Wikitravel talk:Local spam blacklist

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If reporting a problem with a domain, please write the name as site dot com instead of site.com, or you will trigger the blacklist again! If your site is currently on the blacklist and you wish to have it removed please comment below under the section about why the site was blacklisted in the first place (if there is no such section create a new section). Note that sites blacklisted due to violation of Wikitravel policy will only be removed once the editor in question has indicated that they have read and understand the relevant Wikitravel guidelines. Repeat offenders will generally not be removed from the blacklist.


Contents

See also & archives[edit]

Ulaanbaatar By Plane[edit]

I cannot edit the section on Getting In to Ulaanbaatar. Even if I make no change it will not save because of a supposed spam link that doesn't appear to exist on the page. —The preceding comment was added by Tony (talkcontribs)

Should be ok now. Regards, GiulioC (talk) 04:31, 15 May 2017 (EDT)

basinbus dot com[edit]

Good morning. This is a new independent bus service between Charleston and Savannah. Would like to add to both the Charleston and Savannah pages. Please consider allowing an external link. --24.214.217.87 (talk) 15:41, 5 October 2015 (EDT)

Hi, thank you for reaching out here. As a matter of fact, you can't list you business in more than one article, but in only one article for the town or district in which the business operates. Yes, you can add your offical site, but please read our external link policy before you do that. Thank you! --Binbin (talk) 13:06, 5 October 2015 (EDT)
Perhaps this is different, because I would like to add the link to the "Getting In" section of each article. No an actual business listing. I have successfully added the language, but the spam filter will not let me add an external link. Any thoughts? It appears to meet all external link requirements, and is unique enough since there is only one other bus service operating in these cities. Thank you! 24.214.217.87 (talk)
We had a problem with the spam filter but is fixed now, so you can try again. But please do check our guidelines, as already mentioned above, we don´t allow the same link in multiple articles. Any questions, please let us know. Thanks! Adzas (talk) 12:06, 6 October 2015 (EDT)
Thank you! I was able to add the link in the Charleston article. I understand the idea of not listing a business more than once, but when talking about intercity transportation, shouldn't it be mentioned/linked in the "Getting In" section for every city that is services? For instance, Greyhound is mentioned in both articles (and many more), and I've found multiple articles with links to the Greyhound bus website. I appreciate your consideration very much! —The preceding comment was added by 71.204.236.188 (talkcontribs)

alpsbeirut dot wordpress dot com[edit]

This is the website of a language school in Beirut which I would like to add to the other schools in the Beirut article to provide a better overview over the schools and especially because they are giving a free conversation class once a week.

Hello, you should be able to add your listing now. Please give it a try. Thanks! IBcaldera (talk) 18:50, 14 July 2015 (EDT)

learn-gujarati-from-english dot blogspot dot in[edit]

This blog contains many good blog-posts about frequently used simple Gujarati sentences and conversation. I am trying to add links to wikitravel.org/en/Gujarati_phrasebook But it is not allowing me. Though it is a blog, it is not a blog of some personal views. Links are purely related to topic of phrasebook. Can you please allow the links ? --KnowledgeTruthInfo (talk) 07:17, 28 June 2015 EDT

Hi KnowledgeTruthInfo, thank you for reaching out here. Actually I just reverted your edit on Gujarati phrasebook. Please have a look at our policies about external links and touting. Please feel free to add information you think would be useful to the travellers directly in Gujarati phrasebook instead of providing a secondary source. Thank you! --Binbin (talk) 07:33, 28 June 2015 (EDT)

us dot megabus dot com[edit]

I'm trying to add information to a "Get In: By Bus" section of an article, but I seem to be unable to add Megabus, a company providing bus service across many cities in the United States. They're a primary information source for bus service provided by their company and probably shouldn't be blacklisted. Other pages use the listing tag and that seems not to trigger the blacklisting, but directly inserting the link surrounded by square brackets "[" triggers the blacklisting.

Removal See here. Koavf (talk) 22:49, 15 March 2015 (EDT)

Editing kathmandu page[edit]

Hi, I'm trying to add a hotel to the budget section of this page and for some reason it's showing me the spam filter result. I'm not adding any external links I am simply adding another hotel to it's list of many hotels, here is what I'm adding can you please explain where I am going wrong: *Hotel Yellow Inn, Freak Street, Kathmandu Durbur Square, +977-1-4246579. Basantapur is right in the heart of Kathmandu and in the heart of Basantapur is the Hotel Yellow Inn. This family run hotel offers fantastic 24 hour service, clean rooms, wifi, hot showers and above all, friendly staff. Boasting one of the highest roof tops, its restaurant garden shows a view of the Kathmandu valley in all it's entirety. It also offers and laundry service and free travel information. Email: [email protected] 300-1000 Nepalese Rupees.  edit

Thank you for your message. The error had nothing to do with your listing, but due to an update of the spam filter recently, another listing caused the block. The Kathmandu page can be edited again. However, the article already has way too many hotel listings, as we don´t want Wikitravel to become the Yellow Pages, no more hotels can be added at the moment, it would not benefit the traveler. If you feel that your listing should be added, this can be discussed on the talk page of the article. We do hope you have other valuable information you wish to share on our articles! Any questions, please let us know. Happy editing! Adzas (talk) 06:25, 31 January 2014 (EST)

Editing Coorg page[edit]

I'm trying to edit the iteneriary section and add the below text and it's triggering a spam filter. The roads leading to Talavauvery is pretty bad after the recent rains.--Gowthammano 05:32, 17 January 2011 (EST)

Hi Gowthammano! One of the spas triggered our spam list. I cleared it and it should now work. jan 08:23, 17 January 2011 (EST)

thebrightonremovalcompany dot co dot uk[edit]

I'm not sure if it's a bot or a real person, but this hauling company has spammed us with advertisement articles twice in the last two hours. It's in no way travel-related, so adding to the blacklist. -- Ryan • (talk) • 18:15, 18 January 2011 (EST)

palazzogiovanni dot it[edit]

