Unfortunately, wikae get targeted for spam very easily. And despite this becoming more and more of a problem, the tools used to combat it kinda suck.
In order to minimize the inconvenience for legit folks, I made some changes to help me monitor the issue. They are: SpamBlacklist, Nuke and .
- Extension:SimpleAntiSpam - Catches dumb bots right off the bat.
- Extension:SpamBlacklist - Uses the Wikimedia blacklist, which is okay for now. I will customize it as I see patterns emerge.
- Extension:Nuke - Mass page deleting. Pro-tip: Searching for pages without putting in anything will give you a list of recent content with checkboxes, which is a fast way to get a lot of spam deleted at once.
- $wgEmailConfirmToEdit - This is the worst one, which requires an email address to edit. I am just turning this on so I can have a small respite until I have more time to look into this.
It is tough having a publicly editable wiki. While Wikipedia is awesome precisely because anyone can edit it, most other wikae have neither the resources nor the critical mass required to effectively combat spam. I have to think about whether requiring an account is going to be okay for my specific needs, or if I really do think my projects can benefit from more accessibility.
One cool thing about the wikae farm is that I only have to block an account once! Makes it a bit easier to manage. 
