MediaWiki talk:Spam-blacklist/archives/May 2021

UK spam blitz


Tag-team accounts on a spamming blitz. OhNo itsJamie Talk 16:12, 3 May 2021 (UTC)

bollytrendz.com


Spammed from at least four accounts; to spam blacklist. OhNo itsJamie Talk 14:53, 4 May 2021 (UTC)

tradingview.com
is one of the most popular sites in the world for trading, but it appears to not have a wikipedia page and also it's on the blacklist for some reason. Could it be removed from the blacklist? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Namditto (talk • contribs)
 * Trading view was spammed across multiple wikis, and as such it was blacklisted on meta. OhNo itsJamie  Talk 14:42, 4 May 2021 (UTC)
 * Thank you. So as someone in Vietnam spammed links to the website 4 years ago, how can it be reviewed again and removed from the blacklist? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Namditto (talk • contribs) 14:52, 4 May 2021 (UTC)
 * It wasn't simply a few links to the Vietnamese wiki; see this extensive report. The probability of an obvious WP:COI editor successfully lobbying to have it removed is quite low. OhNo itsJamie Talk 14:55, 4 May 2021 (UTC)

suhnisindh786.com


Pretends to be a news site. Over the last months, has been busy adding links to it in some WP articles – some 50 articles refspammed by now; the vast majority of edits have been reverted.

In fact, suhnisindh786.com was started in late 2020 while Shakoorpanhwer is its founder, owner or editor as evident from the Instagram URL in the website's header (https://www.instagram.com/shakoorpanhwer).

The website is multilingual and Shakoorpanhwer has already refspammed other wikis. — kashmīrī  TALK  21:53, 1 May 2021 (UTC)
 * I've blocked the user as a spam-only account and cleaned up the links here. If it's being cross-wiki spammed, should probably OhNo itsJamie  Talk 01:52, 2 May 2021 (UTC)
 * Thanks, also for the Meta link - I could not locate it myself. — kashmīrī  TALK  15:43, 5 May 2021 (UTC)

matown.kr


Spammed from at least three accounts, to spam blacklist. OhNo itsJamie Talk 21:04, 6 May 2021 (UTC)

freaktofit.com


Typical case of block evasion / sockpuppetry. - MrOllie (talk) 11:36, 7 May 2021 (UTC)
 * Also noting that the reported IP tried to vandalize this report: - MrOllie (talk) 11:51, 7 May 2021 (UTC)
 * ✅ Kuru   (talk)  12:12, 7 May 2021 (UTC)

auditionsnews.com


Junk site that's seeing some level of addition to articles.  Ravensfire  (talk) 01:50, 8 May 2021 (UTC)

pouk.co.uk
Spammed from at least five different accounts. to spam blacklist. OhNo itsJamie Talk 14:06, 11 May 2021 (UTC)

moneymodels.org


Ongoing spam campaign. to blacklist. OhNo itsJamie Talk 19:46, 11 May 2021 (UTC)

www.census2011.co.in


This site stores data of the 2011 Census of India and can the figures from the site can used to cite statistics and about the demographics of India. That is why I ask for it's removal from the blacklist. Skeptical Sapien (talk) 07:17, 9 May 2021 (UTC)
 * There's a previous discussion about this here; this isn't a government website, but rather a commercial site aggregating public-domain data. Is there any reason why you can't use the actual government census website? OhNo itsJamie Talk 23:54, 11 May 2021 (UTC)

Thank you for your reply, I will cite the official sources then, I apologize for not looking up about this before. Skeptical Sapien (talk)

how to remove from blacklist
How can I remove my website from the Wikipedia spam listing, kindly let me know — Preceding unsigned comment added by Shruti19sood (talk • contribs)
 * Step one would be reading the instructions at the top of this page. OhNo itsJamie Talk 14:15, 14 May 2021 (UTC)

viXRa.org


A pre-print service known for holding papers mostly in the fringe science area. If there anything valid in it, it would be better cited to the journal where it actually got published (per WP:PAYWALL, there's no problem if the source is not freely accessible). It's been used by the user linked here to promote some really bollocks claims about astronomical bodies, and I'm sure they're not the only ones - pre-prints are generally discouraged, and a pre-print service specialising in junk science should get the blacklist treatment... RandomCanadian (talk / contribs) 02:48, 23 April 2021 (UTC)
 * I've done a clean-up of the few links in articles. There's a lot more on talk pages, but these are harmless for the time being; we just ought to discourage future use - if there's an exceptional paper which can be cited directly to there, that can be dealt via case-by-case whitelist. RandomCanadian (talk / contribs) 03:07, 23 April 2021 (UTC)
 * Restored from the archive. RandomCanadian (talk / contribs) 02:27, 15 May 2021 (UTC)
 * Sorry for pinging, you're surely watching this page, but since this has so far failed to get any attention. Thanks, RandomCanadian (talk / contribs) 14:05, 15 May 2021 (UTC)


