MediaWiki talk:Spam-blacklist/Archive 2010

removing backpackerscarmarket dot co nz

we would like the black list to be removed for our link, we were unaware of the rules about the numbers of links in each section and appologise for this. as for removing competitors i think this subject needs to be looked into further as you will find that our entry was the first to be removed and then degraded with libelous comments edited into information about our company. the information we left was informative and unbiased and at no stage did we degrade our competitors. we did remove the competitors that had written untruths about us, and in retrospect perhaps this was over zealous, however we were not familiar with this section of the website and didn't know how to make our grievances known. there is still a lot of information that is incorrect in this section, and we will continue to optimize this section so that it can be as useful as possible to visitors to New Zealand. We have now created an account as this seems to be the best way to go, and have read and fully understand the rules on these topics, many thanks.

Welcome to Wikivoyage. You can review the history of the article [1] to get some idea of how disruptive your editing was. The article had to be protected due to the frequency of your disruptive edits. You were left multiple messages, but continued unabated until your site was blacklisted. There is no right of any business to be listed on Wikivoyage, and I'm not convinced that you have the best interest of travellers to NZ in mind. --(WT-en) inas 18:18, 5 January 2010 (EST)

i can only appologise for the changes made, it appeared to me that someone was editing our entries/ and at times removing them completely as i assumed this was a competitor whose company was listed around the same time and started leaving all sorts of untruths about our company. as for messages i was unaware of any messages perhaps this was due to not having an account??? i would be interested to hear why you think these things. if you were to ask the 1000's of travelers that we have helped/ provided a good service to over the past 8 years i m sure they would disagree. but that is your opinion.

If you now have an account, can you please start signing your edits on this talk page? The signature button is second from the right on the toolbar of any edit screen. I will leave it to others more familiar with the history of your case to comment specifically. However, I will say that vandalising competitor listings and making other disruptive edits, and only thinking to stop and talk to us after you had been blacklisted, is not very smart. --(WT-en) Burmesedays 00:17, 8 January 2010 (EST)

ok thank you i didnt know how to do this, i understand that all records of edits can been seen so if someone would take the time to review them you will se that we were not the first to remove or vandalise anybodies edits. and as i have previously mentioned this section of the site was not known to me.--(WT-en) Backpackerscarmarket 19:42, 9 January 2010 (EST)

so if anyone actually bothers to check the edit history it is clear to see that i removed an edit from another, at the time, anonymous user which was making liabolous comments about my business whilst promoting another competitors business....mmmm. none of my edits have ever been abusive or liabolous. since that edit was made two or three users including inas have reverted my edits back to this anonymous users entry......a bit unfair and un substantiated dont you think??? i was as i have previously mentioned i was unaware of the login being so important nor of the rules about links or the talk facility etc so all i saw was various users continously removing my edits and replacing with lies made up by a competitor. i have since ceased removing these edits but still left a little confused as to the involvement of some apparently well respected members of this community in purveying malicious rumours. if someone would be so kind as to look into this and resolve the matter that would be great.--(WT-en) Backpackerscarmarket 22:38, 8 February 2010 (EST)

i have read and fully understand the relevant the wiki travel guidelines--(WT-en) Backpackerscarmarket 22:41, 8 February 2010 (EST)

Nonsense. I did no such thing. My only experience with and knowledge of your business has been your behaviour and interaction on this wiki.

I don't accept your naivety, the comments you claim you didn't see would have been right in front of you when you reverted the edits that you did. --(WT-en) inas 23:44, 8 February 2010 (EST)

Of course your edits have been abusive. You've been deleting competitors repeatedly [2][3], deleting them while simultaneously adding yourself [4][5][6][7][8], replacing their links with your own [9], replacing other companies with your own [10] and these are just a sample -- none of which involve even a negative comment about your company. Now, there was another anonymous user that was briefly involved in similar behaviour [11], but that was a single edit, subsequently reverted, and in no way justification for an ongoing edit war two months later after that user had left. -- (WT-en) D. Guillaime 00:48, 9 February 2010 (EST)

At this point I'm not sure there is a precedent for leaving a site on this list once the author is engaged, unless someone else knows of one. However, there is no guarantee your site will be listed here. --(WT-en) inas 23:44, 8 February 2010 (EST)

Actually, I do think there's precedent to leave sites on the blacklist despite author engagement. If either the behavior was egregious or the author is unrepentant, I don't see much reason to remove it. An apology and a clear commitment to not add their site again and to stop vandalizing articles would go some way towards building the good will for a removal, but I think we are under no obligation to poorly behaved touts. --(WT-en) Peter ^Talk 14:22, 9 February 2010 (EST)

The listing in question has been re-added to the article, albeit using a subpage of a consolidator webpage. Personally, I don't see it as an attempt to work within the guidelines, but rather a further attempt to work around them. We are talking used-car dealers here, I don't really know what standards of propriety we should expect. The options would either be to add the subsequent URL's here, or just take on the issue at the article itself. I'm inclined towards the latter. --(WT-en) inas 21:10, 10 February 2010 (EST)

my appologies inas i have taken another look back at the history and you are correct it wasn't you that reverted the edit back to the abusive edit that caused me to respond[[12]] , just to clarify we are not used car dealers, we do not sell cars we are a market, and we sell space to travelers to sell their own cars in. i have recently taken over the business and i have had a lot of problems with competitors trying to bad mouth us to bring the reputation of my business into disrepute and perhaps this is why i took the matter so personally, i can however promise that i will not involve my self with such behavior on this site again. --(WT-en) Backpackerscarmarket 15:00, 12 February 2010 (EST)

I've removed the entry. I look forward to your contributions in making the article a fair and helpful guide to travellers to New Zealand. --(WT-en) inas 17:43, 12 February 2010 (EST)

loverio dot net and rentapartmentrio dot com

See Special:Contributions/(WT-en) Mayimbe. I left a note on User talk:(WT-en) Mayimbe with pointers to the relevant policies, but spamming continued along with edit warring. -- (WT-en) Ryan • (talk) • 11:10, 4 January 2010 (EST)

in-bucharest dot com

See Special:Contributions/89.122.56.37. Site is not in compliance with the apartment rental listing policy and the user is edit warring. -- (WT-en) Ryan • (talk) • 12:56, 4 January 2010 (EST)

archsanblas tripod com

Constant spamming of San Blas Islands and ignoring message left in edit summaries and on User talk:198.218.18.206 --(WT-en) Burmesedays 07:52, 5 January 2010 (EST)

editing Zadar page

I can't seem to edit http://en.wikivoyage.org/w/index.php?title=Zadar at all because of the spam filter.

Hi! I deleted the direct croatia external link that seems to be blacklisted because it is an aggregator. You should be able to edit the page. Please sign your entries on talk pages with the ~ ~ ~ ~ so it is easier to follow the history. (WT-en) jan 09:52, 5 January 2010 (EST)

alfamahouse dot com

See Special:Contributions/93.108.192.177 and Special:Contributions/(WT-en) Ortsac. User is ignoring pointers to Project:Don't tout and Apt in edit summaries, on User talk:(WT-en) Ortsac, and engaging in edit warring. -- (WT-en) Ryan • (talk) • 14:17, 6 January 2010 (EST)

Seven Windmills B&B

Keeps double listing his business in several Amsterdam districts, despite numerous requests to stop. Hope this will get some attention. --(WT-en) Stefan (sertmann) ^talk 05:01, 14 January 2010 (EST)

Hello

I am Seven Windmills B&B owner. Firstly, let me say what a wonderful site this is.

The Amsterdam main page 'Sleep' section suggested with hyperlinks that visitors only stay in the Old Centre or South district for accommodation.

This discriminated against the grachtengordel area and other areas of the city like the Jordaan where most of the better, safer accomodation actually is.

Berfore the 'Amsterdam' page was restructured so that the city is clinically divided into administrative regions, we had many enquiries and lots of happy guest (mostly families) staying in our B&B. When the format of the page was changed, and no link to the grachtengordel area existed in the 'Sleep' section our page hit rate went to zero, and enquiries virtually stopped because of the way the main page was written - with a focus on cheap travel for singles.