See Special:Contributions/Silvio77. User has returned repeatedly over the last two days to push a link to articles ranging from towns to Italy and even to Europe. -- Ryan • (talk) • 17:23, 20 January 2011 (EST)

Also cataniabb dot it and bedandbreakfastmare dot it. -- Ryan • (talk) • 17:23, 28 January 2011 (EST)

explorenorthkorea dot com[edit]

This company is repeatedly re-added to the North Korea article. See Talk:North Korea#Travel Agencies for the reason why this was originally removed. -- Ryan • (talk) • 22:50, 24 January 2011 (EST)

Oanvoanc 10:28, 26 January 2011 (EST):as i mentioned in the "discussion paragraph" of northkorea - tours already: i travelled with explore n. korea tour group in march 2010 and had no problems with them. the communication was very good (skype and mail) before and after the trip. i have no idea what happened here exactly with this url (adding and removing) but i wouldnt hesitate to recommend this company for ppl who want to travel nk on small budged.

please also dont hesitate to contact me by mail: zzzair [at] gmail dot com
Hi Zacharias! nk-tours violated continiously our policies. They have been warned and choosen to ignore our warnings also they did several false comments about competitors. Therefore they will stay pretty long on our blacklist. jan 11:01, 26 January 2011 (EST)

This business is now trying to evade the blacklist by using URL redirectors (e.g. [1]) rather than cleaning up their act, so I'm expanding the pattern a bit. User has a long and exceedingly annoying history, and has also started using proxies to (thinly) disguise their activities; it's pretty easy to find on almost any edit to the Tours section dating back to roughly October 2009, and you'll find a lot of the early mischief from Special:Contributions/70.118.119.3, before the evasion really started. — D. Guillaime 20:26, 27 January 2011 (EST)

shanghaipathways dot com[edit]

Keeps re-adding fairly spammy entries to Shanghai that aren't at all tour-compliant (example: [2]), even after being pointed at it on their comment on Talk:Shanghai#Deletion. Hoping this gets their attention instead; shouldn't need to stay in place forever. — D. Guillaime 01:30, 1 February 2011 (EST)

cheapoair dot com[edit]

This is a bucket site that will never be appropriate for use here per Wikitravel:External links. See Special:Contributions/71.133.211.23 - user replaced numerous valid hotel URLs with this one. -- Ryan • (talk) • 21:55, 7 February 2011 (EST)

Dharamshala Page[edit]

I tried to edit this page originally adding the Dalai Lama's website www dot dalailama dot com I got the spam error. Assuming it was because of the URL I entered I hit the back button and removed this url. Saved again and was still getting the spam error. So went back and took out all URL's (which I didn't enter) noticed some were of businesses so this may have caused the spam notification. Though even after deleting all URLs page would not save. Don't know what else to do about it other than post it here. The specific section was the 'To Do' section Thanks —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Himalayafunandtours (talkcontribs)

I've fixed the problem, so the page is now editable. However, please read Wikitravel:External links to verify that the link you are trying to add meets Wikitravel's guidelines for external links. -- Ryan • (talk) • 11:49, 13 March 2011 (EDT)

apnabus dot in[edit]

This is apparently an Indian ticket broker and thus not appropriate per Wikitravel:External links and the Tour policy. User has ignored talk page messages and returned after temporary blocks to spam dozens of pages, so it's time to put this on the blacklist. -- Ryan • (talk) • 12:02, 26 March 2011 (EDT)

scorpiotech dot info[edit]

See the history for both User talk:Scorpiotech00 and User talk:Scorpiotech0. An SEO company is trying to abuse Wikitravel for marketing/SEO purposes. -- Ryan • (talk) • 21:45, 29 March 2011 (EDT)

creditcardhelp dot com dot au[edit]

Suspected work of a currently active spambot - Articles and images have been listed for deletion per Votes for deletion and {{vfd}} as I do not have sufficient access to deal with them directly. Jan subsequently deleted the forex related content. I think Ryan has his eye on this suspected spambot activity.

See also -- Credit Card- How To Build Good Credit Habits and associated image uploads Image:333.jpg and Image:444.jpg
See also -- Forex- How To Invest in Forex Mutual Funds and associated image uploads Image:555.jpg and Image:666.jpg

felix 02:01, 30 April 2011 (EDT)

pbali dot com[edit]

pbali dot com appears to be a operation purportedly promoting villa rental and sales. Clickable links to their website have been placed into the Bali article and subsequently removed by myself and other editors. Both the User:Marine and User:Crewman appear to be accounts operated on the same campaign. The edit content is identical from both users and they have been placing the covert url link into the Bali article text. The link points to pbali dot com. The website has no contact details provided for the promoters other than a browser page contact form. I am wondering if they have been active elsewhere on WT as well.

The covert link edit is written as follows and inserted into the article copy.:

<span class="plainlinks">[http://www.pbali dot com/ <span style="color:#000000;font-weight:normal; text-decoration:none!important; background:none!important; text-decoration:none;">Bali Villas</span>]

This is an example of one edit.

It then displays as; Bali Villas and becomes clickable if rolled over -- (the bolding is my own emphasis).

The covert link points to pbali dot com when it is supplied with a correctly formatted address.

Registrant: Sergey Gorshkov Krasnaya 21a, 4 Kaliningrad, Kaliningrad region 236000 Russian Federation

Registered through: GoDaddy.com, Inc. (http://www.godaddy.com) Domain Name: PBALI.COM Created on: 23-Feb-11 Expires on: 23-Feb-12 Last Updated on: 23-Feb-11

Administrative Contact: Gorshkov, Sergey [email protected] Krasnaya 21a, 4 Kaliningrad, Kaliningrad region 236000 Russian Federation 7-911-452-9608 Fax --

Technical Contact: Gorshkov, Sergey [email protected] Krasnaya 21a, 4 Kaliningrad, Kaliningrad region 236000 Russian Federation 7-911-452-9608 Fax --

Domain servers in listed order:

  • NS67.DOMAINCONTROL.COM
  • NS68.DOMAINCONTROL.COM
  • NS68.DOMAINCONTROL.COM

Sergey Gorshkov is also associated with balivillaonsale dot com. tel: +62 8138 157 3288 [email protected]

A Sergey Gorshkov was also a well known Admiral of the Soviet Union navy during the Cold War and died in 1988.