 * to MediaWiki:Spam-blacklist. --Dirk Beetstra T C 03:22, 16 May 2021 (UTC)

forru.org
This site, The Forest Restoration Research Unit, seems innocuous and I wanted to quote an academic article hosted at this site. In 2013 it was marked as hosting Trojan. Is this still valid? Brunswicknic (talk) 13:26, 16 May 2021 (UTC) p.s.

muslimmirror.com
See Village pump (miscellaneous)/Archive 66. A site that spreads fake news isn't a useful source. — Alexis Jazz (talk or ping me) 15:32, 9 May 2021 (UTC)
 * I guess few are watching this page. — Alexis Jazz (talk or ping me) 19:04, 16 May 2021 (UTC)

royalark.net
This is a deprecated source that was used thousands of times; I spent many hours removing it after RSN discussions, and yet it is continuing to be added despite an edit filter. I just removed over 40 references to five separate pages on a single article. This is beyond tedious. Guy (help! - typo?) 14:05, 8 May 2021 (UTC)
 * , Reliable sources/Perennial sources. Sounds good, kill it. — Alexis Jazz (talk or ping me) 19:08, 16 May 2021 (UTC)

australiasevereweather.com
Malwarebytes identifies this website as a trojan. It's referenced in about 20 articles. Perhaps used to be valid but now taken over. Needs investigation. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Colonies Chris (talk • contribs), 14:54, 20 April 2021‎ (UTC)
 * , seems to be referenced in hundreds of articles. Site seems to work, how do you know Malwarebytes isn't just a false positive? Domain is blacklisted by Yandex, but no idea why. — Alexis Jazz (talk or ping me) 19:16, 16 May 2021 (UTC)
 * I don't know definitely that it's bad - just that Malwarebytes objects when I try to access it. Maybe it is just a false positive. Colonies Chris (talk) 19:22, 16 May 2021 (UTC)
 * , thanks for reporting. Here is the report from Yandex which is probably what tripped Malwarebytes. I'm guessing it's a false positive as Google, McAfee, ESET and Opera didn't flag it. The MediaWiki blacklist stops new links from being added, it does nothing about existing links. Please report such links to Village pump (technical) in the future so they can be analyzed and, if found harmful, have existing links replaced in articles. — Alexis Jazz (talk or ping me) 19:34, 16 May 2021 (UTC)

www.en.topwar.ru
The site's one of the most informative sites that I've seen in my search to find more on the 5TD engine series. To be frank, I don't think the site would be complete enough if it weren't for this website. So, I humbly ask for it to be removed. belg (talk) 05:29, 17 May 2021 (UTC)

oneworld.website
Mass spamming website apparently designed in 2002. to blacklist. OhNo itsJamie Talk 14:23, 17 May 2021 (UTC)

elliotltyler.wordpress.com


This is a non-RS that has been ref-spammed into numerous articles by various IPs and an account with an obvious COI. SmartSE (talk) 19:17, 12 May 2021 (UTC)
 * to blacklist. OhNo itsJamie Talk 14:32, 17 May 2021 (UTC)

igniteindiaeducation.com

 * Others, see Sockpuppet investigations/EditorF/Archive
 * Others, see Sockpuppet investigations/EditorF/Archive
 * Others, see Sockpuppet investigations/EditorF/Archive
 * Others, see Sockpuppet investigations/EditorF/Archive
 * Others, see Sockpuppet investigations/EditorF/Archive
 * Others, see Sockpuppet investigations/EditorF/Archive
 * Others, see Sockpuppet investigations/EditorF/Archive

Promotional editing around this organization and their site is the primary focus of the EditorF sockfarm. Starting to become active again, has been going off and on since June 2020. - MrOllie (talk) 18:54, 15 May 2021 (UTC)
 * to blacklist. OhNo itsJamie Talk 14:32, 17 May 2021 (UTC)

