Wikipedia:WikiProject Spam

Report Spam

Use this button to report spam abuse (direct link). This will create a new section/report on the talk page.

As Wikipedia grows in popularity, the temptation to misuse its editability to bring attention to other websites becomes nearly unbearable. At one end of the spectrum are professional spammers seeking to drive traffic to commercial sites. At the other end are webmasters of simple community sites who want to get more attention for their sites. This potential for self-promotion on Wikipedia must be managed—Wikipedia is not a "repository for links" or a "vehicle for advertising". Wikipedia exists for the purpose of creating a collaboratively edited encyclopedia, not for any individual to promote a site in which they have an interest.

Those promoting sites by linking to them from Wikipedia formerly saw major search engine optimization (SEO) benefits, due to Wikipedia's popularity. The ability to promote a site's appearance in search engine results was considered too great an incentive for people to add extraneous links to articles. So in February 2007, the English Wikipedia instituted a policy that tags external links "NOFOLLOW."[1] This means that major search engines like Google no longer index these links. Many web site operators still seek to use Wikipedia to increase the number of inbound links to their sites, some either out of ignorance of SEO functionality or of this policy change, others because they simply hope to draw individual readers to their site through direct Wikipedia traffic.

Currently link spammers enjoy many advantages from the lack of cohesion to the spam-fighting process. It is possible to sneak links into relatively unwatched articles successfully. Such links may lie unexamined for months, gaining the appearance of legitimacy from having remained in an article so long. When spam links are reverted, there is not much communication. Spammers can return and add links when different editors are watching who do not know their history of editing-with-an-agenda. Frequently spam contributors take advantage of Wikipedia's Assume good faith policy. They may engage in straw-man or special pleading arguments for inclusion of their links under the guise that they have only the welfare of Wikipedia at heart, usually in the presence of evidence to the contrary.

WikiProject Spam is a voluntary Spam-fighting brigade. Our purpose is: to develop standards and processes for recognizing, hunting down, and eliminating link spam; to streamline communication between those who want to watch over articles to prevent it; and, to send a message by our actions and effectiveness that link spammers are fighting a war they cannot win.

If you would like to participate, we encourage you to add your name to the sign-up list. We encourage you to join in editing this page so we can grow toward consensus about the best way to fight link spam. You are welcome to relate any of your own current ongoing efforts to fight link spam on the talk page so that in the immediate future we can be aware of users that are acting with an agenda to promote an external site.