Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2005-08-29/Vandals resurface

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Vandals surface again, disrupting Wikipedia

By Flcelloguy, August 29, 2005

Two vandals struck Wikipedia this week: the by-now familiar Willy-On-Wheels vandal, and a new vandal, dubbed the "Love Virus".

Willy on Wheels

Willy reappeared again this week, after weeks of dormant activity. Using multiple user names with references to "Willy" and "on Wheels", the vandal mass-moved pages from their original titles to pages with "...On Wheels" added. In addition, the multiple-language portal at www.wikipedia.org was vandalised for over an hour after Willy on Wheels changed the Wikipedia logo on WikiCommons to a picture referencing himself. A long cleanup effort by dedicated Wikipedians ensued, and every page move has now been reverted.

Implications

Because of the recurrance of the vandal, several editors pleaded with developers to install limitations on page moves. Developers assured the Wikipedia community that they were working on the problem; in fact, new users must now wait a certain amount of time before having the technical capabilities to move pages. A page-move limitation scheme was also discussed.

In addition, legal action was discussed at the administrator's noticeboard, with the possibility of contacting Willy on Wheels' ISP.

Love Virus

Another vandal appeared this week. Dubbed the "Love Virus", multiple user names replaced article content with the words "Love Virus". The most-affected articles were ones dealing with AIDS and love. Unfortunately, the user names did not share a common name, and were harder to track down. It is suspected that the "Love Virus" vandal could be a bot. Administrators quickly jumped on the vandals; in fact, one "Love Virus" username was blocked by four administrators simultaneously.

Also this week: Procedural changes — Vandals — Portal namespace — News and notes — Press coverage — Features and admins — T.R.O.L.L. — Errors