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Wiki Vandal
    Keywords: SL description

Wiki vandal (n., singular) A person of minimal intelligence who delights in defacing or maliciously deleting Wiki pages. This wretched creature longs to feel powerful and important, but lacks the ideas and patience to make original contributions to the discourse, and also lacks the courage even to try. Attempting to compensate for these deficiencies by attacking the work of others, the Wiki Vandal is doubly pathetic because they do not appear to realise that the work is easily restored, and that they can be traced, blocked and reported to their ISP. Vandalise if you will, but you will only make a fool of yourself.

Quote from a dictionary
vandal: a person who, out of malice or ignorance, destroys or spoils any public or private property, esp. that which is beautiful or artistic.

Some notes

Don't add people to the list below unless you are sure they are vandals. Maybe someone was just removing junk from a page, or doing a wiki masteredit. Also please consider that often vandals just want the attention. Don't give it to them.

Librarians and admins can block IP adresses. These blocks are only temporary, as users using dial-up lines have a different IP address every time they dial in and connect. Blocking IP addresses is a good countermeassure to stop vandalism in progress.

Permanent blocks would only be possible by requiring username/password for everyone. However, this is against the wiki spirit and raises the bar for contributing. For example, dnerra reported that the number of contributions to the [ext] German Go federation's discussion forum was reduced by "95 percent or so".

Furthermore, the more users SL has, the smaller the burden on individuals to restore any pages. One vandal against 100+ sensible users is not a fair contest, really. Also, some wiki theorists normally say that the slightly dull, encyclopedia-like quality of a developed wiki is a defence :-)

(Currently) Wiki Vandals are not a real problem. There are many more people interested in improving the site rather than destroying it. Many more eyes and hands to fix to the damage than to create the damage. The pages are archived and can be revived. There is no motivation to persistently vandalize the site: the vandals are anonymous; there is no monetary incentive to vandalize; the damage keeps getting fixed. Wiki's are the only case I know of where [ext] the Tragedy of the Commons does not apply. This is due to the lack of monetary incentive. So, the vandals will tire and go away. They will look for a place that provides them greater emotional payoff for their efforts. We have a community here that the vandals can not take from us. The can not join us unless they stop being vandals. We only need to continue our activities as we do today to win against the vandals every time.

(WME of comments by Morten, Arno, Stefan, Zarlan, Tamsin, Charles, wms, dnerra, Hu, Sebastian, Velobici)


Vandal IP list

Most recent first (pages purposely not linked):