The Sergey Gorshkov associated with the Bali villa marketing seems to to be in Kaliningrad, Russia.

Related sites as per http://whois.pho.to/pbali dot com

  • property dot baliwww dot com - Bali Property, Real Estate, Villa, Land in Bali for sale, rent and lease
  • bali-information dot com - Bali Property Real Estate Bali Villas Sale BPI, Rent, build, own Property in Bali Indonesia
  • balitopproperty dot com - Bali Property - Bali TOP Property, Bali Real Estate, Bali villa, land, apartment, for sale and rent, latest listing of property in Bali by Bali Property Agent, Indonesia.
  • bali-properties dot com - Bali Vacation Properties - Bali Villa Rental, Sales, Design & Construction
  • balivillarent dot com - Bali villa for rent Seminyak home rentals holiday house for rent Bali luxury beach villa accommodation
  • landsalebali dot com - Villa Bali - Real Estate :: Bali Property Bali Villa Rental Bali. Vacation Villas. Property Sales, leasing & Development
  • rent-bali-villas dot com - Rent Bali Villas : 3 bedroom, 4 bedroom and 5 bedroom bali villa rentals in Seminyak, Canggu and Umalas Bali
  • villa dot com - Villa | Villas | Villa Rentals & Sales - Villa.com
  • villajuno dot com Villa Juno - A bed & breakfast villa for vacation rentals in Canggu, Bali
  • bali-essence-villas dot com - Bali Seminyak Villas for Sale - Rental | Bali Essence Villas
  •  PBALI dot COM IP is 97.74.44.1 and is hosted by godaddy dot com --- felix 11:59, 30 April 2011 (EDT)

capezebratours dot com and capeafricantours dot com[edit]

Links to this company were copied to numerous articles for South Africa, with at least four separate entries in the Cape Town article. Since then they have returned to add multiple entries to the Cape Town article at least a dozen times, despite pointers provided on user talk pages and in edit summaries to the Wikitravel:Don't tout policy. -- Ryan • (talk) • 16:36, 3 May 2011 (EDT)

mixmatchba[edit]

See Special:Contributions/190.195.68.200. This Facebook group has been re-added to the Buenos Aires article five or six times in the past two days despite repeated pointers to the Wikitravel:External links policy. -- Ryan • (talk) • 12:22, 17 May 2011 (EDT)

www dot butterfly-massage dot com[edit]

Escort/prostitution services consistently added at User_talk:Xiali1208 --Burmesedays 03:24, 11 June 2011 (EDT)

www dot shanghai-in-massge dot com[edit]

Escort/prostitution services consistently added at User_talk:Xiali1208 --Burmesedays 03:24, 11 June 2011 (EDT)

Talk:Tajpur notes on an edit/s and west bengal scamming activity[edit]

Upon tracking a suspect tel number to another article I came across the Tajpur article today. The entire Tajpur article seems a little dubious. It has the appearance of having been established for the purpose of listing either entriely fictitious or baiting accommodation listings attributable to known listing hijackers and listing vandals associated with articles in this region. I have removed the offending number and noted that the edit histories had evidence of another scammer involved with the article. I have now applied some generalised copy editing to the article to clean it up but it is still a bit questionable. I note that on (07:46) 17 May 2009 ChubbyWimbus raised some concerns aboout this article.

Upon examination of the various articles concerned and their edit and content history it appears that the contact numbers used have been those associated with previous misleading or hijack edits in various West Bengal articles.

Today I have made edits to the article and some others today that are displaying similar lineage and number commonalities I have removed +91 33 8100291011 from Hotel Sonarbangla Resorts in the Tajpur article as this tel number has beeen listed the Rojana Beach Resorts listing in Digha and removed in an edit today for that reason. The previous listing for Safarsonhee in this Tajpur article was removed by Peterfitzgerald on 11 oct 2010). The prior Safarsonhee listing used a number 90spamfilter51115228 listed to Safarsongee Tours & Travels, Kolkata, Telephone: (033) 4004spamfilter8685, 90spamfilter51115228, Address: 9B, Esplanade , Kolkata-700069, West Bengal. The Hotel Amorabati-Bakkhali has also frequently been listed to 90spamfilter51115228 on travel websites

As I know the activities of the west bengal idiots are of interest to others I thought this may be of interest here.felix 06:40, 16 June 2011 (EDT)

West Bengal scammer +91 33 8100291011[edit]

Maybe it's time for this idiots number to be spam blacklisted-- felix 10:53, 16 June 2011 (EDT)

  • Digha‎+91 33 8100291011 - Rojana Beach Resorts
  • Tajpur +91 33 8100291011 - Hotel Sonarbangla Resorts
  • Shankarpur Call-8100291011 - Hotel Ashoka & Westbengal Tourist Lodges
  • Shankarpur +91 33 8100291011 - Tourist lodge jowar complex
  • Madhupur 'Booking 08100291011 - Group Booking,totaly Bengali Atmosphere.9b,Esplanade East Row,Kolkata-69,Room No -44

Here are some more: -- felix 15:09, 17 June 2011 (EDT)

[email protected] and [email protected] have an established pattern with scammer numbers and multiple listings ie. Shankarpur Hotel Sandy Bay, [email protected], Jhargram Mps Resort, ☎ 033 9433585945 [email protected], Falta Hotel Sea Bird +91 033 9831254202 [email protected] also +91 33 943358 5945

