Thread:Project:Support desk/Thanks for the software, but I'm out. There's just too much spam and hacking./reply

You don't say if you wanted a wiki or a CMS or what configuration changes you made, so I'll assume you just installed it and expected it to remain spam-free.

There are extensions to help you control spam: Extension:ConfirmEdit and Extension:SpamBlacklist are a couple. The manual page for combating spam also has pointers.

As far as people hacking into the software, did you keep up to date with the latest security fixes? There have been problems in the past, but they've been fixed.

Finally, if you want a CMS, it is true that we often advise people that MediaWiki is not a CMS, but we also have a manual page for that use case. I've successfully used MediaWiki as a CMS for a small site that I run.

If you install a wiki with its default settings, though, you should be aware of the underlying philosophy of the wiki: Anyone can edit.