Topic on Project:Support desk

I started a Wiki: http://solidarity.coop/wiki

For weeks it had hardly very few visits, then since two weeks ago the traffic has increased sharply. If it continues at this pace I can't afford the hosting costs.

Traffic stats: http://i.imgur.com/pHoCge9.png

I don't think the traffic is organic, there's very little content on the wiki, but I did notice lot's of spammers. I've clicked 'protect' so they can't change pages anymore, but it seems they are still visiting.

Any idea's?

Your wiki is overrun with spam. Your RecentChanges page shows a lot of activity.

I'm not sure how this would affect your hosting costs, but I don't really deal with that sort of hosting.

You may want to look at using a place like Orain for your hosting.

Thanks, but I would prefer to work on reducing the spam.

https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Manual:Combating_spam

Your wiki is fu**ed: http://solidarity.coop/w/index.php?title=Special:RecentChanges&limit=500

Better start all over again. You should have disabled editing and registering days ago.

Yes it's $2,000+ in excess traffic.

So when I re-install, do I need to sacrifice user freedom by using..

( Prevent new user registrations except by sysops ) $wgGroupPermissions['*']['createaccount'] = false;

and / or

( Requires that a user be a member of the administrators (sysop) usergroup ) $wgGroupPermissions['*']['edit'] = false; $wgGroupPermissions['user']['edit'] = false; $wgGroupPermissions['sysop']['edit'] = true;

?

Huh? Get a serious hoster first.

You don't have to sacrifice user freedom, although if you are prepared to do that, you problem will most likely be solved once and for all. There's normally no need to restrict editing to sysops - if account creation is locked down then $wgGroupPermissions['*']['edit'] = false; $wgGroupPermissions['user']['edit'] = true; is normally enough.

If you want to keep a more open wiki, you should at least install SimpleAntiSpam, which apparently blocks the dumb varieties of spambots; and a captcha extension, which if set up properly, will require the solution of a captcha before you can create an account or add external links to pages.

Read the Manual:Combating spam page in full before reopening your wiki.

If I were you I would also check out Google Webmaster Tools. That spam can't have done any good for your Google ranking.

SimpleAntiSpam isn't needed anymore since MediaWiki 1.22 :) But a CAPTCHA at least for registering is a first step, and other nice tools, but it's all explained on the manual This, that and the other linked :)