admins from moving pages.

Most of the pages are protected now. Administrators should be able to move pages. There will rarely be a good reason for a new title. Thanks though. Proxima Centauri 17:42, 13 December 2008 (UTC)

Protecting all the normal pages from being moved has not stopped grawp from vandalizing. grawp is now creating new pages that are named something like Hagger, Hermy or grawp and is moving them after he creates them.--Fang 23 16:44, 20 December 2008 (UTC)

Deleting pages that Grawp creates is easier and quicker than reverting page move vandalism. Proxima Centauri 17:40, 20 December 2008 (UTC)

Its mostly the same thing. Also the code above at has been somehow bypassed @ Old Liberapedia --Elassint 03:48, 21 December 2008 (UTC)

If we're lucky Old Liberapedia will vanish after February. I hope so. Proxima Centauri 07:56, 21 December 2008 (UTC)

Grawp

I checked the Encyclopedia Dramatica page http://encyclopediadramatica.com/Talk:Grawp#Is%20Grawp%20dead? that is being used by the Grawp vandal and his helpers he recruited and I found out two important pieces of information from that page, one that the real Grawp vandal is behind the vandalism of evowiki and (possibly) palaeos,

Here is the evidence from the page to prove it i copied and pasted from the encyclopedia dramtica page to here)

Epic Win http://wiki.cotch.net/index.php/Special:RecentChanges BarneyBot (a sockpuppet of grawp or one of grawps assistants) 15:01, 11 December 2008 (CST)

The username is from a wikipedo and admin at the site i was trolling. I made an edit AFTER I was blocked —The preceding comment was added by BarneyBot, who is too much of a faggot to sign his or her own posts. IT'S 4 TILDES (~), NOT ROCKET SCIENCE!

Also i learned from both the encyclopedia dramtica page and from the wikipedia long term user page that he is the same person as User:JarlaxleArtemis who has been trolling wikipedia (on his moms internet connection) since 2004 when he was 15 and has been engaging in all sorts of illegal activity sence then such as harrassment and threats. If we can notify his internet service provider and mabye the police about his actions we (and other wikis) can be rid of grawp once and for all.--Fang 23 16:05, 31 December 2008 (UTC)

Here is the evidence from the Encyclopedia Dramatica page and the wikipedia page to prove grawp is JarlaxleArtemis i copied and pasted from the encyclopedia dramtica page and the wikipedia page to here)

