Abuse filters

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  1. Abuse Filters

Abuse filters are a crucial component of maintaining a healthy and productive wiki environment. They are a system designed to detect and prevent disruptive or malicious behavior by automatically flagging or blocking edits that match predefined patterns. This article provides a comprehensive guide to abuse filters, aimed at beginners, covering their purpose, functionality, creation, and maintenance within a MediaWiki 1.40 installation.

What are Abuse Filters?

At their core, abuse filters are rules that examine incoming edits before they are saved to the wiki. These rules are based on various criteria, including:

  • Textual Patterns: Looking for specific words, phrases, or regular expressions that indicate vandalism, harassment, or spam. This is the most common type of filter.
  • User Actions: Monitoring actions like creating pages, editing existing pages, or making changes to user rights.
  • Edit Patterns: Analyzing the *way* an edit is made, such as the number of changes, the length of the edit, or the addition of external links.
  • User Information: Considering the user's age (if known), registration date, or previous editing history.

When an edit triggers an abuse filter, a pre-defined action is taken. These actions can range from simply logging the event for review by administrators to outright preventing the edit from being saved and displaying a warning message to the user. The severity of the action is determined by the filter’s configuration.

Why are Abuse Filters Important?

Without abuse filters, wikis are highly vulnerable to:

  • Vandalism: Deliberate alteration of wiki content with the intent to disrupt or deface it.
  • Spam: Unsolicited advertising or irrelevant content. Spam can overwhelm a wiki and detract from its usefulness.
  • Personal Attacks: Harassment, threats, or abusive language directed at other users.
  • Copyright Infringement: Posting copyrighted material without permission.
  • Malicious Links: Adding links to phishing sites or sites that distribute malware.
  • Sockpuppetry: Creating multiple accounts to circumvent rules or manipulate discussions, often detailed in the Policies and guidelines.

Abuse filters act as a first line of defense against these threats, reducing the burden on administrators and moderators and helping to maintain a positive and collaborative environment. They don’t eliminate the need for human oversight, but they significantly reduce the volume of problematic edits that require manual review. Effective filter management complements a strong community and active moderation team.

Understanding Filter Components

An abuse filter consists of several key components:

  • Name & Description: A human-readable name and description to help identify the filter's purpose.
  • Conditions: The rules that define what constitutes a triggering event. These conditions are built using a combination of variables and operators.
  • Actions: What happens when an edit triggers the filter. Options include:
   *   Tag:  Flags the edit for review by administrators.
   *   Block: Prevents the edit from being saved and displays a warning message to the user.  Blocking can be configured to be temporary or permanent, and can be applied to specific users, IP addresses, or ranges.
   *   Disallow: Similar to block, but often used for less severe infractions.
   *   Throttle:  Limits the rate at which a user can make edits.
   *   Warn: Displays a warning message to the user.
  • Variables: Predefined values that can be used in conditions. Common variables include:
   *   `$text`:  The text of the edit.
   *   `$title`:  The title of the page being edited.
   *   `$user`:  The username of the editor.
   *   `$ip`:  The IP address of the editor.
   *   `$namespace`: The namespace of the edited page.
  • Regular Expressions: Powerful patterns used to match specific text. Learning regular expressions is highly recommended for creating effective filters.
  • Threshold: Determines how many conditions must be met for the filter to trigger.

Creating an Abuse Filter

To create an abuse filter, you’ll need administrator privileges on your wiki. The process typically involves the following steps:

1. Access the Abuse Filter Interface: Navigate to the AbuseFilter administration page, usually found under Special:AbuseFilter. 2. Create a New Filter: Click the "Add filter" button. 3. Define the Filter's Name and Description: Give the filter a clear and concise name and description. 4. Specify the Conditions: This is the most crucial step. You’ll need to define the rules that will trigger the filter. Here are some examples: 

   *   Detecting Vandalism:  A filter to detect the word "vandal" in the edit text: ` $text ~ /vandal/i ` (The `i` flag makes the match case-insensitive).
   *   Detecting Spam Links: A filter to detect links to known spam websites: ` $text ~ /http:\/\/example\.com/ `
   *   Detecting Personal Attacks: A filter to detect abusive language (requires careful consideration to avoid false positives): ` $text ~ /(insulting term 1|insulting term 2)/i `
   *   Detecting Excessive Link Addition: A filter to flag edits that add a large number of external links: ` $text_length > 1000 && $external_links > 5 `

5. Configure the Actions: Choose the appropriate action to take when the filter is triggered. For initial testing, it's recommended to start with "Tag" to monitor the filter's effectiveness before implementing more restrictive actions like "Block". 6. Save the Filter: Click the "Save filter" button.