+91 33 9831254202 has a scammer profile: Falta Hotel Sea Bird +91 033 9831254202 Digha Hotel Sonar Bangla, Barrister colony, ☎ 9831254202

+91 33 2248 0626 has a scammer profile Digha Tourist Lodge Hotel Dolphin Larica Sagar Tourist Lodge Digha Hotel Suman's Digha Mandarmani Samudra Sakshi Resort

Eastern Tourism of 190A, Harish Mukherjee Road, Kolkata - 700 026 has a scammer profile with multiple listing and relisting of +91 33 2455 1491 Other numbers listed to this enterprise include

  • +91 33 6944 3695
  • +91 33 6460spamfilter3695
  • +91 33 2455 1491

Mobile :

  • 92306 53695
  • 98310 31895
  • 93394 24307
  • 9830233754

ukraine vacation guide dot com[edit]

Mass spamming of various Ukraine articles. Examination of site reveals no content that could ever be useful at WT --Burmesedays 06:13, 23 June 2011 (EDT).

vietnamairlinestickets dot com[edit]

This URL has shown up repeatedly in several Southeast Asia articles over the past week. It's a booking portal - the URL for Vietnam Airlines is http://vietnamairlines.com - and the users in question are ignoring requests to stop re-adding this URL. -- Ryan • (talk) • 12:26, 5 July 2011 (EDT)

motorbiketours-hoian dot com[edit]

After ignoring several specific warnings about writing their details into a competitor listing at Hoi An, did it again.--Burmesedays 08:30, 19 July 2011 (EDT)

Touristdriver.aqaba at gmail.com[edit]

This tax driver has been adding lengthy advertisements to various Jordan articles and ignoring pointers to Wikitravel:Don't tout. See Special:Contributions/178.77.131.59 and Special:Contributions/Jouli for some examples. -- Ryan • (talk) • 15:55, 23 July 2011 (EDT)

kuakatatours dot com[edit]

There have been several new articles created in the past twelve hours that do not meet the Wikitravel:What is an article criteria. The user in question hasn't responded to talk page messages so I'm putting the tour company URL he/she has been using on the blacklist in the hopes of getting his/her attention. -- Ryan • (talk) • 11:36, 27 July 2011 (EDT)

wadirumdiscovery dot com[edit]

This tour company has ignored repated requests not to list itself multiple times (per Wikitravel:Don't tout), and has now started removing competitor listings from the Wadi Rum article. See for example Special:Contributions/Momo2010. -- Ryan • (talk) • 12:05, 31 July 2011 (EDT)

bandarbantours dot com[edit]

User has ignored many messages and continues to create spam articles designed to promote this travel agency.--Burmesedays 07:36, 1 August 2011 (EDT)

taxi-makarska dot com[edit]

See Special:Contributions/Ijujnovic. There has been a long running edit war going on over Makarska. Initially requests were made to de-tout a listing, and eventually to discuss before re-adding. Adding to the blacklist now to prevent further edit warring. -- Ryan • (talk) • 01:32, 28 August 2011 (EDT)

easyrider dot vn and easy-riders dot net[edit]

See Special:Contributions/Easyridervietnam (amongst others). Talk page messages and edit summary pointers to Wikitravel:Don't tout have been ignored repeatedly over the past couple of weeks. -- Ryan • (talk) • 11:22, 12 September 2011 (EDT)

easy-riders dot net has also been added - see Special:Contributions/Fuckingspam. -- Ryan • (talk) • 23:28, 12 September 2011 (EDT)

tripz dot advisor[edit]

A few accounts are spamming this gmail address. Looks more like bored trolling than actual spamming, so this can be removed later. --Peter Talk 11:46, 25 September 2011 (EDT)

internetmarketingdirect dot com dot au[edit]

Repeated SEO spam on User talk:IM2011Direct. Ironically, the spam was touting the company's "white hat" strategies, but doing so by spamming a travel wiki. -- Ryan • (talk) • 23:08, 28 September 2011 (EDT)

praveengupta00004[edit]

This travel agency has been spamming Agra and other random pages daily for the past week. Edit summary pointers and talk page messages pointing the user to Tour and Wikitravel:Don't tout have been ignored. -- wrh2 10:40, 11 October 2011 (EDT)

comparecarrental dot co[edit]

See (for two examples) Special:Contributions/203.30.131.254 and Special:Contributions/203.219.184.21. User has been inserting this car rental portal with misleading edit summaries. -- Ryan • (talk) • 19:16, 17 October 2011 (EDT)

Rhinocarhire dot com Removal from Local Spam Blacklist Request[edit]

Swept in from the pub

We are seeking feedback / support for the removal of rhinocarhire dot com from the Wikitravel talk:Local spam blacklist#Various Car Hire Agencies. We have for some time been in discussion with a moderator who has recommended that we use this platform in an attempt to gain support for our removal from the list by consensus. We found ourselves added to the list in September 2009 where the route cause was traced back to an external editor / SEO specialist who took it upon himself to spam wiki travel with our website. Upon discovering such practices, this person ceased to work for the company and has not done so since. We have explained our situation in detail, however the perception remains that we will try to use Wikitravel for our own benefit and SEO purposes, which I can assure the Wikitravel community is not the case. We run an honest business and were awarded Best Car Hire Website at the 2010 Travolution Awards, something that the team worked very hard towards and are very proud of. Our integrity has been questioned on Wikitravel to the extent where we have been labelled not trustworthy, something we find unjust and unfounded. There have also been references to 'fake blogs' that we know nothing about and have requested further information to fully investigate, however no further information has been supplied. We have no interest in self promotion of our business on Wikitravel and are not looking for recommendations, however being listed as spam is potentially damaging for our business. We have been punished by wiki travel for 2 years now (listed on the spam blacklist) and feel that continued listing as spam for actions carried out by a 3rd party on our behalf (unknown to us at the time) is not longer justifiable. We would welcome to feedback from the community on this matter as we will continue our pursuit for removal from the list. Many thanks. Rhinocarhire dot com. (86.29.197.231 09:23, 30 August 2011 (EDT))

