MEpedia:Blacklists and whitelists

A blacklist is a list of words/phrases or websites which are not allowed. These terms or websites are typically only prevented from being used in certain places, for example as links or page names.

A whitelist is a list of words/phrases or websites that are always allowed, even if they also match something on the blacklist.

Purpose
Blacklists to prevent spam, for example to prevent links to websites often reported to be promoted by spammers, known malware websites, or to prevent vandalism such as using inappropriate terms to create content e.g. uploading pornography.

MEpedia uses a whitelist of trusted websites so that editors who link to these websites will not be prompted to fill out the MEpedia:CAPTCHA task when they save edits, which means newer editors using certain reliable websites do not have to continually answer a question every time they want to save their work. These are typically the websites suggested by the science guidelines, or well-known professional associations and ME patient groups.

Blacklists

 * SmiteSpam extension, which is only accessible to administrators or those given access
 * MediaWiki:Pageimages-blacklist A list of images that should NOT be used as a thumbnail to represent an article. E.g. common MEpedia icons which may be picked up when no image is on the page.
 * MediaWiki:TitleBlacklist
 * Extension:SpamBlacklist is included with MediaWiki but not installed. Uses MediaWiki:Spam-blacklist and MediaWiki:Email-blacklist plus content hidden in LocalSettings.php, with an option to include MediaWiki's block list
 * Further restrictions may be listed in LocalSettings.php, which is accessible to developers only

Whitelists

 * MediaWiki:Captcha-addurl-whitelist is used for websites very likely to be used as references

Permissions
Changes to the blacklist and whitelist pages are restricted to administrators. Requests for changes can be made on the relevant talk pages.