Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2007-05-07/SPV
 |
|---|
|
| ||
| Volume 3, Issue 19 | 7 May 2007 |
About the Signpost |
|
| ||
| (← Prev) | 2007 archives | (Next →) |
|
| ||
|
| |
| Home | Archives | Newsroom | Tip Line | Shortcut : WP:POST/A |
|
| |
Four administrator accounts desysopped after hijacking, vandalism
On 7 May, 2007, four administrator accounts were desysopped as an emergency response after committing acts of vandalism including deleting the Main Page and blocking several other administrator accounts. The incident highlighted the need for improved individual and site-wide password security.
The four users, AndyZ, Jiang, Conscious, and Marine 69-71, used weak passwords that were cracked by an unknown person. Since the incidents, two admins (AndyZ, Marine 69-71) were resysopped after their identities were confirmed.
Incident reports
- AndyZ
Admin
Checkuser evidence on the attacker, meanwhile, revealed that the deletion of the main page was done through an open proxy but that a block of Ryulong was made from an IP address used by BuickCenturyDriver (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · logs · filter log · block user · block log). As a result, BuickCenturyDriver was also indefinitely blocked. While it is possible that BuickCenturyDriver is the culprit behind the main page vandalism, it is also possible that he saw AndyZ's password exposed in the deletion log and decided to play a prank. BuickCenturyDriver has asked to be unblocked, and discussions are ongoing.
- Jiang
Admin Jiang (talk · contribs · blocks · protections · deletions · page moves · rights · RfA) was indefinitely blocked and desysopped after deleting the main page and blocking Jimbo Wales. Jiang admitted on his user talk page that his password was "fuckyou", which is the 7th most commonly used password. Mark unblocked Jiang after Jiang e-mailed him from his registered e-mail address, and after a checkuser established that the vandal edits were made from an open proxy, but that Jiang's subsequent edits were made from his long-time IP address.
- Conscious
Admin
- Marine 69-71
Administrator
- Eagle 101
A fifth administrator,
Responses
Robdurbar?
Immediately following the incidents, some users questioned whether the attacks were related to
Regaining Adminship
Normally, the decision of whether to restore adminship is left to the discretion of the
Other editors have expressed the feeling that administrators who compromised Wikipedia's security through a weak password may have lost the community's trust and should have to re-apply for adminship through
At the present time, only Marine 69-71 has been restored to administrator status.
Password Security
Several editors have called for increased password security. Although administrator accounts make an attractive target for vandals, any account with a
A new proposed policy,
Lead developer
Several additional security measures have been added to the MediaWiki software or will be added in the near future:
- Additional logging to better detect dictionary-style attacks
- After a failed login attempt, MediaWiki now requires the user to validate a captchaimage on the second attempt, to limit the ability of automated password cracking software to make multiple login attempts.
- Several targeted blocks against known cracking attempts.
- More automated password-strength checking at login / set-password / change-password time to reduce the danger of guessable passwords. [2]
See also
- meta:Don't leave your fly open
- Wikipedia talk:Administrators#Security
- Wikipedia:Former administrators
- Template:User committed identity
Digg revolt over DVD key spills over to Wikipedia
A number of Wikipedia articles got caught up in events elsewhere on the internet this past week, including an unusual form of spam that prompted developer intervention. This came about as the byproduct of a revolt on a popular
Background
The incident highlights some of the controversial provisions of the
The key that appeared in February was a 32-character sequence in hexadecimal notation. It eventually began appearing on the voting-based news site Digg with posts urging people to "spread this number." One of these disappeared from the site, and a follow-up post received an inordinately large number of votes, or "diggs", before it too disappeared. On 1 May, Digg acknowledged that it was removing these postings in reaction to legal complaints. But the posts circulating this key continued to mushroom and collect votes, drowning out other activity on the site. A variety of other websites that covered the controversy also experienced a rash of similar postings in any forums open to public comment. Finally, eight hours after its previous statement, Digg announced it would no longer delete items containing the key, and the site eventually returned to normal.
Wikipedia effects
Unlike Digg, where the entire home page was taken over by posts related to the key until management backed down, the key never appeared on the Wikipedia Main Page. It did get posted repeatedly to various articles, some on topics relevant to the issue, but also on a number of completely unrelated articles. Given the key's appearance in totally inappropriate places and the way things had played out on Digg's website, the developers responded to multiple requests and added it to the spam filter. Greg Maxwell wrote an essay about the problem that formed the basis for the page Wikipedia:Keyspam.