It took me a while to figure why the enquiries had stopped. When I saw this new format it was clear that this situation might not be considered fair by some inckuding myslef, with my small business.

I also noticed a saw a block of text from the CityMundo booking agency in the 'Sleep' section directing everyone to their booking engine - and also notice they are not blacklisted here like my business ? How can this be so ?

So, in response, may I ask that I be allowed to advertise on Wikivoyage under the grachtengordel section, and that my alteration to the 'Sleep section' whith a link to the grachtengrodel be allowed to the remain on the Amsterdam page ?

Many Thanks, Kerk

I've removed your blacklisting, I can't find any links to CityMundo, but if you come across such links, feel free to remove it, as links to booking engines are not allowed per our external links policy. As for the nitty gritty bits on how the sleep section on the main page is set up - I hope some of our Dutch users can comment on that, maybe you can take the wording up on Amsterdam's talk page. --(WT-en) Stefan (sertmann) ^talk 21:07, 22 January 2010 (EST)

a2zrooms dot com

Booking agent inserting their email address and url into sleep lisitngs at Liverpool. --(WT-en) Burmesedays 08:03, 12 January 2010 (EST)

MS Salute

Keeps overwriting a competitor's entry in Hanoi, no response to talk page comments (anonymous IP). No URL, so trying the hotel's name instead to catch their attention. - (WT-en) D. Guillaime 23:59, 24 January 2010 (EST)

Thanks, good call. (WT-en) Gorilla Jones 00:43, 25 January 2010 (EST)

madagascat dot co za

I have gone out of my way to assist this user at User talk:(WT-en) Madagascattravel but no response, and continues to spam various Madagascar articles with a booking site link. --(WT-en) Burmesedays 11:20, 30 January 2010 (EST)

iwasinturkey dot com

The site is in the spam list. Is it possible to remove the site from the list or give us the reason why the site is in the spam list? We will do all the necessary actions to clear the site's name. —The preceding comment was added by (WT-en) 207.237.161.108 (talk • contribs)

Hi. The site wouldn't normally be allowed in Wikivoyage, due to our policy on at Project:External links. More than likely the site was being repeatedly re-added after being removed. If the site isn't going to be added any longer, it can be removed from this list. --(WT-en) inas 22:01, 31 January 2010 (EST)

You can be sure that it will not be added any more.

Is there any news about this?

Any news with this issue? It has been almost 2 months.

I have removed it, but will be watching to make sure it is not reinserted, and that goes for text/personal rants from that site as well. --(WT-en) Peter ^Talk 21:12, 23 March 2010 (EDT)

too broad marine(dot)ru

Currently the following URL is not allowed, referring to a pattern 'marine(dot)ru' -> 'marine\.ru'

http://marine(dot)rutgers.edu/opp/Temperature/Temperature1.html

Probably the pattern should still allow anything that has a letter immediately following "(dot)ru". --(WT-en) DenisYurkin 14:05, 2 February 2010 (EST)

Baoshan district of Shanghai

I am trying to link to the official webpage of Baoshan district government in Shanghai but gets this message: "'baoshan dot sh dot cn' -> '\w+\.sh\.cn'", how can this be fixed?, (WT-en) ClausHansen 02:02, 8 February 2010 (EST)

That's a weird one. It was on the other spam blacklist as described on Project:Spam filter, which isn't user-editable. Since it seems way too broad to be safe, I added it to the whitelist, so you should be able to add the link now. -- (WT-en) D. Guillaime 02:31, 8 February 2010 (EST)

Panama Spammer

I've blacklisted these today, after continued spamming/vandalism on project pages, despite a pretty stern warning on the users talk page.

• www|alemi2424|dot|blogspot|dot|com
• alemi24|at|gmail|dot|com
• www|villamichelle2|dot|blogspot|dot|com
• valenciamichelle|at|gmail|dot|com - --(WT-en) Stefan (sertmann) ^talk 08:14, 8 February 2010 (EST)

GTV resort dot com

This spammer (User talk:(WT-en) Bandhavgarh, Special:Contributions/122.168.58.126, Special:Contributions/122.168.39.144) has been adding listings/links for his hotel across multiple articles, usually 3–4 times per article, and more obnoxiously uploading loads of images of his hotel to both :en and Shared. There is one legitimate place for this listing, but I have now removed that too [13], for as long as the website will remain blacklisted. --(WT-en) Peter ^Talk 11:59, 15 February 2010 (EST)

Edgewater Investment Group

To avoid spending 4 years on this user as Wikipedia has done, since he is apparently both relentless, persistent and thoroughly unable to work within online communites, I propose a blanket ban (blacklisting) on all Edgewater Investment Group websites.

More details here: Talk:Put-in-Bay. If in doubt, I urge you check out the many links to the users activities on Wikipedia --(WT-en) Stefan (sertmann) ^talk 13:23, 15 February 2010 (EST)

Given some of the rather shocking reviews and postings online, in combination with the user's on-site behavior, I wouldn't be opposed, although I'm also somewhat uneasy with the precedent of a preemptive blacklisting. Would it be acceptable to simply blacklist URLs that have been added to Wikivoyage articles in the past, and state that future URLs added by this company are also subject to blacklist? -- (WT-en) Ryan • (talk) • 13:56, 15 February 2010 (EST)

Fine by me, although a cursory look at the Wikipedia debacle over this user, the huge number of websites and url's employed by this company, seems to be related to their inability to work with online communities. But I guess we can always adjust if it turns out to be true for Wikivoyage as well. --(WT-en) Stefan (sertmann) ^talk 14:19, 15 February 2010 (EST)

www dot handy-sparen dot de & www dot handy dot de

Both sites are daily inserted in the Germany article and are a clear violation of our xl policies. Only reactio so far but spammer was that he changed the IP. (WT-en) jan 05:41, 18 February 2010 (EST)

The spammer got creative and started to insert handy-sparen dot de (without the www). I will add this variation to the spamlist too. (WT-en) jan 16:54, 10 June 2010 (EDT)

Is the version with www. necessary to have in the blacklist at all? A blacklist entry on "somebusiness.com" should catch both "www.somebusiness.com" and "somebusiness.com", right? (WT-en) LtPowers 09:58, 12 June 2010 (EDT)

"www" should never be necessary. -- (WT-en) Ryan • (talk) • 10:58, 12 June 2010 (EDT)

VecheaVama dot ro

An anon user is very persistently reinstating this link, which really doesn't seem to be official in any way, shame or form, despite claims of the opposite. Maybe this will get some attention so we can engage with the user. --(WT-en) Stefan (sertmann) ^talk 18:23, 21 February 2010 (EST)

deraghotels dot de

Has been reinstating apartments that are only bookable for 14 days or more, contrary to our policies in apt, hope to get some engagement so only hotels or apartment available for ordinary bookings are listed on Wikivoyage. --(WT-en) Stefan (sertmann) ^talk 18:45, 21 February 2010 (EST)

paris-pyla dot fr

Listings that aren't in compliance with Apt keep getting re-added to Paris/5th arrondissement, Paris/6th arrondissement and Paris despite comments on talk pages and revert summaries. See Special:Contributions/82.234.244.214, Special:Contributions/(WT-en) Sunduk, and probably others. -- (WT-en) Ryan • (talk) • 12:51, 22 February 2010 (EST)

Don't understand ...

I tried to add a hotel-listing at the "Darjeeling"-page. Reads like this:

• <sleep name="Bellevue Hotel Darjeeling" alt="" address="P O Box 28, The Mall, Darjeeling, W.B. 734101, India" directions="Right at Chowrasta, the central square within the pedestrian zone" phone="+91 354 2254075" url="http://www.bellevuehotel-darjeeling.com" checkin="12.00 noon" checkout="anytime" price="INR 800-2000" lat="" long="" email="pulger@rediffmail.com" fax="">Run by a Tibetan family for around forty years, the Bellevue Hotel features a modest, dry and warm interior, rooms are wood-panelled and - to Indian standards - clean. The ground floor accommodates several shops as well as the hotel's Internet-Café. Its WLAN covers almost every room of the hotel, free of charge.</sleep>

Saving is blocked by Spam Filter.

