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Zook

 

Wiki Vandal
   

A person of minimal intelligence who delights in defacing or maliciously deleting Wiki pages. This wretched creature wishes 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. He or she tries to compensate for these deficiences by attempting to spoil the work of others, underlining their pitifulness by not appearing to realise that the work can be easily retrieved and restored.

His or her IP address can be traced and blocked.

It takes no courage or intelligence to deface an open public Wiki Wiki Web site.


Vandal IP list, most recent first:

  • 207.45.248.22: parwch04-up1.sgib.com (see below)
  • 68.166.203.253: h-68-166-203-253.DLLATX.covad.net (see castle games)
  • 212.85.18.61:
  • 80.126.6.236: a80-126-6-236.adsl.xs4all.nl
  • 67.11.146.135: cs6711146-135.satx.rr.com
  • 68.120.128.31: adsl-68-120-128-31.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. The US military might be interested in their vandal as one of their own, or a hacker launching from that IP. Call it that to get the ISP's attention. It doesn't matter if it sounds like hacking but is only a wiki, it is still defacing pages. After repeated notifications (sometimes after the first), they will cancel the account.


Regarding 207.45.248.22: June 18, around 13.00 GMT, backed off after changing FrontPage and Go, restored by tsjanl. I don't think that was a vandal really. Zook.

The vandal responded in the sandbox:

Sorry tsjanl !! If you read this message I appologize for the modifications i made on pages Go and Frontpage!! It was just a test to see what kind of measures you apply if someone do anything here (i found nothing about that on the site)!!! That's a great site !! You were right 207.45.248.22 is absolutly not a vandal !! I'm looking forward to subscrite to this site then i won't be anonymous anymore !

We can hope the vandal has learned a lesson, even though we see the illogical vandal saying they vandalized the first page to see how SL responds to vandals so therefore it isn't vandalism.

tsjanl: I reacted when he changed the goban on the Go-page. Maybe I should react a bit less direct next time.

Hu: I can find no fault with your approach, tsanjl. You quickly reversed the defacement, you alerted the vigilant monitors via this page, and you clearly have thought about it. I think 207.45.248.22 was a vandal but has learned a lesson, thanks to your swift reaction.

207.45.248.22 : Sorry to bother you, i told i wasn't a vandal ! I asked a legetimate question on the Frontpage. I was so surprise to find a site that every one can modify all the contents ! I asked wether if was dangerous or not. It wasn't vandalism. The only trick i did was to add some star points on the GO page ;-). It was my first time here ! So i'm absolutly not a vandal ! Thanks to you tsjanl I won't be upset anymore about the content here ! Thanks for your job ! I subscribed to this site ! I'm not anonymous anymore: my name is egao ! I'm very pleased to discover this site !!! (excuse my english ...)

Confused: Egao, it really doesn't matter whether it was vandalism or a simple misunderstanding. The damage has been undone, you understand now how this Wiki works. In my experience, people here get judged by their current behaviour, not by their sins in the past. So the best course of action is to go and enjoy the site, contribute where you think you have a worthwhile contribution and let the past rest.


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

Charles The FrontPage has been revived, and I expect the admins will block Mr. or Ms 193.0.96.15 shortly. The main thing is to use this page to flag the attack.

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).

I blocked the IP address now (for 12 hours). Charles, librarians can block IP addresses as well. See the librarian and admin page.


As a regular visitor of KGS, I have noticed an increase in references to SL. That in itself is a joyful thing. As a side-effect, people start making kibbitzes like "[ext] http://senseis.xmp.net/?ShutYourMouthMoron". Recent wiki vandalisms and poor attempts to be funny may find their origin there. --Dieter


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.



This is a copy of the living page "Wiki Vandal" at Sensei's Library.
(OC) 2003 the Authors, published under the OpenContent License V1.0.