Congratulations on winning the Travolution Award. It wouldn't do for an award winner like yourselves to be on a blacklist so I will remove you. If you list again you will be re-added. If you ever feel like apologising for the hours of time myself and others have volunteered to keep the guide clean while your agents have done their best to disrupt it, that would be good too. --Inas 19:04, 10 November 2011 (EST)
Responding to the "fake blog" issue - [3], [4], [5], etc, etc. -- Ryan • (talk) • 19:12, 10 November 2011 (EST)

Inas, Many thanks for you efforts in this matter. Your time is very much appreciated, as is that of Ryan who we have been dealing with also. Kind regards, Phil. Ryan - Just to note, the 'fake blogs' you mention are press releases issued by our company that are syndicated to various sites. Once published via official means we have no control which websites choose to host the press release.

Can't edit[edit]

Swept in from the pub

I can't seem to be able to edit Globe-trotters talk page, since my message is refused by the spam filter. What am I doing wrong? I wanted to post: "Hi, I appreciate your help but since I was still working on the text I've been getting edit conflicts on South Limburg. That is making it quite harder and frustrating, so I'll just stop editing until you're done. Could you give me a heads up when you are? Justme 12:54, 30 July 2011 (EDT) "

As to that last problem, is there a way to indicate that you're working on something and ask others to not edit for a while? These edit conflicts really are frustrating.. Justme 12:54, 30 July 2011 (EDT)

I can't edit his page either. G-t has something on his talk page that is activating the spam filter. On edit conflicts, I think if one user is significantly editing a page, it is good practice to let them get on with it and come back later. Otherwise, as you say, edit conflicts will drive you nuts.--Burmesedays 13:02, 30 July 2011 (EDT)--Burmesedays 13:02, 30 July 2011 (EDT)
That's my fault - a spambot has been hitting the site over the past several weeks using specific CSS, so I added that CSS pattern to the blacklist. Unfortunately it looks like several user pages are using the same pattern, so I've removed it from the blacklist. -- Ryan • (talk) • 13:57, 30 July 2011 (EDT)
Thanks. I'm done with South Limburg, so you can just continue editing there Justme. --globe-trotter 14:14, 30 July 2011 (EDT)

holidayvacationrental dot com[edit]

See Special:Contributions/24.231.230.125 and Special:Contributions/Holidayvacationrental. There have also been several pages created for this company that have been deleted. Pointers to Wikitravel:Don't tout and the rental listings policy have been ignored. -- Ryan • (talk) • 12:49, 21 November 2011 (EST)

taxitopetra[edit]

See [6] and Special:Contributions/Jouli. User has had more than enough warning. -- Ryan • (talk) • 15:26, 14 December 2011 (EST)

royalindiatrips[edit]

See Special:Contributions/Praveengupta, Special:Contributions/59.94.98.234, and several others. User has spammed the Agra page and several Wikitravel policy pages for the past several nights. -- Ryan • (talk) • 10:26, 12 January 2012 (EST)

Idaho International Dance and Music Festival[edit]

Trying to add Rexburg/Burley Idaho International Dance and Music Festival to the page. Won't add our site:

http://www.idahofolkdance (idahofolkdance "dot" com)

Please clear it for us. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 69.20.148.231 (talkcontribs)

I have no problems adding that URL. It is possible that the page you're editing has some other pattern that is triggering the blacklist unrelated to your addition, which page is it? -- D. Guillaime 12:12, 10 March 2012 (EST)

adriatic-express[edit]

Persistently re-adding advertisements to many articles in Dalmatia, no response to warnings or temporary blocks. -- D. Guillaime 12:07, 10 March 2012 (EST)

The real reason why we have made ​​many changes in the articles is because we wanted to insert a text more suitable for you in the service offered. Please remove the block for adriatic-express and enter that in context in a way appropriate to our service. best regards, adriatic-express —The preceding comment was added by Adriatic.express (talkcontribs)
You were asked many times in many ways not to add multiple listings to articles, and to not use Wikitravel for advertising, and refused to do so and instead continued to edit war. See (for example) your talk page and this edit revert comment (amongst many). You have clearly been spamming the site and have had ample warning that such behavior would lead to blacklisting. -- Ryan • (talk) • 12:42, 11 March 2012 (EDT)

places-data dot com[edit]

Repeatedly creating new user accounts (one per article), inserting this link, and removing the xl-approved tourist authority links from the top (e.g. [7], [8]). The constant new accounts is a fairly transparent way of trying to avoid notice, so there's no one account that can be given a warning first. -- D. Guillaime 01:36, 11 March 2012 (EST)

Trying to mention a bird which is coloured black and is a type of cockatoo[edit]

I tried to suggest a place to see the rare glossy blacx cocxatoo (replace the x with k to get the correct meaning).

My update was rejected because it was taken as a black male's appendage. Is there a way around this?