The inclusion in the spam filter prevents any edit containing the character sequence of the key from being saved. This drew objections from editors who thought it should at least be mentioned in the articles on HD DVD or AACS. In response, others pointed out that the incident or even the hack itself could be discussed without reproducing the actual key. The legal ramifications of the decision were also a major topic of discussion, since the DMCA makes it illegal to provide any part or component of technology designed to circumvent technological access controls on copyrighted works. A number of people concluded this would preclude publishing the key, while others argued that the purpose of its use on Wikipedia is not covered by the statute, or else that a lawsuit was at least unlikely.
As explained by Electronic Frontier Foundation attorney Fred von Lohmann, the issue is not one of copyright infringement, meaning that online service providers might not be protected from liability by the "safe harbor" of the DMCA's notice-and-takedown process. Digg CEO Jay Adelson told Wired the company actually received a cease-and-desist letter earlier, not specifically related to the post that sparked the revolt. This would be consistent with the fact that similar letters were sent in mid-April, to Google among others. (The Wikimedia Foundation has not received one; although the New York Times initially included Wikipedia in the reported list of recipients, the paper issued a correction the next day.)
Even with the use of filtering to block the key itself, administrators intervened to protect a number of articles affected by the fallout. And naturally, the entire saga was being documented with its own article, AACS encryption key controversy, covering the incident along with some of the creative manifestations of the key.
Debate over non-free images heats up
In continuation of the story the Signpost ran
Last month, after noting its effect on the nominees for featured list status, Tompw initiated discussion about modifying the featured list criteria to exclude non-free content from lists. It was aimed mainly at lists for television series which contain a screenshot from every episode. Most in support of the changes stated that screenshots could be used on the articles for individual episodes, but need not be used in episode summaries, which generally contain only one or two sentences about specific episodes. Several editors 'strongly' opposed the modifications, citing various things, including the lack of usability of a screenshot for piracy. Others said screenshots simply made the list more visually appealing and an easier recognition of a given episode, without reading the summary. Discussion on the page continued through April.
On April 30, ESkog removed all of the images from List of Family Guy episodes, claiming a lack of fair use in his edit summaries. Shortly thereafter, an anonymous user reverted the change, but ESkog restored his version some three hours later.
The images in this fair-use image gallery are continually re-added by anons and other editors who seem not to appreciate our fair-use policy which explicitly prohibits decorative uses such as this one.
ESkog regarding List of Family Guy episodes
The anonymous user again reverted the change, after which ESkog made mention of the issue on the administrators' noticeboard. At this point, administrator Ryulong quickly reverted to ESkog's imageless version and protected the page, saying, "fair use violations aplenty." The original posting by ESkog and note of protection at the noticeboard has since sparked nearly 40,000 words of discussion. In it, he described the inclusion of a screenshot for every list as a "decorative fair-use gallery". Cburnett was very unhappy with the change and quick protection by Ryulong, calling it an obvious endorsement of his preferred version. He also accused Ryulong of taking the administrative action of protection against a page to which he was involved in editing. Also troublesome was the definition of "decorative"; several users sided with ESkog and maintained the philosophy that listed screenshots should not be included.
Cburnett queried as to the amount of time that was spent ridding the Family Guy list of non-free images, when other lists, such as that for
There are 15 featured List of X episode pages. Five of them are currently fine and look like any other featured list, sparsely illustrated if at all. The remaining, however, are overloaded with decorative non-free images. Start your vacuums.
Gmaxwell provided a list of articles that were featured, but had episode screenshots. The most notable were those of The Simpsons, a series for which there are eighteen seasons. Future Perfect at Sunrise and Picaroon9288 removed the non-free screenshots from these lists. For a number of the other lists, users who were unaware of the discussion on the noticeboard, reverted the image removal. Early Tuesday, Cyde created a page on which lists that have had their screenshots removed are to be added. Several users have since assisted in the massive removal of the images, sparking minor edit wars at various locations; a number of episode lists were temporarily protected because of disputes that arose from the removal of images, which involved multiple editors.
Consensus, or at least a general acceptance of the policy and the subsequent image removal effort, began to emerge Wednesday. Cburnett, who initially was unhappy with the immediacy of the matter and lack of consensus, praised editors for dealing with the issue in a professional manner. Hard feelings finally turned against Wikipedia's vague fair use policy for non-free images. Regarding long-term solutions to the problem, Crotalus horridus proposed a separate Wiki exclusively for popular culture. The forked site would continue to license text under the GNU Free Documentation License, but there would be a much less restrictive use on non-free content. The proposal generated discussion, but was considered unfeasible.
Update on Wikimania 2007
Plans are shaping up for Wikimania 2007, the annual conference of the Wikimedia Foundation, which will be held from August 3-5 in Taipei, Taiwan. Wikimania is the annual conference of the Wikimedia Foundation, which is the parent organization for Wikipedia and its sister projects. Wikimania is for the community members of the Wikimedia projects to come together and discuss issues and research relevant to the communities, as well as socialize with international colleagues. Previous Wikimania conferences have been held in Frankfurt, Germany and Boston, USA; this will be the third annual conference. They are international events, with last year's conference attracting Wikimedians from nearly 50 countries.
