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Author Topic: **WIKI VANDALISM**  (Read 39874 times)
huyoucallinghu
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« Reply #15 on: December 05, 2007, 03:08:07 PM »

Reston is simply the place where all AOL IP addresses reside. So if the IP address comes from Reston, they could, literally, be anywhere in the country.
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kurejara
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« Reply #16 on: December 05, 2007, 04:06:52 PM »

If you notified AOL about a problem coming from one IP address, could they do anything?

-k
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"Break any of these rules sooner than say anything outright barbarous."
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huyoucallinghu
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« Reply #17 on: December 05, 2007, 04:28:35 PM »

Ours actually isn't a Reston address, but it does seem to be a proxy since it keeps skipping around.

I don't think there is anything we can do about it, except keep fixing the wiki and hope they get bored.

Fools abound.
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zhimbo
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« Reply #18 on: December 05, 2007, 05:52:58 PM »

Reston is simply the place where all AOL IP addresses reside.

That explains a lot.
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dr_stones
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« Reply #19 on: December 05, 2007, 06:11:44 PM »

This did happen last year.  The solution was to repeatedly go back in the history and load the most recent page before any vandalism.


That is one solution....but what a pain.  The wiki could be so useful.  Too bad some have proved over and over that they are unable to cope with having job-search stress and anonymity at the same time.  Of course I think that in this electronic age a department could have an official job search web site for people to check.  The chair could just update it as the search progressed--"Invitations for campus interviews extended 12/5."  Seeing that timely email is beyond most committees, I don't see this happening anytime soon.

Here's the problem with your solution:

The Chair and the Search committee do not exist to serve the job candidates.

They are there to serve their institution.

There is no percentage in running an update page for an audience of people you have no intention of hiring.
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"History does not repeat itself, but it does rhyme." Samuel "Steroid Free" Clemens
wantingasmartmoniker
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« Reply #20 on: December 05, 2007, 08:03:45 PM »

Woah, I just looked and the wiki is all screwed up! I get a 'page not found' error. I know that obsessively checking the wiki is the path that leads to darkness, but still...
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chomp96
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« Reply #21 on: December 09, 2007, 04:38:44 PM »

This IP address seems to be consistently deleting my field - 71.124.2.59

Even though there isn't a ton of activity in my subject, it's still annoying.
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msparticularity
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« Reply #22 on: December 09, 2007, 04:57:38 PM »

Woah, I just looked and the wiki is all screwed up! I get a 'page not found' error. I know that obsessively checking the wiki is the path that leads to darkness, but still...

Yeah, me too. My field has minimal participation (I'm thinking me and one or two others) but we were at least sharing some info. And now it's gone...again.
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"Once admit that the sole verifiable or fruitful object of knowledge is the particular set of changes that generate the object of study...and no intelligible question can be asked about what, by assumption, lies outside." John Dewey

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kurejara
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« Reply #23 on: December 09, 2007, 05:47:30 PM »

This IP address seems to be consistently deleting my field - 71.124.2.59

Even though there isn't a ton of activity in my subject, it's still annoying.

report problem to abuse@verizon.net and/or security@verizon.net
« Last Edit: December 09, 2007, 05:47:55 PM by kurejara » Logged

"Break any of these rules sooner than say anything outright barbarous."
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a_fuzzy_lurker
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« Reply #24 on: December 14, 2007, 09:35:35 AM »

This problem has been persistent enough that I contacted a friend of mine who is a chief technology officer for a university and asked him how he would approach the situation.

His suggestion was succinct:
Have whoever owns the wiki (presumably not wikihost, who have no claims on content and are in any case based in Germany) fill out a police report.  For something like this, I might even guess that said police would be the FBI.  Law enforcement can then contact Verizon, who is more likely to sit up and take notice for the FBI than they are for a bunch of disgruntled academic job-seekers.
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nailman
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« Reply #25 on: December 14, 2007, 11:03:24 AM »

Another solution is just to switch to a more sophisticated wiki software that easily allows people to revert changes. Then vandalism becomes futile because anyone can easily undo what the vandal does. This is why sites like Wikipedia work: As soon as someone vandalizes a page, someone else undoes it.

I've started another Academic Job Search wiki at http://scratchpad.wikia.com/wiki/AcademicJobSearch. I believe the software there will easily allow edits to be reverted and so should be less susceptible to vandalism. Some of the data has already been migrated from the old wiki.
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huyoucallinghu
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« Reply #26 on: December 14, 2007, 06:48:13 PM »

Another solution is just to switch to a more sophisticated wiki software that easily allows people to revert changes. Then vandalism becomes futile because anyone can easily undo what the vandal does. This is why sites like Wikipedia work: As soon as someone vandalizes a page, someone else undoes it.

I've started another Academic Job Search wiki at http://scratchpad.wikia.com/wiki/AcademicJobSearch. I believe the software there will easily allow edits to be reverted and so should be less susceptible to vandalism. Some of the data has already been migrated from the old wiki.

I'm not sure I understand the difference between the new site and the old, Nailman. We've kept ours going, no problem, except for doing reverts whenever the idiot strikes. We haven't lost anything; info, formatting, nothing. Why was it necessary to move it to the wikia site? It seems like you lost more than you gained in the move. Plus, now that the main page is gone, all the different fields are insulated. We've had no malicious edits since the migration. Interesting.
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msparticularity
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« Reply #27 on: December 14, 2007, 06:57:31 PM »

I'm now getting a "CGI Overrun" error just before a timeout when I try to link to our page on the old wiki.
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"Once admit that the sole verifiable or fruitful object of knowledge is the particular set of changes that generate the object of study...and no intelligible question can be asked about what, by assumption, lies outside." John Dewey

"Be particular." Jill Conner Browne
althea
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« Reply #28 on: December 14, 2007, 08:46:32 PM »

I find the new Wiki to be awkward.
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a_fuzzy_lurker
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« Reply #29 on: December 14, 2007, 10:14:09 PM »

The new wiki is currently awkward, but with a little work it may be more usable than the old.  My experience so far is that it's much, much quicker to edit and update than the old wiki, which is very helpful.

Navigation still needs improvement, though in some places backlinks have now been inserted, which eliminates the "every field is insulated from the others" feeling.  And people seem to be still working on the formatting and navigation issues.

I'd say give it a couple of days to get the ship righted and bailed out before you judge the new wiki. 
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