“Polite” wiki spam
I found a rather fascinating bit of wiki spam on the ASIS&T 2005 Annual Meeting Wiki today. This is probably the first time I’ve ever seen polite spam.
<div id="wikiSpam" style="overflow:auto;height:1px;" sign="rxseotewiki"> [http://viagra.example.com/buy-viagra-online buy viagra online] [http://cialis.example.com/buy-cialis-online buy cialis online] [http://levitra.example.com/buy-levitra-online buy levitra online] [http://sildenafil.example.com/buy-sildenafil-online buy sildenafil online] [http://vardenafil.example.com/buy-vardenafil-online buy vardenafil online] [http://tadalafil.example.com/buy-tadalafil-online buy tadalafil online] [http://propecia.example.com/buy-propecia-online buy propecia online] [http://finasteride.example.com/buy-finasteride-online buy finasteride online] [http://lunesta.example.com/buy-lunesta-online buy lunesta online] [http://eszopiclone.example.com/buy-eszopiclone-online buy eszopiclone online] [http://rozerem.example.com/buy-rozerem-online buy rozerem online] [http://tamiflu.example.com/buy-tamiflu-online buy tamiflu online] [http://zenegra.example.com/buy-zenegra-online buy zenegra online] <!-- We never remove content . We always add . We allow you to easily remove the additions . --> </div>
(I’ve neutered the links for your protection)
I think the fascinating part is the comment at the end.
We never remove content
Indeed they don’t. A lot of the spam on the wiki has been destructive. We’ve had a rash of Chinese link spammers that nuke every page they touch. Heck they even put it inside a tiny div so the spam isn’t really visible on the page. Aren’t they nice?
We always add
No they don’t. Only a few pages have gotten any spam on the wiki. The front page was the most common target so we limited edit access to admins. I’m curious how their software is targeting pages.
We allow you to easily remove the additions
True, it isn’t hard to remove this vandalism, but it’s very time consuming.
I don’t expect much in the way of ethics from spammers — they’re entire business is built on unethical practices — so why make this kind of effort? I appreciate (in a very small way) the recognition that what they’re doing won’t be appreciated by, well, anyone — but in the end it’s still wiki spam and it’s still vandalism.
I’m really gald you appreciate my efforts .:) I use this techinque as everyone else does so if you don’t cheat you are nowhere .
and that I’m a little better and than all the bad guyz !
Second , I appreciate your work on the wiki sites and I really hate it when I see them wiped out completely . It’s easier and nicer to add then replace . (By the way … I always remove other divs before adding mine) .
I don’t expect you to appreciate my effort . It’s enough satisfaction for me the fact that I leave your pages intact
The software … I wrote it myself . And all wikis are handpicked , that’s why only a few pages are edited .
I have to say I appreciate your effort on writing about this .
Cheers , and my mail is real .
Feel free to contact me at any time .
Take care .
Mister Dude,
I do appreciate the small amount of courtesy you show in making your edits non-desctructive and easy to remove.
However, I still don’t appreciate you vandalizing the sites I run. It takes a large amount of my time to remove your spam, or it forces me to put increaingly onerous restrictions on the participation is what are supposed to be open and collaborative information resources. There are legitimit methods of marketing online — this is not one of them.
I know my righteous indignation won’t do much to deter you, but it just pisses me off that I spend more time cleaning up spam from my wikis, my blog comments, and my email than I do actually using any of them.
Let me know the addresses of your wikis . I’ll have them completely removed or keep just the Help page . That I can do for you . But , if you would be interested to provide me a backlink to an URL (home or site-wide) I will give you I’m willing not only to stop spamming you but also to clean all unwanted spammy links form your wikis . I just can restore previous changes but I could do a sweep once a day .
Get back to me .
I know spamming is not pleasant but if you don’t keep up you die
My true opinion is that the one who created the wiki concept is the dumb-ass responsable for this and I would have never coded such a disaster .
PS: If you share some marketing tips to take me to the top over the major spammers and not last 6+ months , hell , I’ll put an end to my spamming ways !