Testing and Refining Filters

After creating a filter, it's essential to test it thoroughly to ensure it works as expected and doesn't generate excessive false positives.

  • Test Mode: Some abuse filter interfaces provide a "test mode" that allows you to simulate edits and see if they trigger the filter without actually saving them to the wiki.
  • Monitor Tagged Edits: If you've configured the filter to "Tag," regularly review the tagged edits to assess its accuracy.
  • Adjust Conditions: If the filter is generating too many false positives, refine the conditions to make them more specific. If it's missing legitimate abusive edits, broaden the conditions. Consider using more complex regular expressions to improve accuracy.
  • Use Whitelisting: In some cases, you may want to whitelist certain users or pages to prevent the filter from triggering on legitimate edits. This is particularly useful for trusted editors or pages that may contain content that would otherwise trigger the filter.

Advanced Filter Techniques

Once you're comfortable with the basics, you can explore more advanced filter techniques:

  • Combining Conditions: Use logical operators (AND, OR, NOT) to combine multiple conditions. For example: ` ($text ~ /vandal/i) && ($user_age < 30) `
  • Using Functions: Abuse filters support a variety of built-in functions that can be used to manipulate data and perform more complex checks. Refer to the MediaWiki documentation for a complete list of available functions.
  • Regular Expression Best Practices: Mastering regular expressions is crucial for creating effective filters. Learn about character classes, quantifiers, and grouping to write precise and efficient patterns. The use of non-capturing groups `(?:...)` can improve performance.
  • Analyzing Edit Histories: Consider analyzing the edit histories of users who trigger filters to identify patterns of disruptive behavior.
  • Using External Data Sources: Advanced configurations can integrate with external data sources (e.g., blacklists of spam websites) to enhance filter accuracy.

Common Filter Strategies and Examples

  • **Spam Link Detection:** `$text ~ /(http|https):\/\/([a-z0-9\-\.]+\.[a-z]{2,})/i && !($1 contains 'yourwiki.com')` (Detects URLs not from your wiki).
  • **Profanity Filter:** `$text ~ /(profane word 1|profane word 2)/i` (Requires careful curation to avoid false positives.)
  • **Excessive Bold/Italic Usage:** `$text_length < 500 && $bold_count > 10 && $italic_count > 10` (Flags edits with excessive formatting.) This can indicate disruptive editing.
  • **Rapid Page Creation:** `$action = 'new' && $user_age < 600` (Flags rapid creation of new pages by new users – potential for spam.)
  • **Removal of Disclaimers/Templates:** `$removed_lines contains 'Template:Important disclaimer'` (Flags removal of critical templates.)
  • **IP Address Blocking:** `$ip in {192.168.1.1, 10.0.0.5}` (Blocks specific IP addresses.) This should be used cautiously.
  • **Username Creation Restrictions:** Filters can be used to prevent the creation of usernames that violate wiki policies (e.g., usernames containing profanity or impersonating other users). This requires integration with the user creation process.
  • **Detecting Template Abuse:** Filters can be designed to detect the misuse of templates, such as adding excessive numbers of a particular template to a page.
  • **Detecting Attempted Circumvention of Filters:** Filters can sometimes detect attempts to bypass existing filters, such as by misspelling words or using Unicode characters. This is an advanced technique.
  • **Detecting Promotion of Pyramid Schemes:** `$text ~ /(earn money fast|get rich quick|passive income)/i` (Requires careful adjustment to avoid false positives.)

Monitoring and Maintenance

Abuse filters are not a "set it and forget it" solution. Regular monitoring and maintenance are essential to ensure their continued effectiveness.

  • Review Filter Logs: Regularly review the abuse filter logs to identify trends and patterns of abuse.
  • Update Filters: As the wiki evolves and new forms of abuse emerge, update your filters accordingly.
  • Address False Positives: Promptly investigate and address any false positives that are reported.
  • Stay Informed: Keep up-to-date with the latest security threats and best practices for abuse prevention. Consult resources like the OWASP foundation for security guidelines.
  • Regularly Evaluate Filter Performance: Assess the effectiveness of your filters and make adjustments as needed.

Resources and Further Learning


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