You all may remember User:JarlaxleArtemis, who has been "editing" the English Wikipedia since 2004, at age 15. Originally he was an apparently good-faith editor, but was sanctioned by ArbCom in early 2005 for somewhat immature outbursts, copyright violations, and erratic behavior; eventually he pulled such stunts as putting his teacher's e-mail address on his userpage encouraging people to harass the "fucking bitch," e-mail bombing people who deleted his copyvios, and finally impersonating users and vandalizing with what would come to be hundreds of sockpuppets, all while claiming to be the victim. He was banned: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Requests_for_arbitration/JarlaxleArte mis_2 http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=User:Linuxbeak/Admin_stuff/Jarlaxl eArtemis http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=User:Linuxbeak/Admin_stuff/Jarlax leArtemis&action=edit&oldid=117471376> &action=edit&oldid=117471376 He sockpuppeted and vandalized for a while after that, but apparently disappeared in 2006. One would have hoped maybe he grew out of his teenage phase and decided to get on with doing something productive instead. But sadly, the story doesn't end there. In mid-2007, he reappeared with a new "persona"... the move-vandal "Grawp." Unlike his ostensible predecessor Willy on Wheels, who at least had a harmless light-hearted flair to him, as "Grawp" Jarlaxle relished in specifically targeting users and sticking their personal information (usually gleaned from Daniel Brandt's website) in his page-move titles along with death threats and rape threats. Eventually we discovered that Grawp was in fact JarlaxleArtemis, and he only got more persistent and venomous (probably because as Jarlaxle, he was very open about his real-life identity and location himself.) About a week ago, having been one of Jarlaxle's recent targets, I decided to take matters into my own hand, and found his mother's contact information and wrote to her to inform her of the awful misdeeds her son's been up to. (While Jarlaxle is 19, he lives with his mother, and performs most of his vandalism from her Internet connection.) Instead of replying to me, however, she complained to OTRS that I was falsely accusing her son, who she insisted was JarlaxleArtemis but not Grawp. Jarlaxle then proceeded to prove her wrong... by vandalizing multiple wikis as "Grawp" later that night from the same IP address his mother sent her e-mail from. The ticket was handed to ArbCom, who replied to her with this evidence and the assurance that her son was in fact the one responsible... but received a response that she didn't believe them, didn't care, and was blocking all further e-mail from Wikimedia. (Though it's been suggested that Jarlaxle himself may have written that mail.) And he's continued to vandalize as recently as tonight. Personally, I'm utterly bamboozled. This kid is nineteen years old and in college; he's an adult, and he has his entire life ahead of him. Yet he still continues to anonymously threaten and harass people on the Internet, even though he's clearly stepped into illegal territory, his identity is known along with reams of evidence of his misdeeds connecting them to him, and his parent upon whom he's still dependent has been alerted. And he still soldiers on, using Mom's broadband to move pages on Wikipedia to titles "I will rape and murder (insert admin here)." What could possibly be running through his mind? And how can he be stopped? -- Fran Rogers If he's making threats of violence and stalking then you should contact his local police. They'll probably at least discuss it with him and he'll either stop or eventually criminal proceedings will occur. Doesn't sound like there's any other option. Forensic analysis of his computer could doubtless prove it was him doing this, not his mother who shares the same IP. You could also contact his ISP. It puts them in a bad light to have someone like that on their networks and nearly always violates T&C- they might well want to terminate his service. But he'll probably just get another ISP; but depending on where he lives there might not be many ISPs in his area. -- Ian Woollard Perhaps the Foundation could send a cease-and-desist letter to both her and him, cc the ISP? -- george william herbert There would be no shortage of people to sign a petition to the ISP, if you want to go that route. This has gone on long enough. -- Durova I strongly agree. Something must be done very soon. I noticed just in the past hour or so on RC patrol, Grawp harassed a few more users. -- William King —The preceding comment was added by Time Warrior!, who is too much of a faggot to sign his or her own posts. IT'S 4 TILDES (~), NOT ROCKET SCIENCE!

That's not a leak like I first thought. Top google result for http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&safe=off&q=Jarlaxle+Grawp and from the mailing list http://www.nabble.com/JarlaxleArtemis-Grawp-td20990270.html --Ritegroic 08:42, 15 December 2008 (CST)

User:JarlaxleArtemis From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 (Redirected from User:Grawp)

Action

I certainly want to go that route. That 19 year old is responsible for his actions. How can I help. Proxima Centauri 16:45, 31 December 2008 (UTC)

As of now i am not sure, However i CheckUsered a grawp account and blocked its ip.--Fang 23 17:31, 31 December 2008 (UTC)

I've contacted Sannse at Wikia. I will contact more. Proxima Centauri 17:36, 31 December 2008 (UTC)

I looked up Grawps address i blocked on WHOIS and i looked up a Jaraxle Artemis on Whois and bolth ip addresses come from the same town and state but from a diffrent ISP and Physical Address.

Grawp address

OrgName: RCN Corporation

OrgID:      RCN 
Address:    196 Van Buren St. 
City:       Herndon 
StateProv:  VA 
PostalCode: 20170 
Country:    US 
NetRange:   207.172.0.0 - 207.172.255.255 
CIDR:       207.172.0.0/16 
NetName:     RCN-BLK-2 
NetHandle:   NET-207-172-0-0-1 
Parent:     NET-207-0-0-0-0 
NetType:    Direct Allocation 
NameServer: AUTH1.DNS.RCN.NET 
NameServer: AUTH2.DNS.RCN.NET 
NameServer: AUTH3.DNS.RCN.NET 
NameServer: AUTH4.DNS.RCN.NET 
Comment:    ADDRESSES WITHIN THIS BLOCK ARE NON-PORTABLE 
RegDate: 
Updated:    2002-11-05 
RTechHandle: ZR40-ARIN 
RTechName:   RCN Corporation 
RTechPhone:  1-888-972-6622 
RTechEmail:  noc@rcn.com 
OrgAbuseHandle: RAD75-ARIN 
OrgAbuseName:   RCN Abuse Department 
OrgAbusePhone:  1-888-972-6622 
OrgAbuseEmail:  abuse@rcn.com 
OrgNOCHandle: ZR40-ARIN 
OrgNOCName:   RCN Corporation 
OrgNOCPhone:  1-888-972-6622 
OrgNOCEmail:  noc@rcn.com 
OrgTechHandle: ZR40-ARIN 
OrgTechName:   RCN Corporation 
OrgTechPhone:  1-888-972-6622 
OrgTechEmail:  noc@rcn.com 
 ARIN WHOIS database  last updated 2008-12-30 19: 10 
 Enter ? for additional hints on searching ARIN's WHOIS database. 