Removed url -> Saving is blocked by Spam Filter.

Removed email -> Saving is blocked by Spam Filter.

Removed both -> Saving is blocked by Spam Filter.

So what? Does somebody know? —The preceding comment was added by (WT-en) Serkhang (talk • contribs)

It's possible that there is another listing on the page with something that is on the blacklist. I'll have a look. (WT-en) Nrms 14:39, 27 February 2010 (EST)

Yup - I can't even save the current page with no changes. This will take some sifting! (WT-en) Nrms 14:41, 27 February 2010 (EST)

OK, there was some text in a hotel listing that was on the blacklist. I've removed that text and succesfsfully saved the page. Try making your edit now. (WT-en) Nrms 14:50, 27 February 2010 (EST)

Works like a charm! Best thanks! I'm sorry for not signing my contribution, before. I only ticked the add-signature checkbox after submission. Newbie! Cheers (WT-en) serkhang 15:01, 27 February 2010 (EST)

No problem :) It's not compulsory to sign, but it just helps us know who we're working with. Any other problems, either drop a message on my talk page, or the Traveller's Pub is always a good palce to look. Glad to be of help. (WT-en) Nrms 15:05, 27 February 2010 (EST)

extremehotels dot com & swellsurfcamp dot com

The Cabarete article has been the subject of a long-running edit war between this business and another. I removed both from the article with a message on Talk:Cabarete that the owners would need to work out their differences before either could be re-added, but this listing has re-appeared several times since then so I'm adding it to the blacklist. -- (WT-en) Ryan • (talk) • 18:41, 1 March 2010 (EST)

Adding swellsurfcamp dot com as well as they've re-appeared in the article without first discussing. -- (WT-en) Ryan • (talk) • 18:40, 8 March 2010 (EST)

Roman Homes

Copied from User talk:(WT-en) Romanhom

Hello, I am not familiar with editing in Wikivoyage, and so I am not sure that this message will be read. If it is, please reply to this problem. I tried to write (in the "sleep" section of Rome) a brief description of our company Roman Homes, offering vacation rentals in Rome, also mentioning our website romanhomes dot com, but it doesn't go through. Seemingly our site is blacklisted. I read here that it could be that someone "removed competitor information". Now a few days ago an employee of mine said that because the policy instructed not to edit the website URL, than he removed all the URLs he found in the "sleep" section, because he believed that other competitors were violating your rule (!). Today I went to see the page he mentioned, and I found that the links of these competitors were there, and it wasn't possible to include a link to our site romanhomes dot com. Now I read that removing competitor information is a breach etc. Again this employee of mine thought that he was doing a good thing (!). Only now I understand that it was bad, and I am also glad that one can publish the URL of a website, to inform visitors about it. Can you kindly remove the "ban" on romanhomes dot com, as now we understand your policy, and we will abide by it? Thanks in anticipation. Mauro Abate - owner of Roman Homes, website romanhomes dot com —The preceding comment was added by (WT-en) Romanhom (talk • contribs)

There have been repeated instances of this company removing competitor URLs, as well as numerous pointers provided to the apartment rental listing policy since this company does not seem to have a "real world office" listed anywhere that I could see on their web site. While the URL removals may indeed have been an honest mistake, based on past behavior and the fact that the site would not seem to qualify to be listed here I'd be hesitant to remove it without first getting some assurance that the site will not again engage in anti-competitive behavior, and that they have read & understand the guidelines for when it is OK to list a rental agency. -- (WT-en) Ryan • (talk) • 11:53, 7 March 2010 (EST)

Copied from User talk:(WT-en) Romanhom

Hello Ryan,

I apologize again for the deletion of the URLs etc., as mentioned it was done in good faith by a collaborator of mine, who understood wrongly your policy (he believed that URLs should not be published, in fact he mentioned to me that he did not delete any text, but only the URLs, as you problably noticed).

We read well your policy, which I found in the link you prompted me to, and we agree with them. We honestly don't understand why you could not find the address and details of our agency, which I wrote in the edited text, and which can be also found in our website (please see the entry "Meet your guests" in the "Overview" drop-down menu of our site. The details are as follows. Roman Homes, address: Via Nettunense Nuova 65, 00040 Marino Rome (Marino is a little village in Rome's periphery, it is more ancient than Rome itself). Our phone numbers are: (+39) 069352216 or (+39) 3332420210. Our agency, working usually with exclusive rights agreement with the owners of vacation rental agencies, is one of the oldest and most reputable of Rome, operating since 1997, although it was active since 1990 as a cultural society of Rome University, hosting people coming to Rome for cultural purposes. Throughout the years, we have been pioneers in many aspects of this activity in Rome (first agency to organize in the 90s a network of room rentals for people coming to Rome solely for cultural reasons, first website in Rome to use digital photography and especially panoramic photos, first agency in Italy to organize online a car service etc.). Usually, our website is sadly plagiarized by copycats, for which we had to resort to lawsuits. Among the copycats, some of the other agencies edited in wiki Travel. For ex. the agency Rome Sweet Home began in 2001, editing their website largely by copying/pasting text and photos from our website, which is considered one of the best and most complete presenting Rome (and not only the sheer apartments rented). Should you require additional information, I will be glad to provide it. Thanks, and keep up your good work. —The preceding comment was added by (WT-en) Romanhom (talk • contribs)

I've removed this URL, but would encourage the site owner to carefully read the apartment listing policy as well as Project:Don't tout. -- (WT-en) Ryan • (talk) • 10:54, 8 March 2010 (EST)

Thanks Ryan, and before posting anything I will read well again the apartment listing policy and also the "Don't tout", although it is sometimes hard to understand the borderline between the allowed or correct listing information, and what is touting. I will do my best, hopefully it will work out. Regards, Mauro.

This is a second message, after reading the apartment listing policy and also the "Don't tout" policy. We understood well both, and we'll do our best to follow the guidelines and the policies. Thanks again Ryan. Regards, Mauro Abate

Dieria

Added in the slim hopes that it might halt some unusually dumb and sadly persistent vandalism. -- (WT-en) Ryan • (talk) • 23:20, 15 March 2010 (EDT)

skijapantravel dot com

Travel agent that has consistently spammed Hakuba and other articles.--(WT-en) Burmesedays 09:21, 21 March 2010 (EDT)

mbt2sale dot com

One of the few spammers that consitently create nonsense articles about shoes and varies the text but not the link. (WT-en) jan 05:52, 22 March 2010 (EDT)

sagatravel dot is

Travel agent who spammed multiple Iceland articles. All were deleted and messages left, came back and did the same again.--(WT-en) Burmesedays 10:20, 22 March 2010 (EDT)

also myvatn dot net, which is the same agent back and posting the same tours. See here.

benusang

A very persistent tour guide from Nigeria who continues to place his ALL-CAPS listings on the top of articles from Africa to Nigeria to Calabar. See here, here, here, and I'm sure several others. -- (WT-en) Ryan • (talk) • 16:24, 22 March 2010 (EDT)

I've also added "BEN USANG" for the same reasons as above. -- (WT-en) Ryan • (talk) • 11:15, 14 June 2010 (EDT)

I've now also listed the user's phone numbers (2348053443045 and 2347029722727) as he returns on a near-daily business to spam the Calabar article. -- (WT-en) Ryan • (talk) • 11:37, 14 July 2010 (EDT)

holidaysinkeramoti dot com

Persistant spamming sub Rome articles and talk pages. States in summary holidays in greece. (WT-en) jan 16:03, 24 March 2010 (EDT)

bedbugspictures dot net

Creation of spam articles (e.g. Bedbugs) that are always full of new xl violations. (WT-en) jan 10:15, 25 March 2010 (EDT)

vienna-cityapartments dot at

Several users tried to advise this business that their listing is against our Apt policy and started instead with front linkind and reinsertion. (WT-en) jan 04:45, 28 March 2010 (EDT)

Hello Ryan,

what can I do that you remove my site from the blacklist? Please help me.