—The preceding comment was added by Derdod (talkcontribs)

I have made an attempt to change the blacklist to allow black cockatoos, black cockatiels, and even black cocktails if necessary. Give it another try! LtPowers 10:05, 7 April 2012 (EDT)

Thanks. All good now. Derdod 19:53, 7 April 2012 (EDT)

mentawaitrekkingsiberut[edit]

See Special:Contributions/Surfing.mentawai and the history for Mentawai Islands. User has been asked repeatedly not to add multiple listings and not to advertise, but to no avail. -- Ryan • (talk) • 10:53, 20 April 2012 (EDT)

So far, these efforts are apparently counterproductive. The spam/touter continues to spam/tout (I just blocked that account for 1 day, but I think we should block it for quite a lot longer), and I can't even post in detail about the fact that because of the spam blacklist, I can't revert or roll back their latest spam/touting edit. Someone, please fix this. Ikan Kekek 23:15, 23 April 2012 (EDT)
OK, I temporarily reverted the addition of this site to the spam blacklist, then was able to revert the latest spam/touting, and then reverted my own edit. Ikan Kekek 23:19, 23 April 2012 (EDT)
Sorry, I didn't notice that the blacklisted email was already in the article. That listing has now been removed. As to the user in question, they will eventually wander off, although it's definitely frustrating when someone returns multiple times each day over a period of weeks. -- Ryan • (talk) • 23:28, 23 April 2012 (EDT)
Several additional terms were added to the blacklist as a result of this user. See Special:Contributions/Handra_harbi, Special:Contributions/Surfing.mentawai, Special:Contributions/Ebaysurfcamp and Special:Contributions/Mentawai_trekking for history. -- Ryan • (talk) • 13:18, 12 May 2012 (EDT)

holiday-in-malaysia dot com[edit]

See Special:Contributions/Nizam. This is about as blatant as a spammer can be, and user has been warned several times not to continue. -- Ryan • (talk) • 12:48, 21 April 2012 (EDT)

easy-kiev dot com[edit]

See Special:Contributions/2.231.6.115 and Special:Contributions/Easy-Kiev.com. User has been given several pointers to the rental listing guidelines and is still returning multiple times a day to add this listing to the Kiev article. -- Ryan • (talk) • 17:08, 8 May 2012 (EDT)


Sorry I'm new here and I didn't read carefully guidelines. I simply didn't understand why my add was deleted, and tried to write again. Give, if possible another, chance. User:Easy-Kiev.com; 14:09 9 May 2012 (CET)

I removed them again. Also, links to kievis dot com are being put in the article despite requests to stop. Jjtk 13:51, 16 July 2012 (EDT)

Excuse me and why this time? "Kievis dot com" is not related with "Easy-Kiev dot com". My edit didn't contain any link. I read all rules one by one: I didn't tout, I put announce in alphabetical order...I would really like to know the reason of deletion. User:Easy-Kiev; 16:02 17 July 2012 (CET)

It appears it was removed for 2 reasons. The listing was mainly recommending apartments to travellers; this is not allowed per Apt, unless in circumstances where it is agreed on the article's talk page. You could start a discussion there, but I believe it is highly unlikely apartments would be approved for the Kiev article because there's so many hotels. Secondly, your website (Easy-Kiev) seems to be a "database" of various topics and services in Kiev, like apartments, taxis, interpreters, tourist info, etc. Per Xl, we do not link to these unless they are government sources. JamesA >talk 09:19, 17 July 2012 (EDT)
Exactly. And 'kievis dot com' is just another issue I wanted to bring to admins' attention. Jjtk 09:27, 17 July 2012 (EDT)


But if flats listings are not approved in Kiev, what about "Kiev Apartments" and "Apart Hotel". These companies offer exactly the same kind of service of "Easy-Kiev". Different rules for them? User:Easy-Kiev; 19:37 17 July 2012 (CET)

Nope. They gone. Jjtk 02:49, 18 July 2012 (EDT)

URL ban nomination?[edit]

Swept in from the pub.

I am not sure how to nominate a URL for a nuisance ban. There is one (or perhaps more than one) anonymous user, from at least 2 IPs, who has repeatedly substituted the commercial website, http://bahamasbahamasbahamas.com/, for the official website of Bahamas Tourism in the Bahamas article. The aforementioned web address is the site for the Bimini Bay Resort, whose entry I will now delete from the Bimini guide, as promised, but given the repeated misbehavior of people presumably associated with this resort, I think it would be a good idea to blacklist all sites associated with that resort, site-wide. I welcome your feedback. Ikan Kekek 05:18, 28 December 2011 (EST)

If the site is against policy, and being repeatedly added, then Wikitravel:Local spam blacklist may be appropriate. --Inas 17:41, 2 January 2012 (EST)

krakatau-tour dot com[edit]

User created about a dozen pages filled with links to his site across :en and :shared within the space of 10 minutes. --Peter Talk 09:18, 11 August 2012 (EDT)

visitnsw DOT com[edit]

I tried just to do a date and time correction but spam filter blocks "VisitNSW", the official tourism site for Destination New South Wales, a department of NSW Government:

http://www.visitnsw DOT com/destinations/lord-howe-island 

--singaporeAlice 19:17, 20 November 2012 (EST)

Singapore.Alice, try now. IBAlex 19:29, 20 November 2012 (EST)
That works now - thanks!
PS: Just call me Alice, please. I'm not actually in Singapore right now and there has never been an active user with the name of User:Alice on this site! --singaporeAlice 19:43, 20 November 2012 (EST)

not able to edit Taiwan article[edit]

When I edited Taiwan, after I clicked "save page" button it always leaded to a page which tells me "The page you wanted to save was blocked by the spam filter." I didn't put any external links in my edits, therefore I have no idea why I couldn't save my edit. Please help me to deal with this problem, thank you.

Hello! Thank you for your message! Please try again now. I removed a phrase that was causing the problems and everything should be fine now (if not, let me know). We are looking forward to seeing your edits! Thank you! IBAlex (talk) 20:03, 18 February 2014 (EST)

Editing the page http://wikitravel.org/en/Sundarbans[edit]

Hi moderators,

I am a wanderlust and a blogger. Recently I traveled Sundarban and I feel I should share latest information with travelers. In the process I have written a blog post on Sundarban sharing all latest and updated information. Now when I am editing the Wiki travel page here: http://wikitravel.org/en/Sundarbans, I can't edit with a back link to my post which is not at all a promotional site. It would be great if you can publish my edited texts with the back links to my blog post which will actually help travelers. My back link is to my blog www[dot]traveldias[dot]com. —The preceding comment was added by Uvreachedavi (talkcontribs)

Hello Uvreachedavi! Thank you for your message. Couple of things:
  • We appreciate your edits on Wikitravele but we also ask you not to link to secondary sources of information, including blogs. This breaches our External links policies and we kindly ask you to respect them.
  • Why was this message added to the talk page of the local spam black list? Does the spam filter block you?
  • Keep in mind to sign your messages on the talk pages by using ~~~~. Thank you!
Let me know if you have any more questions. Best, IBAlex (talk) 13:50, 19 February 2014 (EST)

Editing bus fares of Bergen[edit]

I'm trying to edit the bus fares of Bergen to this: http://pastebin.com/zyH9bFpx

I however get a error, listing more or less the whole article as spam. Anyone able to help me?