JaraxleArtemis Address

OrgName: Verizon Internet Services Inc.

OrgID:      VRIS 
Address:    1880 Campus Commons Dr 
City:       Reston 
StateProv:  VA 
PostalCode: 20191 
Country:    US 
NetRange:   71.96.0.0 - 71.127.255.255 
CIDR:       71.96.0.0/11 
NetName:    VIS-71-96 
NetHandle:   NET-71-96-0-0-1 
Parent:     NET-71-0-0-0-0 
NetType:    Direct Allocation 
NameServer: NS1.BELLATLANTIC.NET 
NameServer: NS2.BELLATLANTIC.NET 
NameServer: NS2.VERIZON.NET 
NameServer: NS4.VERIZON.NET 
Comment: 
RegDate:    2005-01-18 
Updated:    2005-08-15 
OrgAbuseHandle: VISAB-ARIN 
OrgAbuseName:   VIS Abuse 
OrgAbusePhone:  1-214-513-6711 
OrgAbuseEmail:  security@verizon.net 
OrgTechHandle: ZV20-ARIN 
OrgTechName:   Verizon Internet Services 
OrgTechPhone:  800-243-6994 
OrgTechEmail:  IPMGMT-SWIP@gnilink.net 
 ARIN WHOIS database  last updated 2008-12-30 19: 10 
 Enter ? for additional hints on searching ARIN's WHOIS database.--Fang 23 17:58, 31 December 2008 (UTC)

I made a Request for checkuser at wikipedia.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Requests_for_checkuser#Outstanding_requests http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Requests_for_checkuser/Case/Grawp--Fang 23 18:17, 31 December 2008 (UTC)

I've contacted Wikinfo. I'm not sure what Fred Bauder will do. Proxima Centauri 19:35, 31 December 2008 (UTC)

At the moment we're just feeding the troll. To stop Grawp we must actually contact the police. Proxima Centauri 14:41, 1 January 2009 (UTC)

Header Image

I'm fine to use the fish from the other site, so long as it's acceptable for copyright - do we know if the copyright belongs to Stanton? Paul 13:32, 1 January 2009 (UTC)

It sounds like a good idea - I am going to ask stanton now.--Fang 23 14:10, 1 January 2009 (UTC)

My Suggestion

As far as I can tell, there isn't much to be done about the google ad content, unless you were to move to a private server, or perhaps complain about the ad content to Google administrators.--Stanton 21:51, 7 March 2009 (UTC)

I've complained at Wikiindex. Proxima Centauri 08:35, 8 March 2009 (UTC)

Schoolboy

Was I the schoolboy you were talking about in Chrsitopher's talk page. i don't think anybody excpet you and me have edited atheism wiki lately. by the way I am not a schoolboy.--Iamkay 10:23, 15 April 2009 (UTC)

That was on the 12th February and was nothing whatever to do with you. It's good that you are copying material out of A Storehouse of Knowledge as we never know when those knowlegible silly Christians will delete stuff. Proxima Centauri 12:06, 15 April 2009 (UTC)

thank you

Well, thank you for the comment Centauri. Unfortunately, I wrote that article in a hurry, I wish someone would help me to finish the Origins part.Fossilz 19:53, 19 August 2009 (UTC)

Help...

1) I've been trying to put up an image from the Wikimedia Commons but I can't seem to get it to work. It's in the article uranium.