  • 80.144.242.92 / 80.144.242.94 : Wiki apprentice edit / SL Statistics
  • 211.30.218.159 HikaruNoGo
  • 65.41.234.115: user115.net813.nc.sprint-hsd.net (North Carolina)
  • 217.227.84.95 : pD9E3545F.dip.t-dialin.net FrontPage again
  • 212.195.80.100: f13m-5-100.d1.club-internet.fr: FrontPage
  • 160.79.136.50: GuoJuan, YourMom, AtomicBombGame
  • 80.28.104.69: 80-28-104-69.adsl.nuria.telefonica-data.net: DistanceFromFrontPage repeatedly vandalized. Probably same person who hit the front page also from telefonica-net.
  • 63.227.210.134: 63-227-210-134.ptld.qwest.net: FrontPage
  • 200.204.75.151: 200-204-75-151.dsl.telesp.net.br, FrontPage, probably same as two previous.
  • 152.163.252.131: cache-rg03.proxy.aol.com OldMottos
  • 200.101.127.77: FrontPage from Brazil
  • 200.97.213.216: FrontPage from Brazil
  • 217.184.227.196: wutf-d9b8e3c4.pool.mediaways.net: LaoTse
  • 203.118.169.218: 203-118-169-218.adsl.ihug.co.nz: FrontPage
  • 80.28.117.44: telefonica-net, Madrid, Spain: FrontPage
  • 216.61.101.251: 216-61-101-251.saisd.net (San Antonio Independent School District): defaced WikiEtiquette, SandBox, and created a page called !SEXConventions
  • 213.42.2.12: defaced CoffeeMachine and canceled WikiEtiquette
  • joniboy999: StartingPoints
  • 218.69.178.7: home page props changed
  • 148.243.192.254: Weiqi was modified.
  • 216.11.121.21: bess-proxy.rosd.k12.mi.us: FrontPage and others. Repeat offender, 20031005, 20031015.
  • 165.196.153.113: Los Rios Community College, Sacramento: FrontPage
  • 80.238.48.231: trn-dhcp-48-231.urbanet.ch: WikiWikiWeb
  • 24.62.166.60: h00c002ce10a1.ne.client2.attbi.com: HikaruNoGoManga
  • 68.146.71.23: h68-146-71-23.cg.shawcable.net; signed invidious
  • 209.239.31.110: ppp110.f1.56k.execulink.com; RankGupKoreanExplained
  • 66.112.95.245: p1-66-112-95-245-rt-bras.pell.centurytel.net WhyDontWeOpenAtTengen
  • 12.228.141.176: 12-228-141-176.client.attbi.com: messed up SenseiSLibrary, HikaruNoGo, CoffeeMachine!, RecentChanges! etc.
  • 80.14.207.127: ABordeaux-103-1-23-217.w80-14.abo.wanadoo.fr, Destroyed the frontpage, Nickname Chatouille, same "chatouille" of KGS.
  • 12.235.55.49: 12-235-55-49.client.attbi.com deleted the sandbox around the same time as 12.228.141.176 was active.
  • 66.13.203.194.in-addr.arpa: Naruto erased WikiWikiWeb and defaced a home page.
  • 213.67.171.45: h45n2fls34o884.telia.com
  • 80.50.231.59: vd59.neoplus.adsl.tpnet.pl
  • 212.44.43.20: complaints to abuse@dialnet.co.uk to complain.
  • 62.166.36.112: dslam112-36-166-62.adsl.zonnet.nl
  • 202.155.107.242: APNIC IP, somewhere in Pacific Asia
  • 129.188.33.222: wwwgate2.motorola.com
  • cableone.net user apologized in Sandbox. Removed IP address since there were no recurrences.
  • 24.175.248.144: cpe-24-175-248-144.gt.rr.com
  • 68.166.203.253: h-68-166-203-253.DLLATX.covad.net (see CastleGames)
  • 212.85.18.61:
  • 80.126.6.236: a80-126-6-236.adsl.xs4all.nl
  • 67.11.146.135: cs6711146-135.satx.rr.com
  • 68.120.129.255: adsl-68-120-129-255.dsl.snfc21.pacbell.net: see NonJosekiExercise5Solution
  • 198.26.125.13: wcs2-scott.nipr.mil US Military!
  • 193.0.96.15: fw-gw-atm.mimuw.edu.pl
  • 203.170.132.181, Parker: dial-181.ras-9.bkk.c.cscoms.com
  • 64.168.21.1: adsl-64-168-21-1.dsl.snfc21.pacbell.net
  • 148.78.247.10: cf2.mrt.starband.net
  • 202.56.138.198: APNIC block

Note: IP's change if the user logs in on a dynamic IP, as most big ISPs provide, but patterns may emerge. For example, 68.120.128.31 and 64.168.21.1 may be the same vandal. ISPs can be contacted to get them (possibly) to check their logs and to notify the user to stop defacing pages. After repeated notifications, they will cancel the account.


Nico: What kind of behaviour should people adopt when such defacement attempts appear?

  • Alert people currently present
  • Wait for librarian to revive pages
  • Revive oneself the last page ASAP when available

Arno: If you are the first one after a defacement, then you can revive the page (you need to set "deshi" status as your wiki experience in UserPreferences). If you are a "deshi" then click on edit-page and you will see a link below the text-area called "Revive previously archived version" Click there and you should get the original page. If this doesn't work (too many versions saved meanwhile) then only librarians or admins can revive the page (through the info&history page).


HolIgor: There is one point. Several times when I pressed save button all context of the page disappeared. It happened only with Netscape on my UNIX box, never with IE under Windows or Netscape under Linux. I restored the page immediately, but not everybody knows how. I think that is the bug of the browser that fails to send the text to the server at the moment when old record has been deleted.


Anonymous: Don't count the filter at "lewiston.k12.id.us" This is a school server, and I am not responsible for 900 students.

(Sebastian:) This is an interesting point to discuss: So who is responsible? Can students just do what they want? Should someone who is responsible for a server be able to reveal the name of someone who misuses it?

ariel: I think it would be fair to say that whilst school teachers and administrations should try their best to stop their students misusing the internet, the schools should not have to bear 100% of the responsibility. Things like this (and perhaps things in general) only work if everyone is given at least a little responsibility.....



This is a copy of the living page "Wiki Vandal" at Sensei's Library.
(OC) 2004 the Authors, published under the OpenContent License V1.0.