All The Tropes Wiki Project, Part IV

[GethN7]

We're having another 504 storm, starting at about 11 AM EST this morning. As before, it's only throwing the 504s on returning a page after a submit (either save or preview).

EDIT:  Argh.  No sooner do I post that than it starts throwing 504s on attempts to edit or just simply view.

 

John just looked into it, said this will happen every so often if there is a high amount of server load, but it should quickly normalize.

[Bob Schroeck]

Hooboy, the spammers hammered us last night, didn't they?

BTW, I've been meaning to ask for a couple weeks -- the few that get through and manage to post, what are they doing that gets them past the filters?
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.

[Another Troper]

Uh guys, something different:

Wasnt there something about copyright on TVTropes? Didn't you have atalk with them? What did they say about it?

[Bob Schroeck]

Still in the works, AT, and we can't say anything in public until matters are completely thrashed out.
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.

[GethN7]

Hooboy, the spammers hammered us last night, didn't they?

BTW, I've been meaning to ask for a couple weeks -- the few that get through and manage to post, what are they doing that gets them past the filters?

 

Easy. They weren't posting links, just nonsensical word salad posts with the same keywords.

Probably some idiot trying to do a keyword boosting SEO thing, which is less effective than link spamming but can still increase the likelihood what a spammer really wants people to find will show up on Google.

I added the most recurring phrases to the spam blacklist page (I also imported the spam blacklist from Wikimedia Meta).

If it ever happens again, just add the most commonly spammed phrases to the top of the list. (admins only)

Also, some spammers are patient and creating a ton of socks one day, then spam the next, or have their spambots using timers to attempt to sidestep insta-ban for spam filters. Most spammers have the patience of and attention span of goldfish, so this is rare, but occasionally one or two does slip past.

[Bob Schroeck]

...is Sweetgm2 ever going to stop adding stuff to Not Good with Rejection? I mean, it's almost doubled in size since they started (54K to 96K), and they're adding a kB or five of new material to it every day. I think we need to take a good look and make sure that what they're adding is actually proper examples.
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.

[GethN7]

...is Sweetgm2 ever going to stop adding stuff to Not Good with Rejection? I mean, it's almost doubled in size since they started (54K to 96K), and they're adding a kB or five of new material to it every day. I think we need to take a good look and make sure that what they're adding is actually proper examples.

I'd also advise looking at the TV Tropes page for the same and make sure it's not blatant copypasta.

[Bob Schroeck]

Oh, good point.
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.

[Morganite]

At least one example (the one for "The Incredibles") is word-for-word identical to an edit that was made to TV Tropes in 2013. (I'm also not sure it's a good example, but that's a different issue.)

Also, I'd change that yandere disambiguation to link to the trope directly, but I'm not an admin.

-Morgan. Or a registered user...

[GethN7]

At least one example (the one for "The Incredibles") is word-for-word identical to an edit that was made to TV Tropes in 2013. (I'm also not sure it's a good example, but that's a different issue.)

Also, I'd change that yandere disambiguation to link to the trope directly, but I'm not an admin.

-Morgan. Or a registered user...

 

I could tell. Several other edits were plagiarized too.

I mass reverted everything and gave the guy a stern warning here:

http://allthetropes.orain.org/w/index. ... 5D.5D_2099

[Bob Schroeck]

You guys beat me to it.

Meanwhile, it looks like that last edit you thanked me for, Geth, is doing the trick.
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.

[GethN7]

You guys beat me to it.

Meanwhile, it looks like that last edit you thanked me for, Geth, is doing the trick.

 

I noticed. I also backwalked the spam links and found the site most of it was being issued from and reported it to Google.

Turns out it was a massive crossroads site for helping spammers boost their SEO, which I'm sure Google is going to enjoy delisting from their search engine.

[Bob Schroeck]

3:45 PM EDT - In the space of a second -- between me getting a link suggestion in the search box and then clicking on it, the wiki went full 500 on me. Orain main page works fine.
Edit: Oh, and Recent Changes throws this:{quote]eeea0ef2] 2014-12-19 21:09:24: Fatal exception of type MWException[/quote] 
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.