--Vidarlo (talk) 05:46, 16 July 2014 (EDT)

Hello there! Are you trying to insert that link in the article? That could trigger one of our filters, please do not insert the link, just edit the existing bus fares section. If you need more help let us know and we'll investigate on that. Regards, GiulioC (talk) 08:57, 16 July 2014 (EDT)
No, I'm not trying to insert that link. It's the new content of the fares section, editing and updating the old to fit with what is current. I simply pasted the content at pastebin to have a copy to show you guys. Please try to insert it into the fares section, and see the result yourself.
--Vidarlo (talk) 10:45, 16 July 2014 (EDT)
PS: I'm not new to wikis, though I'm new to wikitravel, so I know my way around syntax and style :)
It should be fixed now. GiulioC (talk) 12:18, 16 July 2014 (EDT)

in-bucharest dot com[edit]

Hello, I am trying to add a listing for Alia Accommodation in the "Sleep" section, "Mid-range" category for Bucharest and the URL for the website is triggering the spam filter. I have read the spam policy of wikitravel and I would like to ask the moderators to remove in-bucharest dot com from the spam filter. Thank you in advance.

Hello! Thank you for your message! Unfortunately, the website you're talking about breaches our External links policies. It's an aggregator where you can rent accommodation in Bucharest. We do not support Listings like that. Warm regards, IBAlex (talk) 06:34, 19 October 2014 (EDT)

Megabus in Scotland[edit]

Hi, I'm trying to put in a link to the Megabus website on the Scotland page (Get around - By bus), and it's not letting me, despite the fact that I managed to successfuly put in links for other relevant bus companies. Please help? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Scarwood (talkcontribs)

Hi, thanks for your feedback. The Megabus website is an online worldwide booking site which we don´t like in our articles. It probably has been added to multiple pages in the past so it is on our blocked list. Just add companies that are actually located in the respective location of the article. Thanks for your edits! Adzas (talk) 11:24, 20 May 2015 (EDT)
Hey Scarwood! Thanks for bringing this up! talk is right, they were giving us a hard time a few months ago with a gripload of edits containing copied content from other sites. I believe we were undoing their changes and asking for original/non-marketing content, but it only continued. IBcaldera (talk) 13:50, 20 May 2015 (EDT)

Updating the St Ives page[edit]

I'm trying to update the hostel accommodation information at the bottom of the page (it's got new owners, had a refurb etc) but I'm being blocked when I add the address of the hostel's website.--Douglgm (talk) 03:43, 12 June 2015 (EDT)

Please have a look at your listing now on the St Ives page, I added the url of the hostel so just making sure it is the correct one. It allowed me to add this one without a problem. Any questions, let us know. Adzas (talk) 05:06, 12 June 2015 (EDT)
Thanks, that's the one. --Douglgm (talk) 05:41, 12 June 2015 (EDT)

Editing Brussels - the link to the brussels airport triggers the spam filter[edit]

The correct link to the Brussels Charleroi Airport is www dot charleroi-airport dot com (charleroi-airport dot com doesn't work). However the Spam filter sees a link to rt dot com (regular expressions? :D ) and blocks my edit. --Dira (talk) 11:08, 26 June 2015 (EDT)

Hi Dira, thank you for pointing this out. I have added this link. However, I noticed that there are two websites for Brussel air port: this one and this one. And they both the official website? Thanks! --Binbin (talk) 10:05, 26 June 2015 (EDT)

Editing Cancun - tried to link to Amazon's listing for a novel about the area[edit]

I'm a travel writer and novelist and have a new book about the Yucatan. Added a "Read" section (which is very useful for people planning to come to an area!) and listed my novel. I had hoped to use a link to it on Amazon, but that was blocked. I looked at the guidelines and didn't see that it was outlawed. Mainly just hoping that's okay and if not, no problem. Thank you. —The preceding comment was added by User:107.3.127.155

Hey there, thanks for sharing. Unfortunately, we are not accepting listings for novels, books, films, or other artistic works at the moment. We simply host information that is directly related to visiting the area (how to get around, what attractions to see, places to eat, etc.). We wish you the best with your book! IBcaldera (talk) 14:29, 9 September 2015 (EDT)

problems with mareneveresortdotcom[edit]

I wrote about hotel mareneve that i have visited few days ago but the hotel website link is considerred spam. why?

in-bucharest dot com[edit]

Hi there, I am trying to add a website and email address to an existent listing under Sleep section: Alia Accommodation in Bucharest. When I add it, it triggers the spam filter. Your help is highly appreciated! Thanks!