Greetings from Vienna Guido

This was today (bizarrely) posted in the 2008 archives:

Hello, why is my apartment url on the blacklist here. I dont understand. Please help me about this. Vienna Cityapartment at is my site. Im the Owner of the 4 Apartments in Vienna. Guido

I suggest you read the above.--(WT-en) Burmesedays 23:29, 28 March 2010 (EDT)

I dont understand why I´m on the Blaclist here. Please help me to remove me from the blacklist. I´m not a travel agency. Here are many Privat apartments with their link. Why cant I do this? Please help....Kind regards Guido

You persistently edit-warred after your link was correctly removed from Vienna. If you took the trouble to read Project:Accommodation_listings#Apartment_listings you would see why - no real world address provided amongst other things. On top of that your listing was badly formatted with a front link drawing attention to it, and kept appearing at the top of the list, rather than in alphabetical order. Messages to this effect were left in the edit history at Vienna but ignored.--(WT-en) Burmesedays 09:55, 30 March 2010 (EDT)

Hello,

who can help me to remove my homepage fron the blacklist. I will put my apartment on the right place here und add my adress. Please help me here. Im sorry about the the mistakes that I did. Thank you forwarding. Kind regards

Guido

I'm afraid you haven't made a very good case as to why your site should NOT be blacklisted. Sites aren't added to the blacklist unless there have been repeated violations, including ignoring pointers left by other users. If that's the case with your business then I'm not sure that Wikivoyage is an appropriate venue for you to advertise on. -- (WT-en) Ryan • (talk) • 10:37, 7 April 2010 (EDT)

Also you re-added your business with the same url but instead of dot at you changed to dot com which is just circumventing our blacklisting. (WT-en) jan 10:44, 7 April 2010 (EDT)

Hello Ryan,

please give me a second chance for my site dot at here. Thie is my mainside. In the future I will follow the rules here. Thanks forwarding for your help. Kind regards Guido

cretan-nutrition dot gr

Violation of dt and xl plus frontlinking in the Crete food section. (WT-en) jan 04:56, 31 March 2010 (EDT)

baylodging dot com, islandclub dot com, and putinbayresort dot com

See Talk:Put-in-Bay#Edgewater Investment Group. --(WT-en) Peter ^Talk 22:55, 1 April 2010 (EDT)

begin of the skype highlighting

It seems like a Skype plugin is broken and is adding meta tags when certain users edit articles. Hopefully blacklisting this tag will solve the problem. -- (WT-en) Ryan • (talk) • 10:45, 7 April 2010 (EDT)

Skype highlighting?

swept in from pub:

For the skype uninitiated, could someone explain why edits like this [14] are occurring? Is there anything we can do to stop this from happening? --(WT-en) Peter ^Talk 10:29, 7 April 2010 (EDT)

Peter, Skype is similar to an instant messenger but when you look at a page and skype is activated plus the skype highligt you can immediately call the number. It's rather a nuisance imho because when a page is full of it then virtually any number can be imediately called via your skye account. It's called skype out and you can call through this any phone number in the world. In essence it turns an article in a virtual yellow page site and you can call all phone numbers. I think it's a promotional tool and therefore i work hard to delete it. Also it's against our way we format listings because it doesn't benefit the reader (and especially the editor) and is just a tool to easier call a business. (WT-en) jan 10:39, 7 April 2010 (EDT)

I've added the term in question to the blacklist - hopefully whatever plugin is causing the breakage will be fixed soon. -- (WT-en) Ryan • (talk) • 10:47, 7 April 2010 (EDT)

villabrasilmotel dot com

At Santa Monica, user pasted his listing over the top of an existing competitor and then inserted his url into six other listings, deleting the correct urls. --(WT-en) Burmesedays 01:45, 11 April 2010 (EDT)

Wow, then did the same thing to the Hollywood article. I think that's blatant enough that no matter what the future excuse might be, this one stays permanently blacklisted. -- (WT-en) Ryan • (talk) • 12:59, 11 April 2010 (EDT)

Angelfire

Why is Angelfire on the blacklist? I've got a Buy listing whose web site is on Angelfire. (WT-en) LtPowers 22:56, 23 April 2010 (EDT)

I don't see anything on any of the blacklist talk pages, so I'd say go ahead and remove it. -- (WT-en) Ryan • (talk) • 23:03, 23 April 2010 (EDT)

galapagosonline dot com

I've removed this one numerous times from the Galapagos Islands article because the site is a reseller of tours, not an actual operator, but it continues to be re-added. -- (WT-en) Ryan • (talk) • 16:36, 28 April 2010 (EDT)

zanys dot com

Rental agency that spams Beijing, Shanghai and other Chinese articles with their promotion and ignored warning. Finally started to edit warring, so block and blacklist. (WT-en) jan 05:57, 29 April 2010 (EDT)

mommitaslodge dot jimdo dot com

User talk:(WT-en) Zaldyangulo or anonymously User talk:203.84.185.186 continiously enters his business in the Coron and Busuanga Island article in a very touty way and ignored several warning by multiple users. I'm going to blacklist all of his regular entries. (WT-en) jan 07:15, 30 April 2010 (EDT)

sandovallodge dot jimdo dot com

User talk:(WT-en) Zaldyangulo or anonymously User talk:203.84.185.186 continiously enters his business in the Coron and Busuanga Island article in a very touty way and ignored several warning by multiple users. I'm going to blacklist all of his regular entries. (WT-en) jan 07:15, 30 April 2010 (EDT)

shirlbaywalkpensionhouse dot webs dot com

User talk:(WT-en) Zaldyangulo or anonymously User talk:203.84.185.186 continiously enters his business in the Coron and Busuanga Island article in a very touty way and ignored several warning by multiple users. I'm going to blacklist all of his regular entries. (WT-en) jan 07:15, 30 April 2010 (EDT)

coronvillahermosaguesthouse dot webs dot com

User talk:(WT-en) Zaldyangulo or anonymously User talk:203.84.185.186 continiously enters his business in the Coron and Busuanga Island article in a very touty way and ignored several warning by multiple users. I'm going to blacklist all of his regular entries. (WT-en) jan 07:15, 30 April 2010 (EDT)

orientallodginghouse dot webs dot com

User talk:(WT-en) Zaldyangulo or anonymously User talk:203.84.185.186 continiously enters his business in the Coron and Busuanga Island article in a very touty way and ignored several warning by multiple users. I'm going to blacklist all of his regular entries. (WT-en) jan 07:15, 30 April 2010 (EDT)

amorpensionhouse dot webs dot com

User talk:(WT-en) Zaldyangulo or anonymously User talk:203.84.185.186 continiously enters his business in the Coron and Busuanga Island article in a very touty way and ignored several warning by multiple users. I'm going to blacklist all of his regular entries. (WT-en) jan 07:15, 30 April 2010 (EDT)

coronsunriseinn dot jimdo dot com

User talk:(WT-en) Zaldyangulo or anonymously User talk:203.84.185.186 continiously enters his business in the Coron and Busuanga Island article in a very touty way and ignored several warning by multiple users. I'm going to blacklist all of his regular entries. (WT-en) jan 07:27, 30 April 2010 (EDT)

extremeiceland dot is

This address has now been added and reverted three times from Talk:Iceland. To the user who keeps doing this: talk pages are for discussing the corresponding article, not for advertising a business. In a similar vein, please read our policy on listing tour companies. -- (WT-en) Ryan • (talk) • 15:42, 1 May 2010 (EDT)

grammy dot com

Anon user 91.201.66.24 has spammed several articles with this link. It violates several policies. (WT-en) jan 04:20, 10 May 2010 (EDT)

Potentially useful in the Los Angeles/Downtown article, but it's probably not a big loss. (WT-en) LtPowers 06:56, 10 May 2010 (EDT)

lidodivenezia dot it

This hotel booking site keeps adding about a dozen links to the Venice/Lido article, despite pointers to Project:External links. -- (WT-en) Ryan • (talk) • 10:18, 13 May 2010 (EDT)

Hoianeasyriders dot wordpress dot com blocked

I made an entry a while ago for a local business in vietnam (http://en.wikivoyage.org/wiki/Hoi_An) and some punk recently removed it.

