This report concerns disruptive edits to articles related to ccTLD (country code top-level domains). A discussion occurred here.
See discussion at ANI (July 2017).
Overview
editRecent activity can be seen in "related changes" for {{ccTLD}}:
ccTLD articles edited by the IPs:
- .al .ar .bf .bi .bj .br .cd .cg .ci .cl .cn .co .cu .dz .ec .et .gh .gm .gn .hr .hu .id .il .in .ir .jp .ke .kp .kr .ly .md .mk .ml .mn .mx .my .ne .ng .pe .ph .pk .ro .rw .sd .sn .td .th .tn .tr .tw .ua .ug .vn
IPs from above (BTnet UK Regional network):
- 81.135.204.201 (talk · contribs · WHOIS) (all contribs, x-wiki)
- 86.134.240.162 (talk · contribs · WHOIS) (all contribs, x-wiki)
- 86.174.198.166 (talk · contribs · WHOIS) (all contribs, x-wiki)
- 86.134.246.111 (talk · contribs · WHOIS) (all contribs, x-wiki)
- 86.164.203.33 (talk · contribs · WHOIS) (all contribs, x-wiki)
- 86.167.196.52 (talk · contribs · WHOIS) (all contribs, x-wiki)
- 86.174.196.117 (talk · contribs · WHOIS) (all contribs,x-wiki)
- 86.174.196.70 (talk · contribs · WHOIS) (all contribs, x-wiki)
- 86.186.7.21 (talk · contribs · WHOIS) (all contribs, x-wiki)
- 86.188.38.18 (talk · contribs · WHOIS) (all contribs, x-wiki)
The IPs are active cross-wiki (click the x-wiki link for cross-wiki global contributions). Example: 10:55, 20 July 2017.
Outline of problem
editMany diffs show unhelpful changes of this nature:
- Adding many unlikely or unhelpful or blatantly false assertions, often with {{citation needed}} tags.
- Adding unhelpful empty sections, sometimes with an {{empty section}} tag.
- Adding nonsensical dates ("as of 2018...", or "active since 1990" contradicting a known start date of 1994).
- Adding fake statistics with {{citation needed}} ("69,000,000" registered domains at .co and .ng and .sn).
- Nonsensical edit summaries, for example:
- 500 Internal Server Error
- ARREST OF 8 SAMPAGA MEMBERS FOR THE MURDER OF 7 COLOBONG MEMBERS
- IMBESTIGADOR JULY 22, 2017 (see Imbestigador)
- MURDER SENSENG (see Sensing Murder)
- OBJECT REFERENCE NOT SET TO AN INSTANCE OF AN OBJECT
- S.O.C.O. JULY 22, 2017 (see S.O.C.O. (Scene of the Crime Operatives))
Reliable sources
editICANN manages the process whereby domain names are allocated on the Internet. Page 117 of their document ICANN study on the African DNS market states:
- "Research data† from November 2016 indicates that a total of just over 2.9 million domains are active under the African ccTLDs."
- [This shows the absurdity of the above 69,000,000 value for Nigeria and Senegal.]
The †research data page includes a table with counts of all domains in each TLD. An extract from that table follows. The "spurious count" column shows values entered by the IP.
TLD | Domain count | Spurious count |
---|---|---|
.al | 17,072 | 690,000 |
.ci | 8,837 | 9,500,000 |
.co | 2,186,090 | 69,000,000 |
.gm | 1,521 | 650,000 |
.in | 1,812,048 | 945,699 |
.ng | 71,715 | 69,000,000 |
.pe | 83,032 | 500,000 |
.ph | 76,889 | 690,000 |
.sn | 4,369 | 69,000,000 |
Sample of diffs
edit- .al by 86.134.240.162 diff 19:07, 7 July 2017
- Added
- Presently, these .al website domains increased to 690,000 making them the very popular .al domain since 2018.
- which has the made-up "690,000" and future 2018 date.
- Added
- .ci by 86.134.240.162 diff 19:01, 7 July 2017
- .co by 81.135.204.201 diff 15:19, 19 July 2017
- Included
- actualuse = Very Popular in Colombia; .CO top level domain has become the leading global alternative to .com for innovators, entrepreneurs and startups. This domain is also widely used in Colombia.
- (other articles have similar "very popular" language; examples below).
- Included
- registereddomains = 69,000,000
- Included future date:
- As of 2018, this domain is re-established by Colombian Network Information Center.{{citation needed}}
- Included (URL added twice)
- http://www.nic.net.co Colombian Network Indormation Center - in Colombia (another website)
- but that URL is for a non-existent domain.
- Included
- .gm by 86.134.240.162 diff 21:20, 5 July 2017
- Included:
- actualuse=Very Popular in the Gambia; uses primarily and Frequently
- registereddomains=650,000
- Included:
- .in by 86.134.240.162 diff 14:58, 8 July 2017
- Included:
- registereddomains = 945,699
- http://www.nic.net.in/
- but that URL displays:
- If you are seeing this message, the website for is not available at this time.
- Included:
- .ng by 86.134.240.162 diff 09:25, 6 July 2017
- Included
- registereddomains=69,000,000
- and
- http://www.nic.ng/ Nigerian Network Information Center (another website)
- but that URL shows a "Buy this domain" parked domain.
- Included
- .ng by 81.135.204.201 diff 10:22, 23 July 2017
- Included six empty sections, each with {{empty section}}, and
- As of 2017, they are currently 90,969 domains registered, currently, they are 69,000,000 domains registered in the .ng Domain.{{citation needed}}
- while the infobox said
- Registered domains 90,969 (July 22, 2017)[1]
- the [1] source in the article takes a long time to display, but it clearly verifies 90,969.
- Included six empty sections, each with {{empty section}}, and
- .pe by 86.134.240.162 diff 14:26, 8 July 2017
- Included:
- registereddomains=500,000
- Included:
- .pe by 81.135.204.201 diff 10:31, 23 July 2017
- Added
- 9 made-up factoids, each with {{citation needed}}
- 4 unhelpful empty sections, each with {{empty section}}
- Added
- .ph by 86.134.240.162 diff 20:20, 14 July 2017
- Included
- sponsor = PH Domain Foundation, http://www.nic.net.ph/ Philippine Network information Center
- but that URL shows a "This domain may be available" parked domain with text unrelated to domains.
- Included
- registereddomains = 690,000
- Included
- .sn by 81.135.204.201 diff 20:02, 22 July 2017
- Included:
- Registered domains 69,000,000 (June 27, 2017){{citation needed}}
- Included:
- Masgouf by 81.135.204.201 diff 15:50, 24 July 2017
- Added (this example shows that more than ccTLD articles are subject to nonsense):
- -Turkish{{citation needed}}
- Added (this example shows that more than ccTLD articles are subject to nonsense):