[OpenStreetMap] #4664: Stop new users from posting spam on their userpages

[OpenStreetMap]

#4664: Stop new users from posting spam on their userpages
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  Reporter:  RM87     |      Owner:  rails-dev@…
      Type:  task     |     Status:  reopened
  Priority:  major    |  Milestone:
 Component:  website  |    Version:
Resolution:           |   Keywords:
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Changes (by RM87):

 * status:  closed => reopened
 * resolution:  wontfix =>


Comment:

 I know very well that it is easier to ignore the problem than to deal with
 it.

 Assuming that most of the users about who api returns an empty page are
 users that these "extensive protections" have caught. In that case these
 measures only catch less than halve of spam users. See the last lines of:
 http://web.zone.ee/rmihkel87/ustats.html

 I doubt that these spammers are beginners and that their intention is to
 directly feed these links to humans. Rather they play on the fact that
 google and other serch engines rise the rating of their selected page if
 search engine bots find a link to it.

 Looking at the usernames of current spammers that escape current measures,
 we can see that these are made of 2 english words and 1-3 numbers. Either
 99% of current spammers have made an alliance to use same schema for
 usernames or there is just one bot.

 And sorry for being a little bit harch.

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Ticket URL: <https://trac.openstreetmap.org/ticket/4664#comment:2>
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