See: Hoi An Easyriders (Hoi An Easyriders)

I've attempted to add it back in but when I attempt to save it with the url="Hoianeasyriders dot wordpress dot com I get a spam block notification.

I don't know why it is blocked but it is very frustrating. I would like to add the URL back in. —The preceding comment was added by (WT-en) Davidgelman (talk • contribs)

The "punk" who deleted the listing consists of at least four of this site's administrators - see the edit history for the article. Edit warring and removing competitor listings is a pretty serious violation of site policy. -- (WT-en) Ryan • (talk) • 01:24, 15 May 2010 (EDT)

And you just made it worse by reinserting a different url, which has now also been blacklisted easyridersadventure dot wordpress dot com.--(WT-en) Burmesedays 10:02, 15 May 2010 (EDT)

Expanded out the pattern a bit to catch new attempts including overwriting of competitors, cf. [15]. -- (WT-en) D. Guillaime 20:34, 12 February 2011 (EST)

mahindrahomestays dot com

See Special:Contributions/(WT-en) Mahindrahomestays. I'm not sure whether this site is valid for listing here per our accommodation guidelines, but the mass updates of improperly formatted listings are clearly not inline with the SEO policy, and the user hasn't responded to messages left on his/her talk page. -- (WT-en) Ryan • (talk) • 13:27, 17 May 2010 (EDT)

suites-et-compagnie dot com

This listing is not in compliance with the apartment listing policy, but despite pointers to that guideline it has been re-added to Bordeaux at least four times. -- (WT-en) Ryan • (talk) • 14:08, 17 May 2010 (EDT)

Milkshakes

I added for the city of Jamshedpur(India), the following:

==Nonalcohol/Milkshakes==

• BHATIA Milk Shake Store - Its app. 200 m opposite from Bank of Baroda, in the Bistupur Market. Just ask locals where it is exactly from Bank of Baroda. They have got the best MilkShakes in town, best recommende from myside is Chocolate and Rose, for me being an European I did not encounter any stomach problems, but better ask for it without Ice, to be sure. Starts from Rs. 15

There is no URL or anything, has someone an advice? —The preceding comment was added by 78.49.42.82 (talk • contribs)

Chances are that there is an item from the blacklist already in the article, rather than in the text you're trying to add. Unfortunately, that makes it hard to find. (WT-en) LtPowers 15:45, 17 May 2010 (EDT)

It should be OK now - one of the phone numbers was blacklisted. -- (WT-en) Ryan • (talk) • 15:49, 17 May 2010 (EDT)

hotelsneardelhi dot com

Several links in the understand section in cities and towns around Delhi in blatant form. (WT-en) jan 06:51, 18 May 2010 (EDT)

peacemission dot info

I am trying to update a link to our church's website from the old one fdipmm dot libertynet dot org to the new www peacemission dot info but its getting spammed. What should I do?

Which article are you trying to edit? --(WT-en) Peter ^Talk 13:30, 19 May 2010 (EDT)

I'm sorry, it is this one: http://en.wikivoyage.org/wiki/Montgomery_County_(Pennsylvania) on Woodmont Palace Mission Inc. Thank you

I've removed the record that was triggering the blacklist in that article. -- (WT-en) Ryan • (talk) • 20:51, 20 May 2010 (EDT)

Thanks a lot, it worked!

nanuksbungalows dot com

See the history of the Nusa Lembongan article - anonymous user(s) have been replacing numerous URLs on the page with this one and have ignored all warnings (per Project:Don't tout) to stop. From the article history this looks to be a particularly egregious abuse. -- (WT-en) Ryan • (talk) • 21:12, 21 May 2010 (EDT)

You beat me to it Ryan. These guys have had many months of rope but did not stop and have finally hung themselves.--(WT-en) Burmesedays 07:27, 22 May 2010 (EDT)

loveblogspot dot com

Spambot that create new sites all having a link to the above mention site. (WT-en) jan 11:20, 22 May 2010 (EDT)

nexgenam dot com

Spamming Talk:Main page is not only egregious, it is stupid. User has already been warned in the past. --(WT-en) Peter ^Talk 10:04, 26 May 2010 (EDT)

hoteldeals dot ae

See Special:Contributions/87.212.68.217. User has been spamming us with hotel aggregator links and isn't responsive to comments left on his/her talk page. -- (WT-en) Ryan • (talk) • 15:47, 30 May 2010 (EDT)

travelgrenada dot com

Rather ballsy ongoing spam at Grenada. If user replies and agrees to stop, please remove from blacklist. --(WT-en) Peter ^Talk 20:20, 1 June 2010 (EDT)

Kodagu

I am having difficulties in editing Coorg http://en.wikivoyage.org/w/index.php?title=Kodagu&action=submit please could you help? It says some spam filter is blocking things. (WT-en) Fredericknoronha 17:21, 3 June 2010 (EDT) Fredericknoronha

Fixed. -- (WT-en) Ryan • (talk) • 17:27, 3 June 2010 (EDT)

noxedge dot com

Spamming the talk page of our main page is stupid and frontlinking makes it only worse... (WT-en) jan 07:22, 4 June 2010 (EDT)

gringorent-a-car dot com

Spamming our Margarita Island unser username Mustsee and with anon IP. Has been warned but kept inserting. (WT-en) jan 11:26, 5 June 2010 (EDT)

The entry itself, though, would appear legit? A local car hire provider in the area? Although I'm no fan of touty entries, I think time may have been saved in this instance by just formatting the entry, rather than an edit war, article protection and spam list adding. --(WT-en) inas 20:21, 7 June 2010 (EDT)

Inas, i'm now in contact with the business owner and it was a lot of hassle so all others know what happens to this very touty entries. I think in the long run it will be beneficial for WT because otherwise we have huge lists of rental companies with negative value.(WT-en) jan 11:30, 13 June 2010 (EDT)

I was unaware of the talk feature and thought someone was removing the information out of spite or compitition. I will follow the rules and apologize for not understanding. Please remove from the spam list. Thanks, MustSee

Thank you for your acknowlegdment and i will remove it from the blacklist. (WT-en) jan 11:24, 14 June 2010 (EDT)

Hi Jan, a competitor has been deleting/changing the Margarita Island board and I need help. Thanks (WT-en) MustSee 13:23, 17 October 2010 (EDT)

YOUR most recent edit removed your competitor's listings, so it's a bit disingenuous to say that you are a victim here. In any case, as discussed at Talk:Margarita Island I've rewritten the "Get in" section and removed the individual car rental company listings - the amount of time being devoted to this edit war is not worth it. -- (WT-en) Ryan • (talk) • 13:34, 17 October 2010 (EDT)

Hi Ryan, sorry I am not real sharp with a computer. Since those listings contained incorrect phone numbers, I didn't see the harm. If you look at the history you will see this spammer has been up to this for awhile, just recently posting other companies. The spammer is only out to cause harm. I asked Jan for help in my talk section awhile back, but I must have done something wrong. If I goofed I apologize.

I noticed the http://en.wikivoyage.org/wiki/Wikivoyage:External_links#What_not_to_link_to states " Rental cars operators, in cities where they are common (10 or more operating in the city). Typically we don't provide details of national car rental chains in local guides. Providing details at the national level, and mentioning the name and location at local level is sufficient if required."