This year's conference will be held at the Chien Tan Overseas Youth Activity Center, a convention center with on-site dormitory style housing. It is in the heart of Taipei, close to the Shilin Night Market. Keynote speakers announced so far include Joi Ito. Other programs will include a film festival, community lightning talks and a Foundation Board panel. As in previous years, there will be a hacking days session for MediaWiki developers before the main conference. There will also be a Citizen Journalism Unconference held on August 2nd. The conference this year is being organized by an international group of volunteers, led by an organizing team based in Taiwan. Help and volunteers are welcome.
Submissions for the conference are open for one more week, until May 15. Submission types include presentations, posters, and workshops, centered around three themes: Wikimedia Communities, Free Content and Technical Infrastructure. Please visit the submissions page for guidelines and to access the submission system.
Online registration for the conference is open, and will be closed on 30 July. Accommodation at CTOYAC is is available from 1 August - 5 August, and visa assistance for overseas travellers is available. See the registration page for details.
For more information, visit the website or sign up for the Wikimania mailing list (which is used from year to year).
Norwegian Wikipedian awarded scholarship
On 28 April, long-time contributor to the Wikipedia in Nynorsk, Ranveig Mossige Thattai (known as Ranveig), was awarded a scholarship of 50 000 NOK (approx. 8 170 USD) for writing articles on the Nynorsk Wikipedia. The scholarship was awarded by Noregs Mållag, an organization aiming to promote the use of Nynorsk as a written language in every field of Norwegian society.
Ranveig has been a contributor to the Nynorsk Wikipedia since 9 October, 2004, and has more than 26,000 contributions. She has been an administrator since 27 October, 2004, and a bureaucrat since 26 August, 2006. She is currently living in England, studying history.
The Nynorsk Wikipedia was started as a fork of the Norwegian Wikipedia (later to become the Bokmål Wikipedia) on 31 July, 2004. It is the first encyclopædia in Nynorsk to be written since the publishing of the 10-volume Norsk Allkunnebok between 1948 and 1964. The Nynorsk Wikipedia currently has more than 22,000 articles.
This marks the first time a Norwegian Wikipedian has been awarded a scholarship to work on Wikipedia. Ranveig has said she wants to write articles that can be useful for children looking for information online.
External links
WikiWorld comic: "Friday the 13th"
WikiWorld is a weekly comic, carried by the Signpost, that highlights a few of the fascinating but little-known articles in the vast Wikipedia archives. The text for each comic is excerpted from one or more existing Wikipedia articles. WikiWorld offers visual interpretations on a wide range of topics: offbeat cultural references and personality profiles, obscure moments in history and unlikely slices of everyday life - as well as "mainstream" subjects with humorous potential. The comic can now be found on cartoon site Humorous Maximus.
Cartoonist
News and notes
Foundation seeking election volunteers
The Wikimedia Foundation is seeking out volunteers who are interested in helping with the upcoming election of three members of the Board of Trustees. The terms of Erik Möller, Kat Walsh, and Oscar van Dillen expire 1 July, and their seats will be filled in this election. Wikimedia chair Florence Devouard, the other elected member of the board, earlier had her term extended until 2008, partly to stagger terms for future elections.
The opportunity was announced by Jan-Bart de Vreede, who as an appointed member of the board has been selected to head up the process. Volunteers have only a short time to make themselves known, as the deadline for applications is 13 May. In order to help with election work, they must forgo the opportunity to run, vote in, or openly support candidates in the election.
Administrator contest
On 29 April, Wikipedia administrator
Though in its very early stages, YechielMan and zzuuzz questioned the feasibility of logging all administrator actions, and the diversion of resources it may create. DESiegel, an administrator himself since 2005, quickly opposed the idea for a contest, nominating it for deletion last Tuesday. In his rationale, he predicted over-zealous administrators developing "adminitis", whereby deletions, protections, and blocks are instituted just because such action is easy to take. Over a dozen editors chipped into the discussion, which concluded with a prominent "keep" result on Thursday. Nearly all disagreed with DESiegel, believing the contest would help reduce the backlogs and initiate friendly competition among administrators where it is sorely needed.
Briefly
- Wikipedia was featured in the comic Non Sequitur on Sunday, April 29.
- The English Wikiquote has reached 10,000 articles.
- The Spanish Wikipedia has reached 400 featured articles.
- The Indonesian Wikipedia has reached 60,000 articles.
- The Irish Wikipedia has reached 5,000 articles.
- The Czech Wiktionary has reached 2,000 articles.