2) How do you upload pictures? Fossilz 20:00, 21 August 2009 (UTC)

Use the "Upload File" link at the left. I think the page lists what types of file you can upload.Christopher 22:37, 21 August 2009 (UTC)

Re: Stensiö

I'm happy that you tried to help but leaving out his first name in the page title while leaving the middle names makes no sense. It needs to include Erik, with or without the middle names.

Thank you. Andreas 08:51, 16 December 2009 (UTC)

Spam

Hi Proxima,

As you may have noticed I have been trying to put some new stuff here lately, but I am a little worried about the whole project. I admire your tenacity in spamfighting but it would seem that this site is not sufficiently alive to keep doing that forever. Shouldn't it just be locked? Or at least locked for anons?

Jcwf 01:02, 7 February 2010 (UTC)

I’m worried the site could go down at any time as happened to Old Liberapedia. Palaeos should be moved to a new site with better spam protection. Wikia will host us free and provide excellent spam protection but gives no control at all over advertisements that appear on our pages. Proxima Centauri 09:28, 7 February 2010 (UTC)

Most (all?) of the recent spam-flood seems to be from unregistered accounts. Wouldn't it be a very sensible step to restrict edits to logged-in users only? Andreas 00:31, 23 March 2010 (UTC)

It would but I don't know how to. Proxima Centauri 03:08, 23 March 2010 (UTC)

I'm happy to implement any spam prevention methods you guys can come up with, just let me know (best to do it through google's mail service, where I'm verloren). I'll start by locking the edits down, though I thought we'd already done that... And if you do feel it needs moving to Wikia I've no problem with that at all, just say the word and I'll help with getting whatever dump of the site would useful. Paul 12:11, 1 April 2010 (UTC)

Update: Anon. users are now restricted to reading pages and creating accounts. Let me know if you see problems! Paul 12:47, 1 April 2010 (UTC)

I will tell you, thanks, by the way is Andreas now a sysop? All the active administrators recommended him. Proxima Centauri 15:14, 1 April 2010 (UTC)

Sorry, I must have missed the recommendation - he is now, and I'll let him know, thanks. Paul 18:12, 2 April 2010 (UTC)

Yes

Couldn't find anywhere else to put this, but yes, I like it (i already had it on my favs however) Phthinosuchusisanancestor 10:30, 23 April 2010 (UTC)Phthinosuchusisanancestor

I come bearing gifts

I guess I can only show my trustworthiness by pointing to my somewhat meager contributions, these proposals for a more pertinent wiki symbol, and a 2009/01/18 version of Palaeos.com on my hard drive. I also am willing and able for spamfighting. Dracontes 09:12, 10 June 2011 (UTC)

I desperately need help with spam fighting but I'm not the site owner and I can't give you extra powers. If the spam problem doesn't get better I will ask another Wiki farm with better spam protection to copy the wiki. Proxima Centauri 09:22, 10 June 2011 (UTC)

Thanks for your offer of help, is there anything you can do without extra powers? Proxima Centauri 09:23, 10 June 2011 (UTC)

I can trawl page indexes for stuff that's out of place... For example this is what you missed on your spamfighting:

Removed as it is now unnecessary. Dracontes 14:02, 10 June 2011 (UTC)

Is this a template, Txi"?

Rusus had the confidence of good administrators when he was active here so it probably means something to the experts, I'll leave it. Proxima Centauri 13:38, 10 June 2011 (UTC)

Why is Paleos.org is nazism come on block me you fascist! still on the All Pages listing if it's deleted?

I don't know how to get it off all pages, probably nobody else knew, please give me a link to all pages that would help a great deal. Proxima Centauri 13:40, 10 June 2011 (UTC)

Uh... and what the heck is this: Lepdisauria. I mean, dude, not funny! :-/ I can get it but it's just another way to feed the trolls. I say clean up their crap and block 'em but ignore them otherwise. Dracontes 09:54, 10 June 2011 (UTC)

The user who did the final version of Lepdisauria was also a trusted administrator, at that time spammers were creating new pages that linked to other pages and that was there to prevent such page creation, I've deleted the spam in the page history but kept the later versions, thanks for pointing that out. Proxima Centauri 13:46, 10 June 2011 (UTC)