Since GRC is the only car rental agency in Playa El Yaque, I am requesting that a link be permitted to be placed under the Playa El Yaque portion. If you think it should say something other then what it does I will need help in formatting because computers are not my bag. Thanks (WT-en) MustSee 16:23, 17 October 2010 (EDT)

Maybe this will help? http://en.wikivoyage.org/wiki/Wikivoyage:User_ban_nominations#Outstanding_nominations Cheers (WT-en) MustSee 20:27, 17 October 2010 (EDT)

sheraton dot com/senggigi

Sadly a nice hotel in Senggigi has started to spam our article with multiple listings. Several warnings have made and efforts to contact them. The Sheraton still spams the article so we need to blacklist them because otherwise business owners in the region will cry foul. Please revert on spot. (WT-en) jan 03:38, 7 June 2010 (EDT)

Whoever's doing it seems more confused than anything else. Sometimes I wonder how much of this sort of thing is simple ignorance of wiki customs (talk pages, edit summaries, etc.) and how much is malicious in nature. (WT-en) LtPowers 09:05, 7 June 2010 (EDT)

Lt:Powers: In this region it has become more and more common to spam our article. Nanuk's Bungalow from Nusa Lembogan started the same way (and is blacklisted now,too). The region is not so well covered by the Lonely Planets etc. so our articles are pretty high up in the google ranking. I think some don't know what they are doing but the majority is very experienced what they do (and interested to stay in the article). See e.g. User talk:Jc8136/Archives#Nusa_Lembongan_page_and_Mainski Cheers (WT-en) jan 09:48, 7 June 2010 (EDT)

travelingtolisbon dot com

Non-compliant Apartment agency that continiously places ther listing in Lisbon and has been reverted by most active admins in the last weeks. (WT-en) jan 05:33, 8 June 2010 (EDT)

barcelonacheckin dot com

One of the bunch of aparment agencies that keep spamming our Barcelona in multiple ways and occasions. (WT-en) jan 07:54, 11 June 2010 (EDT)

Time to trim the blacklist?

There are some disadvantages to having a long blacklist - large regular expressions are slower, it's tougher to manage a long list, and some of our patterns may be overly broad or targeted to specific users who are no longer vandalizing the site (example: (Yangshuo).*(Julie)). Would anyone mind beginning a process to try to trim this list down a bit by removing some of the more obvious cleanup targets? If something is removed that triggers an increase in spam we can always re-add it later, but I think it's probably time to get rid of some of the phone number patterns and similar items that may have outlived their usefulness. -- (WT-en) Ryan • (talk) • 15:03, 15 June 2010 (EDT)

The following patterns were added prior to June 2009 and haven't been modified since, so I've pulled them out as test cases:

((h|H)(e|E|é|É|/?)(l|L)(p|P)).*((c|C)(o|ó|O|Ó|/?)(m|M)(b|B)(a|A)).*((h|H)(o|ó|O|Ó|/?)(m)(o|ó|O|Ó|/?)(s|S)(e|E|é|É|/?)(x|X))
((h|H)(o|ó|O|Ó|/?)(m)(o|ó|O|Ó|/?)(s|S)(e|E|é|É|/?)(x|X)).*((d|D)(e|E|é|É|/?)(t)(e|é|é|é|/?)).*(((r|R)+)(e|E|é|É|/?)(n|N)(t|T))
((h|H)(o|ó|O|Ó|/?)(m)(o|ó|O|Ó|/?)(s|S)(e|E|é|É|/?)(x|X)).*((w|W)(o|ó|O|Ó|/?)(r|R)(s|S)(e|E|é|É|/?)).*((a|A)(n|N)(i|I)(m|M))
((s|S)(o|ó|O|Ó)(d|D)(o|ó|O|Ó)(m|M)).*(t|T)(r|R)(a|A)(v|V)(e|E|é|É|/?)((l|L)+)((e|E|é|É|/?))
((thr..t|d.t.r+.nt)\sto\ss.c.{2}ty.*(s.d.m.st.?|d\S{2}th|c.ns.nt.{3})|=?p.rv.rt\S{,3}[=_-\s\\\/\']*(or|and)?[=_-\s\\\/\']*(l\Ssb\S{,2}ns?pr.v.nc.\.org|\sc.p.t.l|p.{2}pl.|.v.nts?|fr.{2}ndly?|tr.v.l{2}(.rs)?|life|f.st.v{,3}|mardi|t.l.r.nc.?|v.s.t.rs?|r.ghts?|act.v.t\S{,3})|(gay|lesbian)[_-\s\\\/\']*p.rv.rt.{0,2})
1259135415\.info
22101822
22442047
22442051
22442591
22492591
22845062
24551491
28400811
3319\W?11437
33630631
39012240
322973398779
4564564
55543695
69443695
9339424307
9433483411
9830233754
9830794541
9831031895
98312240
9883508673
© 20\d\d
accomodations-ragovij\.cn
adgfag
Aimersoft

-- (WT-en) Ryan • (talk) • 22:16, 16 June 2010 (EDT)

www dot africanbluetours dot com

Continious violation of dt and tours plus places ad in most South African articles. I tried to contact but no reaction. (WT-en) jan 03:43, 15 June 2010 (EDT)

Error in Digha article

When I wanted to revert this mass, unexplained removal, I've been notified about a blacklisted link in the article. As far as I can see, there is only one external link in the article (the one at the intro), and I can't tell whether it really is an official homepage (and thus really deserves to be at the top), but it certainly is not blacklisted (or, at least I couldn't notice it in the list). How to get around this problem? – (WT-en) Vidimian 04:52, 16 June 2010 (EDT)

Hi! I just tried and was able to save the article. Please try again and otherwise log in and out (sometimes that solves the problem). (WT-en) jan 05:05, 16 June 2010 (EDT)

Nope, logging out and in did not work. Could you please try undoing that edit I mentioned yourself, so we can see if the problem is somehow restricted to me or anybody trying to undo that edit goes through the same? – (WT-en) Vidimian 05:12, 16 June 2010 (EDT)

Burmeseday already did it. If the problem continues maybe ask Ryan as he knows a lot of good tricks. (WT-en) jan 05:16, 16 June 2010 (EDT)

Isn't that edit made after Burmesedays took care of something else? Or am I too sleepy to be able to see clearly? – (WT-en) Vidimian 05:21, 16 June 2010 (EDT)

I just tried to revert it as well, and also was blocked by the spam filter – (WT-en) cacahuate ^talk 05:46, 16 June 2010 (EDT)

One of the phone numbers in a hotel listing was the culprit. I think that this is a further argument in favor or pruning old blacklist entries as we seem to be causing some unintended collateral damage. -- (WT-en) Ryan • (talk) • 10:37, 16 June 2010 (EDT)

Hostel Ukraine dot com

Business owner appears to be deleting competitor info and replacing it with his own. That's about as shameful an edit that one can possibly make on Wikivoyage, so I'm happy to add this one to the blacklist. --(WT-en) Peter ^Talk 22:44, 16 June 2010 (EDT)

Can we get this one off the blacklist?

I have no connection with the management or owners of this place, I just wanted to add it as a useful piece of information:

http://www dot sitio-do-alemao dot 20fr dot com/ (WT-en) Mariusm98 12:19, 23 June 2010 (EDT)

20fr dot com is being blocked from the main Mediawiki blacklist. We could theoretically whitelist it here, but in general we won't do so without a good reason - what is the site you're trying to link to? It looks to me like a guide about a region, which wouldn't be in accordance with our Project:External links policy. -- (WT-en) Ryan • (talk) • 13:50, 23 June 2010 (EDT)

TANDAMATA

A gift shop owner has now re-added this listing to the Bali article four times and ignored requests to stop. Individual businesses go in city articles, not region articles, and given the user's behavior this seems like a toury advertisement and thus isn't something we even want in city articles. -- (WT-en) Ryan • (talk) • 01:15, 27 June 2010 (EDT)

manalimedicalaid dot ning dot com

Major spam attack ongoing and one of the regular sites listed. (WT-en) jan 15:37, 1 July 2010 (EDT)

studentdoctor dot net

Major spam attack ongoing and one of the regular sites listed. (WT-en) jan 15:43, 1 July 2010 (EDT)

connect dot cityname dot com

Major spam attack ongoing and one of the regular sites listed. (WT-en) jan 15:54, 1 July 2010 (EDT)

I've consolidated the pattern slightly. -- (WT-en) Ryan • (talk) • 11:26, 2 July 2010 (EDT)

Amethystbangalore DOT Com

Hi, Tried adding some content, ot says something about spam filter.. Not sure what it refers to as the listing was genuine and not spam. Can some one pls help. —The preceding comment was added by 128.243.253.114 (talk • contribs)

