[Wiki] Process for new account requests

[Dave Neary]

Hi,

On 03/13/2013 06:43 PM, Karsten 'quaid' Wade wrote:
> Thanks to Rydekull and dneary, we are now getting email for the new
> account requests to the wiki on ovirt.org. Yay!

Correction: Thanks to Rydekull (credit where it's due!).

> In the last few weeks, two of these accounts we approved have in fact
> been spammers. Boo!

Mea culpa on one - the spammers have been generating some rather 
convincing bio copy.

However, 2 spammers is not so bad. I would expect us to be keeping an 
eye on RecentChanges (time permitting, I know I do) to catch spam. And 
we have. Which is great.

> The problem I'm having is that we get new account requests from people
> and there is not enough information to tell at the beginning if it's a
> human or a bot. (Or a human spammer, which we can call bot for simplicity.)

Yes, this is a problem. But I think we're doing quite well. We should 
certainly encourage people to write something to show they're a nice 
human, but some people won't, and I think we can manage that - as long 
as those people understand that (a) they make it harder for us to keep 
spammers out, and (b) there is a cost involved in approving their 
accounts, I'm sure that as good empathic people they will take the few 
seconds it takes to let us know they know a little about oVirt, for the 
most part.

> Some thoughts I've had for a process to follow when confirming an account:
>
> * The email must be confirmed; that means that at least the address you
> see can receive account confirmation email. We aren't yet taking
> anonymous contributions, so having a way to reach out to people is a key
> to being a contributor.

This is the case already - the email to notify moderators is not sent 
until the email is confirmed.

> * Biography must not be nonsense; it's OK if it's a set of personal
> keywords, e.g. today we got "pmd85 commodore plus4 286 dos windows linux".
> ** FWIW, I think this is where the longer biography that we earlier
> shunned comes in useful - people have to write something real and
> appropriate, which is harder for a bot to do.
> ** Of course, the bio works against people for whom English is not a
> language they are very good writing in. (Thus, higher barriers due to
> language and/or culture.)

I think keep it short, and encourage good behaviour (explaining the down 
sides of bad behaviour) is the way to go.

> * If there is anything suspicious looking or incomplete or otherwise
> just doesn't make you feel safe granting access, send email to the
> individual asking for more details to prove they are human.

This is what "hold" is - I've been hesitant to use it. I think it's fine 
to do so, but it should be a minority thing.

> Any other ideas or thoughts?

No - I think you've covered it all.

Thanks for bringing this up!
Dave.

-- 
Dave Neary - Community Action and Impact
Open Source and Standards, Red Hat - http://community.redhat.com
Ph: +33 9 50 71 55 62 / Cell: +33 6 77 01 92 13