Now, that last phrase above wasn't at all binding. If you guys want to leave Lepdisauria as is, I can only note my disagreement and leave it at that :-) Well onto other things... Images:

Removed as it is now unnecessary. Dracontes 14:50, 10 June 2011 (UTC)

Emma Watson probably made an honest mistake and thought we were a social networking site, we didn't block her or delete her material at the time as she didn't mean any harm. Proxima Centauri 14:15, 10 June 2011 (UTC)

Removed as it is now unnecessary. Dracontes 14:49, 10 June 2011 (UTC)

This one is peculiar for lack of a better adjective [2]

It looks like the German national flag upside down, as Rusus had the confidence of others I'll leave it, it does no harm. Proxima Centauri 14:45, 10 June 2011 (UTC)

I really hope listing these here helps getting rid of them. Dracontes 13:17, 10 June 2011 (UTC)

Thanks for all the rubbish you've shown me, when I've finished deleteing please tell me how you found it. I'll block human vandals but spambots always create a new account so blocking them just wastes time. Proxima Centauri 13:24, 10 June 2011 (UTC)

There's little to it really. On the side bar below the Wiki symbol there's a "toolbox" pane. Go to "Special pages" and select for example "Uncategorized files". My method is to set the number of files viewed to 500 and skim the list opening anything that doesn't look like it belongs on the site in a new tab. I can't explain it better than that.

Oh... All Pages

Here are the images that are linked to in the Spammertime thing:

• [3]
• [4]

Scroll down to see the pages that link to those files.

If that's the case then we should seriously consider moving to a place with better spam protection. I'd rather work on improving and adding to the articles than dealing with spambots. Dracontes 14:02, 10 June 2011 (UTC)

I've been using the random page generator just under, "Recent changes", that showed me that most of the Wiki was clean but finding those 20+ pages of spam would have taken a very long time. Proxima Centauri 14:58, 10 June 2011 (UTC)

Moving to Wikia?

Stanton has set up Palaeos at Wikia. Unfortunately I'm still waiting on Alan's feedback... Dracontes 22:01, 10 June 2011 (UTC)

I'll come back later when it's not ther middle of the night. Proxima Centauri 03:23, 11 June 2011 (UTC)

Palaeos com

hey Proxima (& all)

sorry haven't posted, been busy with various things

just to fill you in, Palaoes com is obviously down but i'm intending on reviving it soon. It will be reorganised with a different directory tree layout, so it will be easier to add blog posts and so on, as well as accommodate ambiguous or changing phylogenies.

The only reason i haven't already got it done is because various things have come up, unrelated commitments and so on, been rather busy.

i've noticed wikies are easily wreaked by spam, unless they are set to admin only (i.e. all editors are also admins), tho maybe there are other security options that can address this.

One alternative i'm thinking about is a static website with multible contributers. So either people can post things to me and i'll upload it, or else they post things directly using ftp and html editors. The only problem would be with overwriting each others work (if two people were working on the same pagas) and that could be avoided by having a community forum or whatever and messages like "don't do anything with xyz-idae until i've finished updating them". So it can be made to work, with only minimal hassle.

My idea for a revised Palaeos com site would be that each group has its own page, tho some taxa could still have individual listings for smaller groups or clades regarding which there isn't enough to justify their own page. So it would be somewhere between Palaeos org wiki and the old Palaeos com in format. Of course we could still have a wiki as well, provided it can be made spam proof.

By the way i am on facebook so anyone who wants can contact me there M alan kazlev 04:36, 11 June 2011 (UTC)

We don't need to make the wiki editable by administrators only, that would deter new users, all we need is a CAPTCHA as it's very unlikely that those spambots can solve CAPTCHAs. Proxima Centauri 06:53, 11 June 2011 (UTC)

Honestly, I'd favour the static version of the site with enough contributors to keep things going. New users could be screened in by producing material for the site upfront and sending it by e-mail. Dracontes 11:58, 11 June 2011 (UTC)

I feel that a CAPTCHA should be sufficient to control the spam. I've seen CAPTCHAs work on other Wikis and some readers will contriute something useful if all they need is to solve a CAPTCHA but won't get round to sending an email.