It would be really helpful if you could tell us what article you were trying to edit. (WT-en) LtPowers 09:10, 3 July 2010 (EDT)

wanndo dot com

See Special:Contributions/(WT-en) Happyclick and Special:Contributions/203.130.251.210. The URL that keeps getting re-added to articles isn't even a functional site ("coming soon"), but it appears from the listing text that this is an attempt to market a t-shirt. The same user has previously spammed us with advertisements for a volcano tourism outfitter. -- (WT-en) Ryan • (talk) • 00:01, 14 July 2010 (EDT)

expeditiontrips dot com

This link keeps getting re-added to the Antarctica article on a near-daily basis, despite pointers in edit summaries and on user talk pages to the Tour and Project:External links policies. It looks like a decent site, but they list tours offered by other companies and thus is not appropriate for listing here according to our guidelines. -- (WT-en) Ryan • (talk) • 13:50, 15 July 2010 (EDT)

skisilverthorne dot com

An anonymous user has been returning every morning to re-add this listing to six or seven different articles despite being provided pointers to Project:Don't tout. See Special:Contributions/173.217.31.59 and Special:Contributions/24.8.136.4. -- (WT-en) Ryan • (talk) • 10:25, 4 August 2010 (EDT)

falafelbus dot com

Repeatedly added and re-added to numerous Middle Eastern articles, from country-level on down (like so and so). User hasn't responded to requests to stop, see User talk:(WT-en) Deanot78. — (WT-en) D. Guillaime 02:40, 11 August 2010 (EDT)

Barcelona Apartments blacklist

Should not be listed at all, as they don't comply with our apartments policy:

• http://www.bcnsuites.com, see [16]
• http://www.barcelonaramblasapartments.com/: see [17]
• (list to be expanded from a log of both previous and future reverts)

Should not be in district articles, as they offer apartments in more than one disrict:

• http://www.barcelonaflats.co.uk
• http://www.apartmentsramblas.com
• http://www.BarcelonaApart.com
• http://www.barcelonaflats.co.uk
• http://www.cheapapartmentrentalbarcelona.com
• http://www.barcelonaramblasapartments.com/: see [18]

—The preceding comment was added by (WT-en) DenisYurkin (talk • contribs)

Bishkek

Hello, I am trying to add a guest house I stayed at to the list of budjet accomadation in Bishkek. It wont let me and refers me here. Perhaps I am making some mistake, I am not sure. There are two email addresses and two phone numbers involved but I tried it without them, in otherwords just a sentence and I was still blocked. Could someone please explain this to me. Thank you.

What I want to add is:

Sabyrbek's Guest House, +996 312 300710, +996 312 300710, sabyrbek@mail.ru alymkan@yandex.ru The home of the famous Kyrgyz author T. Sydykbekov, is now managed by his son the amiable Sabyrbek. It is very centrally located. 21 Razzakova (just south of Moscovskaya), opposite the German embassy. Guests are welcome to use the kitchen facilities and internet is available.

It looks like you were able to add the business correctly in this edit. I tried a test edit on that article and didn't encounter any problems, but please provide additional information if you're still having issues. -- (WT-en) Ryan • (talk) • 14:01, 14 August 2010 (EDT)

Thanks, I have never done this before so I am not clear as to how it works. The first few times i tried to post it by editting the budget accomadation section that is when i encountered the problem mentioned above. I then noticed the add listing button for Sleep in general, that is the sucessful edit you have pointed out. However, I can only see that edit if I use the link you placed above. If I just open the Bishkek page it is not there...is there some delay? Also I dont see any way of placing the new listing under the buget heading instead it is alone above that between sleep and the budget subheading. How do I change this? I realize this is not really the place for questions like this but I dont know what is, if you could help I would really appreciate it.

You may need to reload the page in your browser to see the latest version. I've moved the listing to the "Budget" section, which can be done by clicking "edit" and moving the appropriate content. -- (WT-en) Ryan • (talk) • 01:56, 15 August 2010 (EDT)

[Kk]olkata.?[Bb]ooking

I'm hoping to discourage the neverending attempts to get phone numbers for a certain few hotel booking agencies in the lovely city of Kolkata, for hotels in other towns, among which Mandarmani of course ranks high in importance. --(WT-en) Peter ^Talk 17:25, 15 August 2010 (EDT)

I also added a [Kk]olkata.?[Cc]ont expression, which should hopefully catch a few more. --(WT-en) Peter ^Talk 17:29, 15 August 2010 (EDT)

I've tried repeatedly to post the following today but am getting prevented:

Deputy High Commissions

• <listing name="Bangladesh" alt="" directions="Just E of AJC Bose Rd" address="Circus Ave" phone="+91 33 2290 5208/5209" phoneextra="After hours +91 33 2288 6536" email="" fax="+91 33-2288-1616" url="" hours="" price="">Issues 15-day visas. Applications are received at window #4 M-F from 9AM-11AM, and visas are generally ready the next afternoon. Bring 3 passport photos.</listing>

• <listing name="China" alt="" directions="" address="EC-72, Sector I, Salt Lake City" phone="+91 33-40048169" email="chinaconsul_kkt@mfa.gov.cn" fax="+91 33-40048168" url="http://in.china-embassy.org/eng/jgsz/t631873.htm" hours="M-F 10AM-12:30PM" price=""></listing>

• <listing name="Germany" alt="" directions="" address="1 Hastings Park Rd, Alipore" phone="++91 33-2479 1141/1142/2150" phoneextra="+91 33 2439 8906" email="" fax="+91 33-40048168" url="" hours="" price="">The origins of the German consulate in Kolkata can be traced to before the existence of Germany itself, to the establishment of the consulate of the kingdom of Hanover in 1851 and the consulate of Prussia in 1854.</listing>

• <listing name="Japan" alt="" directions="" address="55, M. N. Sen Lane, Tollygunge" phone="+91 33-2421-1970" email="" fax="+91 33-2421-1971" url="http://www.in.emb-japan.go.jp/Contact_Us/Contact-Us-ConsulatesInIndia.html" hours="" price=""></listing>

• <listing name="United Kingdom" alt="" directions="" address="1A Ho Chi Minh Sarani" phone="+91 33 2288 5173~76" phoneextra="After hours +91 33 2288 6536" email="" fax="+91 33-2288-1616" url="" hours="" price=""></listing>

• <listing name="United States" alt="" directions="" address="5/1, Ho Chi Minh Sarani" phone="+91 33-3984 2400" email="consularkolkata@state.gov; kolkataacs@state.gov" fax="+91 33-2282 2335" url="http://kolkata.usconsulate.gov/" hours="" price="">It is the oldest diplomatic post of the U.S. in India, and the second oldest in the world (the oldest being in London). Benjamin Joy was appointed the first American Consul to Kolkata by George Washington in 1792, upon the express recommendation of then- Secretary of State, Thomas Jefferson. (Note that the ironic address was the result of a diplomatic snub by the then Marxist Bengal government during the period of the U.S. war in Indochina.)</listing>

(WT-en) Zepppep 17:20, 15 April 2011 (EDT)

What page are you posting this on? There's probably text on that page that is triggering the filter. -- (WT-en) Ryan • (talk) • 17:25, 15 April 2011 (EDT)

Gorumara.*[blacklisted expression]

Enough w/ the freaking West Bengali spamming... --(WT-en) Peter ^Talk 13:12, 19 August 2010 (EDT)

I've dropped the Gorumara and have simply blacklisted the word in question: backwards is kahcnaP. --(WT-en) Peter ^Talk 17:41, 26 August 2010 (EDT)

indiandestination dot com

Another indian spammer plasters his ads in a wide range of articles throughout India. Has not stopped after warning and instead increased his spam intensity. (WT-en) jan 09:33, 2 September 2010 (EDT)

marrakech-loisirs

This listing has been removed from Marrakech at least ten times now with pointers provided to the Tour policy. -- (WT-en) Ryan • (talk) • 12:08, 5 September 2010 (EDT)

www dot free hostel dot pl

In Kraków/Kazimierz#Budget, it appears there is a hostel which actually is named "Free Hostel". The web site is activating the spam filter. It appears in an older version of the record: [19] In fact the address was in both email and website fields of the listing (should be just one). I left the article with {{districtguide}} added but with website and email gone for this listing. The hotel comes up with this name when listing hostels in Krakow on other websites. --(WT-en) Bill in STL 20:43, 8 September 2010 (EDT)