[GethN7]

John is aware and is working on the problem.

[robkelk]

I'm getting database errors when editing or creating pages on poserdazfreebies - the edits are being saved, and clicking on "Page" or "Discussion" (as appropriate) shows the changes, so it isn't too bad. I assume this is related...
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."

- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012

[GethN7]

I'm getting database errors when editing or creating pages on poserdazfreebies - the edits are being saved, and clicking on "Page" or "Discussion" (as appropriate) shows the changes, so it isn't too bad. I assume this is related...

 

Yeah. John upgraded us to MW 1.24.1, but one of the servers is still being weird, so he's going to work on it more soon. For now, it should work acceptably enough until he gets rid of the remaining issues.

[GethN7]

Okay, I know, Christmas is coming up (Merry Christmas to anyone I forgot to say it to), but I was considering adding an extension used by Wikipedia to our bag of tricks to make examining new pages easier:

http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:PageTriage

It only lists new pages in the main namespace and has no limits on the amount of new articles that can be viewed, it will list then all. It also can be filtered and allows various page actions to be taken all from the same list for batch processing.

An even better description can be found here:

http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Page_Curation

If anyone thinks it's a good idea and would make new page curation less of a headache, let me know.

[Bob Schroeck]

I'd certainly be willing to give it a try, but "Page Curation" makes it sound like it's still incomplete.
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.

[Bob Schroeck]

Why are are external links now being rendered with a couple spaces after them? 
For example, if the text "Foo Bar" in the sentence "I drink at the Foo Bar, and eat at the Baz grill" is a link, it now appears as "I drink at the Foo Bar  , and eat at the Baz grill".
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.

[GethN7]

I'd certainly be willing to give it a try, but "Page Curation" makes it sound like it's still incomplete.

 

That's the project blueprint page, all of them sound incomplete. I've used it before, it's quite well featured.

As for the external links, this is odd, I'll look into that.

[Bob Schroeck]

a) Well, cool, then. I'll give it a try.

b) Thanks.
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.

[Bob Schroeck]

Latest update: "Internal Error" is coming up for all pages.
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.

[GethN7]

Latest update: "Internal Error" is coming up for all pages.

 

This is a known problem. prod3 (the server that controls database tables) is going ballistic for some reason, and as a precautionary measure against our data going down the tubes, it has been shut down and John is backing up all info on a recovery kernel while he looks into the issue.

All of Orain is to some greater or lesser extent down until this fixed, but please bear with us, this happened very suddenly and the wikis were shut down to prevent data loss/corruption, will update you whenever this is fixed (assuming my crap internet connection holds out).

Update: We're good again.

[Bob Schroeck]

Okay, great that we're back up again, but two other strange things started happening today, although I couldn't confirm them while we were having the big problems.
The first might be a change in a default setting somewhere in my preferences, but clicking on redirects doesn't take me to the target page anymore. Now it takes me to the redirect page itself, where it tells me what it redirects to.  I used to have to make a deliberate effort to see the redirect as a page, now I can't stop doing so.
Second, in both IE and Firefox/Seamonkey, up and down arrow key movement of the cursor has stopped working in the editor window.  I have to move the cursor from line to line with a mouseclick.
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.

[GethN7]

Okay, great that we're back up again, but two other strange things started happening today, although I couldn't confirm them while we were having the big problems.

The first might be a change in a default setting somewhere in my preferences, but clicking on redirects doesn't take me to the target page anymore. Now it takes me to the redirect page itself, where it tells me what it redirects to.  I used to have to make a deliberate effort to see the redirect as a page, now I can't stop doing so.

Second, in both IE and Firefox/Seamonkey, up and down arrow key movement of the cursor has stopped working in the editor window.  I have to move the cursor from line to line with a mouseclick.

 

This should clear up in a day or so. If it doesn't, I'll let John know.

He had to do some fast database work to get everything back up ASAP without causing too many issues, he will be working on it more tomorrow to smooth out any issues.

After Christmas, assuming these issues are cleared up, I'll request us some new extensions.