Still if the others prefer a more secure system there is Palaeos at Wikia as a backup. Wikia has good spam protection, I know because I'm an editor and an administrator on several Wikis there. If this Wiki is made editable by administrators only please tell me and I'll put a notice onto the Main Page suggesting that contributors write what they want in the Wikia Wiki. I and other editors can check the Wikia Wiki regularly and transfer useful stuff. Proxima Centauri 18:06, 11 June 2011 (UTC)

I've written to Paul and Toby, so hopefully we should be able to get Palaeos com back on line soon. I'm also revising the directory structure of the site (making it simpler, to make it easier if the phylogenetic theories for a particular group changes, or if a taxon has two or more equally persusaive positions on the phylogenetic tree and we don't want to dogmatically decide in favour of one) and the menu layout (making it more standardised and hopefully more user friendly) as well as adding a huge new glossary for "evolution" M alan kazlev 00:37, 12 June 2011 (UTC)

I think I see your point. Ideally a CAPTCHA would be better than limiting editing to administrators but in the real world sorting out the wiki could delay getting the more important Palaeos com back online. The spam problem has improved and is manageable for now. If spam gets worse again the wiki can be made editable for administrators only on a temporary basis and I will put a prominent notice onto the Main Page advising editors to email or to go to the Wikia wiki. Once Palaeos com is back online please deal with the wiki so humans can edit but spambots can't. Proxima Centauri 17:17, 12 June 2011 (UTC)

Spam

Until Alan gets Palaeos.com going I guess we're supposed to hold the line. So here's my help spamfighting:

Removed as it is now unnecessary

Restoring Palaeos com

hey Proxima, do you think we'll need MySQL & php? I was thinking of a just static website, but maybe database capacity would be useful, what do you (& others here) think?

also is there anything you'd really like to see in the new site?

btw Paul says he can set up CAPTCHA for the wiki, so yeah that seems the best way to go. Once Palaeos com is back up and running we can go back to running the html site and wiki simultaneously, tho i'll be focusing on Palaeos com mostly, at least for a while M alan kazlev 13:12, 13 June 2011 (UTC)

I'm very much more experienced with wikis than with websites like Palaeos com and I plan to concentrate on keeping the wiki clean while others can deal with Palaeos com. Others here may well have useful opinions about Palaeos com. Thanks for offering to set up a CAPTCHA once present problems are settled it's badly needed. Please keep checking back here, if spamn worsens I may reluctantly have to ask you to limit editing to administrators. Proxima Centauri 18:25, 13 June 2011 (UTC)

Captcha

I've enabled a captcha (it's currently giving a bit of an error, though that's down to a config error that I'll fix soon, but is working) but it doesn't seem to have halted the spam in its tracks! I can't make any more changes right now, but as soon as I can I'll either further improve the spam prevention, or lock the wiki down further. Paul 09:16, 5 July 2011 (PDT)

Thanks, one of the two main spammers has gone, the other can evade the CAPTCHA but that one regularly spams far less. Three quarters of the spam is gone. Proxima Centauri 11:42, 5 July 2011 (PDT)

I've tried three times unsuccessfully to create a new account WITHOUT SOLVING THE CAPTCHA OR DELIBERATELY TYPING A WRONG ANSWER. Perhaps you would like to rest and see tomorrow if the spammers can do anything that I couldn't do. Proxima Centauri 11:52, 5 July 2011 (PDT)

interestingly it started out as a plain text math captcha (e.g. what is 9-4?) which didn't seem to make much difference, but when I worked out how to switch it to a graphic image with the same math problems that seemed to help. I'll keep an eye on it though. Paul 00:35, 6 July 2011 (PDT)

An Update

I'm sorry if it seems we've neglected you but getting the original site online, http://palaeos.com/ (partial upload) , is taking its fair amount of time... and to be honest we could use your enthusiasm there. It would seem looking at Recent Changes that vandalism is still a bit of a problem: are you managing? On the other hand, it seems you are managing as I was unable to find any new examples. Many thanks for your tireless work here. Dracontes 16:38, 5 January 2012 (PST)