[spam] Re: Wiki pictures used without permission
Mary Sue Ittner (Sat, 01 Jul 2006 08:01:13 PDT)

I understand from a private message I received that the owner of the web
site with the pirated pictures is very nice so hopefully when he returns
from vacation he will contact me and we can resolve this.

Our wiki software is quite a challenge to change. There is no way we can
prevent people from downloading images. We want people to be able to see
our images. Although our wiki serves as a place for our group to share
pictures with each other, it so much more than that. Those of us who put in
long hours adding images and text hope people will look at the pictures and
read what we say. In fact it is kind of disappointing to those people who
add pictures when no one responds even privately.

On the other hand, we have reluctantly concluded that we are going to have
to require passwords for uploading images and editing the wiki to prevent
the spam. That will mean it won't really be a wiki anymore in the
traditional sense where anyone who wants to can contribute. But it will
mean that wiki administrators are not wasting their time taking off spam
and others won't find porn links if they were put up before someone caught
them and removed them. I will be contacting regular wiki contributors to
discuss this off the list. Just in case I forget someone who wants to be
included in this category you might email me privately if you want to get
the message. And bouquets to Linda Foulis who has put in hours trying to
come up with a solution and to Jay Yourch who has found one!

Mary Sue