wapcar.my
It is a proper and registered Malaysian automotive site, and the top 2 most visited automotive site in Malaysia. I found myself finding many Wikipedia-worthy information of automobiles that aren't reported by other automotive sites. I understood that this site was a subject of linking spam few years ago, yet it is currently an important site for Malaysian automotive industry. Andra Febrian (talk) 09:59, 9 May 2021 (UTC)
 * , it was deemed a scraper site, which means that likely most information on the site is retrieved from elsewhere. Dirk Beetstra T C 18:24, 16 May 2021 (UTC)
 * , I understood a user has used that argument for the site to be blacklisted, however that is not true. They have their own set of journalists that tests cars on their own with their verdict and analysis:
 * https://www.wapcar.my/news/pros-and-cons-2021-toyota-fortuner-28-vrz--floods-arent-a-problem-but-your-stuff-might-be-27477
 * https://www.wapcar.my/news/review-2021-mercedesbenz-gla-250-%E2%80%93-it%E2%80%99s-good-but-is-it-rm-285k-good-27472
 * https://www.wapcar.my/news/5-things-the-perodua-ativa-needs-to-improve-on-%E2%80%93-long-term-review-10-27509
 * https://www.wapcar.my/news/ratings-2020-vw-tiguan-allspace-highline-14-%E2%80%93-practical-but-costly-maintenance-rm-3848-to-service-27415
 * https://www.wapcar.my/news/review-2021-volvo-xc40-t5-recharge--the-gateway-drug-to-pure-ev-ownership-27272
 * They reported news that aren't reported by any other news sites, case on point:
 * https://www.wapcar.my/news/finally-vw-polo-mk5-discontinued-allnew-mk6-coming-to-malaysia-soon-6909, proof.
 * They also wrote articles that provides insights, analysis, historical overview and critics rarely seen in other news sites:
 * https://www.wapcar.my/news/how-is-the-proton-iriz-still-on-sale-7-years-later-and-is-it-still-relevant-27528
 * https://www.wapcar.my/news/even-japanese-driving-schools-don%E2%80%99t-use-kei-cars-is-our-perodua-axia-even-good-enough-27448
 * https://www.wapcar.my/news/the-legendary-vans-that-malaysians-balik-kampung-in-%E2%80%93-vanette-liteace-spectron-27495
 * https://www.wapcar.my/news/outdated-and-woefully-incomplete-malaysias-driving-curriculum-needs-a-major-update-26739
 * https://www.wapcar.my/news/proton-x70-is-ready-for-exports-but-these-chinese-rivals-will-hinder-its-progress-27134
 * https://www.wapcar.my/news/selling-cars-with-a-4speed-automatic-in-2021-should-be-illegal-27011
 * While it might not be the best automotive website out there, the writers knew what they're writing, unlike many scraper sites. Andra Febrian (talk) 04:32, 17 May 2021 (UTC)
 * , there were in fact two problems with the site. The first was the scraping issue. The second - and rather more relevant to us here - was spamming by a succession of sockpuppet accounts.
 * We may blacklist sites due to persistent copyright violation (aka scraping). We do blacklist them for spamming.
 * Most of what you cite above as original content is, in any case, opinion. I'm not a fan (see WP:ARSEHOLES). Guy (help! - typo?) 14:36, 17 May 2021 (UTC)

www.marketingsavior.com


Hello,

Our domain marketingsavior.com has been blacklisted to participate on Wikipedia due to unknown reasons.

We have very strong pieces of evidence and knowledge that we can contribute to the Wikipedia community. We were trying to cite one of the content mentioned on wiki page of Hostinger that we have full knowledge about and have also mentioned it in our blog.

You can check it here - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hostinger | marketingsavior.com/cheap-web-hosting-hostinger-review/

In the growth section of WIKI page As of 2021 it has a presence in 178+ countries with over 30 million users.[citation needed] - (Page link - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hostinger)

We have this content where we would like to add citation to -

As of 2021, the user base has grown to more than 30 million spread across 178 countries and 15000 new customers are added daily which shows that Hostinger has something. - ( Page link - marketingsavior.com/cheap-web-hosting-hostinger-review/ )

Hope to get our domain whitelisted soon. Thanks. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2405:201:5001:7C6B:E0B8:C385:EA54:74 (talk • contribs)
 * That's all very exciting, but your website was spammed by at least four different IPs from the same range is the IP you are posting from. As a result, it was actually blacklisted globally, so . Good luck. OhNo itsJamie Talk 05:38, 18 May 2021 (UTC)

Understanding why a user is hitting the blacklist
I've been trying to coach a new user,, with adding some changes, supported by reliable sources. they attempted to add multiple sources (History.com and the local paper) but Wikipedia told me they were both on the blacklist. I'm a little confused:


 * While History.com is considered unreliable at RSP—for good reason—it doesn't seem to be listed at MediaWiki:Spam-blacklist.
 * I'm a little surprised that any given "local paper" would be on the RSP, as I'd assume such a thing to be at least somewhat reliable (although I'm sure some aren't).

