Wikipedia:Spam
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This page is a guideline on Wikipedia. Many editors agree with acting this way. It is a good idea to follow it, but it is not policy. Feel free to change the page as needed, but please use the talk page to suggest any major changes. |
[edit] Spam:About
There are two basic types of wikispam: advertisements disguised as articles and robot-made external link spamming. Articles that are advertisements include those that are selling stuff for a business, product or service, or are public relations pieces designed to make a better company or individual. Wikispam articles are usually marked for deletion. However, a difference should be made between spam articles and good, information- filled articles about commercial businesses, websites, or anything like that.
[edit] Advertisements disguised as articles
Obvious examples of advertising masquerading (disguised) as articles can be speedily deleted by putting on the articles {{d|spam}}. Other advertisements posted on Wikipedia can be dealt with by either Prod-ing or listing them on Wikipedia:Articles for deletion. Sometimes, the content can be removed just for a little while if there's a suspected copyvio, since the text is often copied from another website and posted.
When an article on an otherwise good for an encyclopedia topic has the tone of an advertisement, the article can often be saved by rewriting it in a neutral point of view.
[edit] External link spamming
A few groups now appear to have a spambot capable of spamming wikis from several different wiki engines. They know of a few hundred wikis. Typically, they insert external links. Like blog spam, their aim is to improve their search engine rankings, not to directly advertise their product. It can still be a nuisance (bother).
If you see a bot putting in external links, please consider checking the other language wikis to see if the attack is widespread. If it is, please tell a sysop on the meta-wiki; they can put in a Wikimedia-wide text filter. Any meta sysop can edit the Wikimedia-wide spam blacklist to add or remove the words that are recognized by the filter, with the changes taking effect immediately. New links can also be added to the list if a new spammer should start making them.
Sysops are allowed and should to block uninvited on sight. Spam bots should be treated the same as vandalbots. Edits by spambots constitute unauthorised defacement of websites, which is against the law in many countries, and may result in complaints to ISPs and (ultimately) prosecution.
