[Systems] Trac: using TicketModeratorPlugin to filter SPAM

[Sascha Silbe]

Hi!

I'm finished testing TicketModeratorPlugin. It works quite well (on 
0.11).

The intended workflow is:

- new user creates account, files new ticket or modifies existing one
- moderator (i.e. me) gets moderation request email
- moderator decides spam/ham:
    - if spam:
      - reject submission (using link in email or checkboxes in web 
interface)
    - if ham:
      - add user to "unmoderated" group (using shell script or web 
interface)
      - accept submission (using link in email)

Future submissions by the same user will go straight through.


There are three things about TicketModeratorPlugin that might not fit 
our use perfectly:
a) bugs@ gets CC'ed on moderation requests (should be easy enough to 
work around in the source) and
b) Trac admins are implicitly moderators, so ticket owners (i.e. 
component owners) who are Trac admins (e.g. erikos) will receive the 
moderation request instead of myself. Again it should be easy to change 
in the source.
c) attachments cannot (yet) be moderated, only accepted or rejected 
right away depending on permissions


Pro:
- should catch virtually all SPAM (I haven't seen any spammer going to 
the effort of reporting genuine issues first)
- no additional effort required for users (cf. captchas)
- reasonably low overhead for the admins (only first submission requires 
attention)

Con:
- first submission gets delayed
- no attachments possible on first submission


Transition plan (for production Trac):
- prune user accounts that haven't done any (lasting) submission (mostly 
spammers; 488 accounts)
- add all remaining users (199 accounts) to group unmoderated
- enable TicketModeratorPlugin (downtime < 1 minute to "upgrade" 
database after installation)


CU Sascha

-- 
http://sascha.silbe.org/
http://www.infra-silbe.de/
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