Is there a way to tell why their edits got disallowed? Gaelan 💬✏️ 06:58, 13 May 2021 (UTC)


 * He's using google amp links. For example: "google.com/amp/s/www.history.com/.amp/" needs to be just "history.com". Kuru   (talk)  11:07, 13 May 2021 (UTC)
 * Aha, thanks. For future reference, is there a way for a (non-admin) user to see that is what's going on?
 * Also, blacklisting AMP seems very likely to hit good-faith users, and AFAICT, it was added just on a suspicion that it could be used for filter circumvention. Might it be a good idea to whitelist it, then maybe set up a bot to strip AMP urls or revert if the resulting URL is blacklisted? Gaelan 💬✏️ 22:47, 13 May 2021 (UTC)
 * , it is also the very coreof SEO. Using a google amp link is telling google that someone is interested in the website they are redirected to, and hence increases the google ranking of the website.  Add google.com/amp/s/www.myspammycompany.com as your company’s website, and every time someone finds you company on already high ranking Wikipedia and follows your link your website itself also ranks up.  And there is literally no single reason why you cannot link to the proper site.  You don’t write an article based on finding the result in Google, you write article after reading the page Google sends you to. Dirk Beetstra T  C 19:04, 14 May 2021 (UTC)
 * You're probably observing that AMP URLs, in a desktop browser, just redirect through to the normal URL. But that's not the case on mobile. Try this: on a phone, google some recent piece of news (I used "glasgow immigration protest"). Click any result with a lightning bolt icon next to the domain name. Observe that the article shows up, and that your URL bar still contains the AMP URL.
 * It's very easy, as we saw here, for a user who Googled something, clicked a link, read the article, and copied the URL—i.e. did exactly what they were supposed to do, unless they specifically knew they had to work around AMP—to end up copying an AMP link instead of the canonical URL.
 * In my view, blocking AMP links in this fashion is very BITEy—it's an honest, easy mistake to make while making a legitimate effort to cite an RS, and is likely to hit editors who are already frustrated by their edits being reverted for being unsourced. My understanding (e.g. from the note at the top of WP:EF/R) is that we don't use automated mechanisms like this to reject good-faith edits with small policy violations, only for obvious, unambiguous abuse. Gaelan 💬✏️ 19:27, 14 May 2021 (UTC)
 * WP:PACT is a thing. If someone is linking to a google search result, that has proven to often be people trying to avoid the blacklist. New users who fall on this can just be explained that they shouldn't do this and should instead link to the page directly (maybe the edit notice for edits disallowed by the blacklist could be updated to reflect this?). RandomCanadian (talk / contribs) 14:04, 15 May 2021 (UTC)
 * , it is already in there :-) Dirk Beetstra T C 03:31, 17 May 2021 (UTC)
 * , I pasted  into my browser bar, and the url gets rewritten to https://www.history.com/news/the-untold-story-of-how-an-escaped-slave-helped-sir-francis-drake-circumnavigate-the-globe … on my iPad.  I don’t know what browser you use, and though I know there are odd cases, what you describe is a rarity.  Follow down the google amp link will always be rewritten to the original link. Dirk Beetstra T  C 03:38, 17 May 2021 (UTC)
 * It looks like it actually needs to be a phone, not a tablet - I get the redirect when my user agent is macOS Safari or iPad Safari, but not iPhone Safari. The behavior of these "AMP viewer URLs" is documented by Google in an annoyingly long blog post here - note the bullet point When users visit a Google AMP viewer URL on a platform where the viewer is not available, we redirect them to the canonical page for the document. Gaelan 💬✏️ 03:45, 17 May 2021 (UTC)
 * Oops, pinging Gaelan 💬✏️ 03:45, 17 May 2021 (UTC)
 * , for me, still no reason to allow spammers to abuse the system. It is a global rule (all ‘redirect’ services get globally blacklisted), and the only reasonable alternative is to make it a fully blocking edit filter, which is basically the same. Dirk Beetstra T  C 17:44, 18 May 2021 (UTC)

jeremystoppelman.com

 * Diff
 * Diff Diff
 * Diff
 * Diff
 * Diff
 * Diff
 * Diff

Made to look like it is the personal website of Jeremy Stoppleman, but it is actually an ad for marketing/SEO services (the website itself keeps changing). It has been added to the page 8-9 times since 2016, but every time it is removed, it gets snuck back in a few months later from a different (but similar) IP. Please see my user page for COI disclosure. CorporateM (Talk) 18:37, 18 May 2021 (UTC)