Updating Lithuania Minor[edit]

Hello, made few minor updates (prices of the festival have increased + changed the website link and e-mail of another festival) - and could not save it, something was treated as a spam. I saved all article with changes in Word file on my PC, but don't know what exactly triggers the spam filter. There was no spam. How to save updates to the article? --Local (talk) 04:32, 2 October 2015 (EDT)

Hi, can you try to add here which link you are trying to include (without the www and write out dot com or whatever the end is) so I can check the link? Adzas (talk) 07:04, 2 October 2015 (EDT)
Yes, i was replacing siluteinfo dot lt Šilutė Information Centre ("good" external link format with brackets) with silute dot lt Žuvienės virimo čempionatas (also "good" external link format with brackets). The latter one is the website of town municipality, i was referring to the one line in menu in this edit. The article itself almost entirely is written by me, all other ext links also are added by me, and there never was a problem. Now i'm not sure whether the link(s) which already is in the article can trigger the spam filter? Or only the new link that one is trying to add can do that? --Local (talk) 14:08, 2 October 2015 (EDT)
I had a look, I do see the silute dot lt in the article already, so not sure where you want to add it? Our technical department has advised that at the moment there does seem to be a bug affecting the adding new links so it could be because of that. Try again after monday, and let us know if you still can´t add the link. Also, I noticed that the article has a lot of links. When adding for example the cities, there is no need to have the official link of that city there, we only want the official links in the actual city article, so I will have a look at those. Lets see after monday what happens ok? Thanks! Adzas (talk) 06:51, 3 October 2015 (EDT)
OK, i'll test everything in Monday-Tuesday and tell you here about the results. If there is a bug or something - actually it seemed very likely that there is something like that affecting the adding new links which are good/normal links. And there were no "wrong words" in the text. As for official links of the cities - i'm aware about WT policy and about what you are saying, these external links are supposed to compensate the absence of internal link, and there will never be internal link nor a separate article (and there is no need for that). So if this is a real violation i can easily remove them from city list, i simply don't know whom to consult with about such small nuances (there is a lot of them). The point is that official municipality websites of such small towns usually have sections directed at potential visitors with info such like transportation within region, accommodation within region, some useful street addresses, or/and external links to other official (local) websites providing such info. So such one municipality website provides access to other official and useful info. And i tell that because the whole region practically has no separate articles for its settlements/towns (nor should have) - then how to describe the region in both comprehensible and useful way if it has no cities, but has several settlements which have everything one need but those settlements have no their articles? :) . I don't want to go on as this is clearly off-topic, just wanted to tell that i make edits having in mind the broader context. But i don't want to violate anything either :) --Local (talk) 06:41, 4 October 2015 (EDT)
Hi, thanks for your feedback. No worries, your edits and input are greatly appreciated. If the city in question has its own article, I would just move the link to the actual article, but we can have a look at that later. I will let you know when all is working ok again and then we will check. Thanks! Adzas (talk) 08:47, 4 October 2015 (EDT)
Made update, everything works, thanks. --Local (talk) 04:36, 7 October 2015 (EDT)

Spamfilter in German Wikitravel[edit]

On evervy Sites no edit:

  • Der folgende Text wurde vom Spamfilter gefunden: /
  • Der folgende Text wurde vom Spamfilter gefunden: ''

Große scheiße! --GF (talk) 13:43, 3 October 2015 (EDT)

Poor filter is blocking Turtle Bay Resort website.[edit]

This url: http://www.turtlebayreso(r)(t).com is blocked because a filter: rt.com Do not block this url. Remove the ( ) for the proper url.

Poor spam filter blocked hea.t(h)ebus.org[edit]

The url: http://hea.t(h)ebus.org/ was incorrectly blocked. The filter blocked: (h)ebus.org. Remove the ( ) for the proper url. Please allow the url.

tpexpress dot co.uk[edit]

On the article Rail travel in the United Kingdom there is a list of all the different train operating companies in Britain in the Passenger Rail Companies section, with links to their official websites. However, I am unable to add the link for First Transpennine Express (www.tpexpress dot co.uk) as the spam filter is preventing me from adding it.

Is there any chance of whitelisting this link, as this is the official site for First Transpennine Express and it should comply with the external links policy? Thanks. 46.11.2.182 05:47, 8 December 2015 (EST)

booktaxiprague dot com[edit]

Hi team, I would like to add our company to Prague page but it seems that the world "booktaxi" is listed in spamfilter; any chance to get it removed? thanks in advance. —The preceding comment was added by 81.43.208.165 (talkcontribs)

Hi, thank you for your message. I just checked your site, and based on the details there your link would not meet our listings guidelines. A business needs an office in the location of the article, and I only see a contact address in Barcelona. Online services at the moment are against our policies, but we are discussing those at the moment. Adzas (talk) 11:15, 15 December 2015 (EST)

Hua Hin update.[edit]

I did a Chumphon update and then moved to Hua Hin, but it repeatedly blocks my update with a "spam filter" problem. Something to do with "rt.com"

Please check and advise. Avemario (talk) 06:13, 23 June 2017 (EDT)

Hi Avemario, thank you for reaching out here. I've deleted "rt.com" from the blacklist. It should work now. Please try the update again. Thank you! --Binbin (talk) 06:31, 23 June 2017 (EDT)

Cannot edit Richmond_(British_Columbia)[edit]

I'm unable to edit Richmond_(British_Columbia) because of the following error:

The following text is what triggered our spam filter: wikitravel.org

However, there is no link that I can see in the text that links to wikitravel.org.

Hi, now it's fixed. Regards, GiulioC (talk) 04:24, 3 August 2017 (EDT)

spam filter blocking error[edit]

As per title. Spam filter is blocking http://www.sipadanmabulreso(r)(t).com/ Sipadan-Mabul Resort. —The preceding comment was added by 115.135.94.147 (talkcontribs)

Editing Kuala Lumpur Page[edit]

Any edits on the page are blocked by the spam filter. This message appears: The following text is what triggered our spam filter: 12go.asia. However, this text is not present at all. —The preceding comment was added by Ctdk (talkcontribs)

Hi Ctdk, thank you for reaching out here (but it's better that you leave a message on Kuala Lumpur discussion page). I've deleted 12go.asia from our spam-blacklist which prevented your edit. Please feel free to drop me a message here if you have any further questions. Thank you! --Binbin (talk) 03:16, 7 December 2017 (EST)

aeroflot.ru[edit]

It is the official site of Aeroflot, the largest and the most famous air company in Russia, I guess there is no reason to include it in the spam filter. Ivan the Knight (talk) 15:13, 12 December 2017 (EST)
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