Thread:Project:Support desk/Media Wiki is a spam machine unless it is set up properly./reply (2)

Yes, this is true. That is why spam combating measure should be enabled by default.

Understanding and effectively combating spam with the information on Manual:Combating spam is a very difficult task. I have been trying for days to make my site function properly by using the information on that page, and I am getting no where. I have installed almost all the extensions on that page.

I was able to delete all the spam pages, but I have thousands of spam bot accounts I can't delete (BlockandNuke extension is not working). Also, I enabled OpenID to stop spam bot account creation because the extension that enables the captcha doesn't actually stop the bots, but if I disable the non-OpenID accounts, then users can't make user names when creating an account with OpenID. So, now I have a catch-22, and if I enable account creation, I get spam bots. If I disable it, real uses can't make accounts with OpenID.

This is a huge mess that could have been prevented if strict spam prevention measures were enabled by default.