uinterview.com
Blacklisted in 2009 for some spammy external link additions by IPs, but looks like it could be potentially useful as a source now - claims to have decent editorial control and has a significant amount of reporting. Whether it will eventually be deemed reliable or not, it doesn't seem like it's necessary to be blacklisted. Elli (talk &#124; contribs) 03:43, 19 May 2021 (UTC)

newspaperadda.com
Spamming from at least three accounts after numerous warnings. to blacklist. OhNo itsJamie Talk 15:40, 19 May 2021 (UTC)

tranio.com
Hello, After trying to contribute to Wikipedia with the info from Tranio.com's expert article it turned out that the website is on the spam list. I added some info about Viennese cafes statistics and put a link to Tranio's original survey in the 'References' section as it said in Wikipedia rules. What did I wrong? How can I contribute further? Please remove Tranio from the blacklist as many users refer to it when it comes to real estate statistics. I'm specialized in this topic too. Thank you. ErganolQute (talk) 3:36, 21 May 2021 (UTC)
 * ❌ The site was spammed heavily by throw-away accounts last year. A trusted high-volume editor could request a whitelisting if the need arose, but I don't anticipate that. OhNo itsJamie Talk 01:58, 21 May 2021 (UTC)

tronikshop.com
Being used by 3 (now 4) accounts to constantly spam links. Is a shop link, so there is no good use unless an article is created on it, which is unlikely. aeschylus (talk) 20:28, 20 May 2021 (UTC)


 * Also now . Concur, please blacklist. - MrOllie (talk) 20:45, 20 May 2021 (UTC)


 * to MediaWiki:Spam-blacklist. --Dirk Beetstra T C 06:01, 21 May 2021 (UTC)

Vietnamese websites


For whatever reason these links have been continually spammed into the article of the German-Jewish poet Else Lasker-Schüler for the last few months. Hemiauchenia (talk) 08:07, 21 May 2021 (UTC)

short.gy
URL shortener. to blacklist; maybe send to meta as well? OhNo itsJamie Talk 21:14, 21 May 2021 (UTC)


 * , url shorteners go on meta without question. --Dirk Beetstra T C 12:28, 22 May 2021 (UTC)

Facebook onion address
Facebook onion address

New Official v3 onion for Facebook. https://www.facebook.com/facebookcorewwwi/posts/3727741430665883

Dedicated page already updated facebookwkhpilnemxj7asaniu7vnjjbiltxjqhye3mhbshg7kx5tfyd.onion Deku-shrub (talk) 16:20, 24 May 2021 (UTC)


 * , (please read the instructions, and please ask also for removal of the old .onion). --Dirk Beetstra T  C 19:47, 24 May 2021 (UTC)

vvikipedia.com

 * Follow up from AN posting. Any good reason to not block this? —  xaosflux  Talk 14:58, 26 May 2021 (UTC)
 * (Note: got some malware warning when going there - haven't investigated it further). — xaosflux  Talk 15:06, 26 May 2021 (UTC)
 * (Note: got some malware warning when going there - haven't investigated it further). — xaosflux  Talk 15:06, 26 May 2021 (UTC)


 * , cross-wiki problem. --Dirk Beetstra T C 15:20, 26 May 2021 (UTC)


 * Handled on meta. --Dirk Beetstra T C 15:22, 26 May 2021 (UTC)

giftstoindia24x7.com



 * Being spammed by multiple accounts e.g.    and not for the first time either considering WikiProject Spam/LinkReports/giftstoindia24x7.com dates back to 2017. See User talk:119.30.35.179 and User talk:37.111.200.198 too. SmartSE (talk) 17:42, 27 May 2021 (UTC)

tnhomeandfarm.com

 * Trying to use multiple sources from this website at Tennessee. I don't know why this link is blacklisted. Bneu2013 (talk) 05:36, 31 May 2021 (UTC)
 * , the original reason was here: Wikipedia_talk:WikiProject_Spam/2008_Archive_Sep_1, significant sockspamming. It is a long time ago, so I am in for de-listing.  But first, can you please comment on the "while these links may lead to so-called "magazines", these publications are essentially POV publications written on behalf of chambers of commerce." mentioned there, is this a reliable source in the first place (things may have changed with the site in 13 years ..)? Dirk Beetstra T  C 07:55, 31 May 2021 (UTC)
 * - No, that doesn't appear to be true about this source now (and I kind of doubt it was true then, too, but I don't know for certain). While it is a magazine with a narrow focus, it is not a promotional source. This definitely passes wp:V, and is most certainly a reliable source. Bneu2013 (talk) 08:01, 31 May 2021 (UTC)


 * I'll go with that, 12 years is long (though it is not really a factor): from MediaWiki:Spam-blacklist. --Dirk Beetstra T  C 08:13, 31 May 2021 (UTC)