I've removed the "freehost" pattern that was triggering this. -- (WT-en) Ryan • (talk) • 21:19, 8 September 2010 (EDT)

Why not just modify the pattern to "freehost\."? (WT-en) LtPowers 08:23, 9 September 2010 (EDT)

We could do that, too, but our blacklist is getting excessively long and started to produce a number of false positives, so per #Time to trim the blacklist? I figured it could just be removed and if we start getting spam with that pattern then it can be re-visited. -- (WT-en) Ryan • (talk) • 11:18, 9 September 2010 (EDT)

www dot omeida dot com dot cn

I don't know why I can't save the web address above. It's the official website of Omeida Chinese Academy. Please help to remove this site from the blacklist. Thank you very much! —The preceding comment was added by (WT-en) Lsz0719 (talk • contribs)

That pattern doesn't appear to be on our blacklist, so it's possible that it is on the default Mediawiki blacklist or that something else is triggering the spam filter. What article are you trying to edit? -- (WT-en) Ryan • (talk) • 22:46, 12 September 2010 (EDT)

Hello Ryan! I was trying to put the website onto the following pages:

[20] [21]

I can only save the website as www.omeida\.com.cn. Whenever I try to save it as www dot omeida dot com doct cn it says "The page you wanted to save was blocked by the spam filter.This is probably caused by a link to an external site." The same thing happens when I try to save the email address info@omeida dot com dot cn on to the page.--(WT-en) Lsz0719 20:35, 13 September 2010 (EDT)[[User:(WT-en) lsz0719] • (talk) • 22:46, 12 September 2010 (EDT)

That pattern is on the base Mediawiki blacklist, which generally means that at least one of the Mediawiki sites has experienced significant spam from that URL. Given that they both point at what seems to be the same Chinese language school I'm hesitant to remove the pattern without a very good reason to do so - we've already got a number of language schools listed in our guides, so unfortunately I'm not sure that this one warrants an exception to the blacklist. -- (WT-en) Ryan • (talk) • 21:51, 13 September 2010 (EDT)

Thanks for your reply, Ryan. Is there any information we could provide to let you consider remove our website from the blacklist? Our school is the biggest Chinese language school in Yangshuo. I'm sure it is worth being listed on Wikivoyage guides.--(WT-en) Lsz0719 03:11, 15 September 2010 (EDT)

Personally, I'd want to know why the site is on the Mediawiki blacklist. A site can get on that list because its owners spammed a Mediawiki site, or one of its servers was compromised and was used for spamming, or for several other reasons. My understanding is that it's fairly difficult to get on the Mediawiki blacklist, so once a site is on there I think we should respect that list unless there is a really good reason to make an exception. -- (WT-en) Ryan • (talk) • 10:10, 15 September 2010 (EDT)

moroccantravels dot com

See Special:Contributions/(WT-en) Morocco, Special:Contributions/41.250.175.172, Special:Contributions/41.141.111.186, and probably others. All pointers to Tour and Project:Don't tout have been ignored, with listings re-added to multiple sections of the Morocco article several times per day for several days. -- (WT-en) Ryan • (talk) • 18:42, 22 September 2010 (EDT)

Generalized to remove the .com, to catch attempts like this [22]. — (WT-en) D. Guillaime 22:09, 22 September 2010 (EDT)

I've removed the "s" in "travels" as this user is persisting. While we sometimes remove patterns from the blacklist if users read these messages and agree to abide by our policies, in this case the touting seems so egregious that I would highly recommend that this business not be permitted to place any listings at all on Wikivoyage. -- (WT-en) Ryan • (talk) • 10:34, 24 September 2010 (EDT)

I think it's fine to block these guys as most of them are really persistant and Marocco is heavily touted... (WT-en) jan 10:44, 24 September 2010 (EDT)

Can't add my listing for Assisi, Umbria

I am trying to add

• <sleep name="Brigolante Guest Apartments" alt="Brigolante Agriturismo" address="Via Costa di Trex, 31" directions="6 km outside Assisi along SP 444 toward Pian della Pieve" phone="+39-075-802250" email="info@brigolante.com" fax="+39-075-802250" url="http://www.brigolante.com" checkin="4 pm" checkout="11 am" price="€475/week" lat="latitude" long="longitude" tags="comma,separated,tag_labels">Vacation rental apartments in historic stone farmhouse near Assisi.</sleep>

in Assisi, Umbria but I keep getting an edit error. What am I doing wrong?!? I am following the template provided.

There was a URL already on that page that triggered the blacklist. I've removed it, so the article is again editable, but please read our guidelines for apartment listings. -- (WT-en) Ryan • (talk) • 17:19, 25 September 2010 (EDT)

Special:Contributions/(WT-en) Ec21

This user has been busily adding the official tourism web site for the country of South Korea to dozens of articles. Since per Project:External links this link is appropriate for the South Korea article (and only the South Korea article) a permanent blacklisting is inappropriate, but how would people feel about temporarily removing it from the South Korea article and then adding it to the blacklist as a way to try and get this user's attention? It is a waste of time for the user to keep adding it to articles, and a waste of time for patrollers to then revert those additions. Since the user isn't responding to talk page messages I'm not sure what other options are available. -- (WT-en) Ryan • (talk) • 21:26, 14 October 2010 (EDT)

gopalantravels

A tour operator has added this listing to Kumbakonam at least a dozen times, and been reverted with pointers provided to the Tour and advertising policies each time. -- (WT-en) Ryan • (talk) • 23:08, 16 October 2010 (EDT)

mohammad66kw

See Special:Contributions/(WT-en) Mohd faidi. User has been giving multiple pointers to Project:Don't tout and continues to spam Jordan and other articles. -- (WT-en) Ryan • (talk) • 10:09, 23 October 2010 (EDT)

Carddoor

See Special:Contributions/(WT-en) Rita KC. There isn't even any pretense of usefulness for travelers - the user is simply deleting large chunks of articles and adding in spammy advertising. I deleted the user page and am quickly blacklisting this one as I suspect she will hit as many articles as possible. -- (WT-en) Ryan • (talk) • 01:26, 26 October 2010 (EDT)

shankarpur dot co dot in

As far as I'm aware Shankarpur is our current most regularly spammed article - touts have been changing phone numbers nightly in that article for months. Lately the above URL has also been appearing in the article. Some pointers were provided to Project:External links, but as the link continues to regularly be re-added and reverted it's worth adding to the blacklist. -- (WT-en) Ryan • (talk) • 11:54, 3 November 2010 (EDT)

khaolakscubaadventures

An anonymous user keeps returning to place seven copies of the same listing on the Similan Islands (two examples of several: here and here). Pointers to Project:Don't tout in edit summaries and on talk pages haven't worked, so let's give the blacklist a try. -- (WT-en) Ryan • (talk) • 22:22, 29 November 2010 (EST)

I can't edit the 'Get in' list. Here's my change "

By train

Malda is well connected by Railways. There are some direct trains from the local main station, i.e. Malda Town; connecting Bangalore, Chennai, Bhubaneswar, Kolkata, Dibrugarh, New Delhi etc."

What's wrong here?

John, in the Malda had been some spam filter items from professional Bengali spammer that pester our articles in that area. I cleaned the article and you can now edit the whole article. (WT-en) jan 10:37, 17 December 2010 (EST)

Thanks @jan

hawaiianpaddlesports dot com

See Special:Contributions/70.95.107.198. User added five or more listings to the Maui article and did not respond to pointers to Project:Don't tout left in the article history and on the user's talk page. -- (WT-en) Ryan • (talk) • 19:16, 31 December 2010 (EST)