[WikiEN-l] Rambot the User_talk: Spambot

Wed Dec 15 23:27:23 UTC 2004

I wasn't particularly bothered by this, but then considering the amount 
of spam that I receive it's hard to get upset over a single item that 
may at least be marginally relevant to what interests me.

I read the proposal, thought it was fair and reasonable, but did nothing 
since I found the implications unclear.

Ec

Fennec Foxen wrote:

>Hello. I'd just like to draw attention to
>   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_talk:Ram-Man#Spambot
>a discussion about whether Ram-Man should be permitted to use rambot
>to send unsolicited bulk messages (soliciting participation in a
>"dual-licensing drive") to thousands of user-talk pages. The bot is
>currently blocked indefinitely, pending the resolution of this issue.
>
>Ram-Man seems to believe that an implicit community consens exists and
>approves of his use of the bot in this fashion. Currently, he claims
>to have "over 70% support" of users who responded to the message,
>although I believe this figure to be skewed by the "users who
>responded" part. I therefore would appreciate it if otherwise
>uninterested individuals provide Ram-Man with a more concrete measure
>of the level of community support which exists regarding this message.
>
>Others have expressed concerns regarding the precedent which this sets
>for distribution of unsolicited user-talk messages, and suggest that a
>more concrete policy be formed to deal with this form of userpage
>spam.
>