- The Italian Wikipedia has reached 9,000,000 edits.
- The Icelandic Wiktionary has now an appendix °.
- The Cantonese Wikipedia has reached 60,000 edits.
- The Italian Wikiquote has reached 2,000 users.
- The Cantonese Wikipedia has reached 3,000 articles.
- The Marathi wikipedia has reached 21,000 total pages.
- The Vietnamese Wiktionary has reached 500,000 edits.
- The Norwegian Wikipedia has reached 110,000 articles.
- The Alemannic wikipedia has reached 3,000 articles.
Features and admins
Administrators
Eleven users were
Bots
Four bots were
Seven bots were approved to begin another task starting this week: Snowbot (task request), MartinBotIII (task request), Jogersbot (task request), NW557Bot (task request), SelketBot (task request), Gnome (Bot) (task request) (task nom 2), and BetacommandBot (task request).
Featured content
Twenty-three articles were promoted to
),Five articles were
Eight
).No
The following featured articles were displayed last week on the Main Page as Today's featured article: 1994 San Marino Grand Prix, Scottish Parliament Building, William Monahan, Gilwell Park, History of Tamil Nadu, Elliott Smith, and Rhodes blood libel.
The following featured pictures were displayed last week on the Main Page as picture of the day: Willet, Project Excelsior, Short-beaked Echidna, Metallic Ringtail, Wright Flyer, Lakes on Titan, and Queen meat ant.
Two pictures were
).Five pictures were promoted to featured status last week:
The Report on Lengthy Litigation
The Arbitration Committee opened two cases this week, and closed four cases. One requested case was not accepted, following the desysopping of an involved administrator.
Not accepted
- ChrisGriswold: A proposed case involving the actions of ChrisGriswold. A checkuser request confirmed that ChrisGriswold had been operating sockpuppet Superburgh, in an editing dispute on Taylor Allderdice High School. Unrelated to the dispute, ChrisGriswold also operated sockpuppet Truth in Comedy. Once the allegations were brought to the Arbitration Committee, ChrisGriswold resigned his adminship, and the case was subsequently rejected.
Closed cases
- Certified.Gangsta-Ideogram: A case involving the actions of Certified.Gangsta and Ideogram, both of whom Durova and others alleged to have been involved in edit-warring on Taiwan-related articles. Ideogram, who had also been accused of improper behaviour on the community noticeboard, denied the allegations. Certified.Gangsta presented evidence, in which he alleged that Ideogram has engaged in canvassing, wikistalking, and orchestrating an anti-Certified.Gangsta campaign. He also denies Durova's allegiations. As a result of the case, both parties were placed on revert parole, and Ideogram was admonished to "fully adhere to all Wikipedia policies".
- bot approvals group. Betacommand noted that he makes numerous username-related blocks, and that most of his blocks were appropriate. Whether Betacommand used his administrative account for bot-related activity, whether he is unique in doing so, and whether such an action should be allowed or not, were also questioned. As a result of the case, Betacommand was desysopped.
- Mudaliar-Venki123: A case involving the actions of Mudaliar and Venki123 on a series of articles. As a result of the case, both parties were banned for one year.
- Freedom skies: A case involving the actions of Freedom skies. JFD and others alleged that he has edit warred to push his point of view. He denied the allegations. As a result of the case, Freedom Skies was placed on revert parole for one year, and limited to one account.
New cases
- Lewis Libbyarticle.
- WP:AN/I
Evidence phase
- ), who was listed a party in the new case.)
- TingMing: A case involving the actions of TingMing (talk · contribs). Ideogram (talk · contribs) alleges that he has engaged in "controversial edits", edit warring, incivility, and possibly sockpuppetry. TinMing denies the allegations, and alleges incivility on the part of Ideogram.
- WP:ATT, on "articles on paranormal and pseudoscientific topics", such as parapsychology and Electronic voice phenomenon.
- Transnistria: A case involving the actions of MariusM (talk · contribs) and William Mauco (talk · contribs) on Transnistria-related articles. MariusM alleges that Mauco (who has not made a statement because he is blocked) has engaged in sockpuppetry, edit warring and other misconduct.
- talk · contribs) who, while acknowledged as a productive contributor, has been called incivil on various occasions.
- Zeq-Zero0000: A case involving the actions of Zeq (talk · contribs) and Zero0000 (talk · contribs). Zero alleges that Zeq has engaged in POV-pushing, while Zeq alleges that Zero has misused administrative tools in blocking him, the case in particular involving the question of whether probations, article bans, etc. can be enforced by involved admins.
- Community enforceable mediationwas passed.
Motion to close
- article probation, Mcconnplaced on revert parole, and Samual Luo and Tomananda banned from editing the articles or their talk pages.