User:Joannac/Spam

The problem

As frequent users have noticed, we are getting a non-trivial amount of spam (typical with anything on the internet, really). These fall into:

1. Crappy username spam like these
2. Spam edits like this
3. Odd spam like this, which I'm pretty sure is spam but could just be anonymous users showing their appreciation...

Suggestions

1. We stay as we are. I don't actually mind protecting pages, deleting spam pages, and blocking spam IPs/users. Maybe I'll change my mind later, but for the moment, I don't care. But several different people have asked about more spam fighting measures, so I'm opening it up for wider discussion.
2. We ban all anonymous editing. This will fix problems 2 and 3, but not so much 1. Also this will annoy people logging in from public computers (i.e. internet cafe on holiday). Also people who want to make a contribution but don't want the hassle of making an account.
3. We install CAPTCHAs like this extension. This allows anyone to edit, requires unregistered users to solve a captcha, solving a captcha to register, and NO CAPTCHA to anyone signed in. This is a minor annoyance to people who regularly edit without logging in.
4. Some kind of script like Wenslayer suggested. I think the biggest problem with this is getting it past the wiki server admin.
5. We delete the whole wiki. (Just kidding).

Comments

Comment please! Add opinions, agreement/disagreement, other suggestions, random comments. Please also add a ranking for the options (if you have an opinion)

myka comments

captchas could work. They'd be occasionally annoying, but generally not a nusience (for all their evilness). note that 2 and 3 in my list are somewhat interchangable. I really haven't decided as yet

1. leave as is (as long as joanna remains happy with the situation)
2. captchas. (ReCaptcha is a decent thing in any case)
3. ban anonymous editing.
4. cleaning script.