Security and Resources

AbuseFilter

AbuseFilter is an incredibly powerful tool that exists as an extension for MediaWiki software. It serves a variety of purposes, but one of its best strengths is its ability to combat spam, particularly in regards to page creation. It's so powerful that TMWA considers it to be a critically necessary tool in order for wikis to successfully function, and is strongly encouraged that all sites no matter the host get it as soon as possible.

No Spam In Our House

With help from a variety of sources, this filter was created to combat spam accounts from creating garbage pages after they register. The parameters are carefully designed to avoid false positives as best as possible, and can be configured/personalized for each site. Blacklisted words include common terms or phrases like carpet cleaning or my web site, and the default whitelisted phrases are generally related to basic video gaming.

To import this filter, navigate to Special:AbuseFilter, select "Import Filter From Another Wiki", and paste the code in. Make adjustments (particularly for whitelisted phrases), and then save the filter. Any offending accounts will throttle the page from being created and block the user for three days. They generally don't try again after 48 hours, so this should be long enough. 

Direct link to Google Drive folder containing txt files

Note: Around MediaWiki version 1.40 to 1.43, AbuseFilter changed the way it handles certain parameters in order to work. For those on older versions, use the "Pre-1.40" version, and for those on current MediaWiki installations use "Post-1.40"

Everything Counts In Large Amounts

This filter prevents brand new accounts from making extremely large edits that would be spam-like. It will not trigger if any links, headers, or tables are added, and only impacts new, non-autoconfirmed accounts.

Accessibility tools

These third-party tools may be useful for accessibility options, or just as tools in general.

• Color Blindness simulator

• Text-to-speech

• List alphabetizer

CSS Settings and Image Optimization

All images uploaded to wikis should ideally be losslessly optimized, a process which maintains quality while removing generally unhelpful metadata. There are a variety of tools available to perform this process, but the strongest contenders are the following:

• ImageOptim (Mac)

• FileOptimizer (Windows)

• Trimage (Linux)

• EZGIF (Web; not ideal and should only be done if no other option is available)

When using these services, ensure that settings are configured to be lossless and not lossy optimization. Lossy optimization is usually called compression, and compromises quality to get smaller file sizes, which is not ideal.

Smaller file sizes help web hosts minimalize costs, end users load files, and remove metadata which may contain sensitive information.

Another suggested implementation is to add the following to MediaWiki:Common.css:

/* hide potentially sensitive data on file pages */

#mw_metadata .exif-gpslatitude, #mw_metadata .exif-gpslongitude, #mw_metadata .exif-artist {display: none;}

This will hide certain metadata parameters that could be used to target uploading users on files that are not properly optimized. It does not remove the information from the file, but makes it significantly more difficult to observe being present.

Print artwork and image sources

This is by no means a complete archive, but these are a variety of websites that contain good amounts of content for video gaming or otherwise printed artwork, amongst other things. Sites included here are not inherently partnered with the TMWA, but are considered to be safe platforms with high-quality work. 

Box Art

• http://www.thecoverproject.net/

• https://www.mobygames.com/

• https://www.gamingalexandria.com/wp/scans/

Printed Artwork

Generally for advertisement, flyers, posters, etc

• https://instagram.com/pokelele

• https://imginn.com/pokelele/

• https://mastodon.social/@GameArtArchive

Sprites

• https://www.spriters-resource.com/ Spriter's Resource

• https://spritedatabase.net/ Sprite Database

• http://videogamesprites.net/ Video Game Sprites.net

Other miscellaneous resources

• http://www.kirbysrainbowresort.net/multimedia/icons/ Kirby's Rainbow Resort

• https://themushroomkingdom.net/anigifs.shtml The Mushroom Kingdom

• https://www.c64-wiki.com/wiki/Main_Page Commodore 64 Wiki

• http://www.acornelectron.co.uk/c-home.html Acorn Electron World

• http://www.dragon32universe.info/profs/dragon/cats/abacus.html Dragon 32 Universe

• http://www.obsoletecomputermuseum.org/ Obsolete Computer Museum

• https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/x-index.php Spectrum Computing

• https://worldofspectrum.org/archive World of Spectrum

• https://retromuseums.com/ RetroMuseums

By no means is this list of resources complete, universal, or mandatory. It is simply provided to help out wiki developers both old and new introduce some useful tools to keep their platforms running the best they can.