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Add an option for each domain in Special:BlockedExternalDomains to only apply the block to the mainspace
Open, Needs TriagePublicFeature

Description

Feature summary:
Have an option (checkbox) in Special:BlockedExternalDomains to specify for each domain if the block is enabled in all namespaces (box not checked) or only in mainspace (box checked).

Use case(s):
On fr-wp, we often want to forbid the use of some sources in the articles, because they lack reliability or are used for spam. But we still need to use them in talkpages; we can't anymore. In fact, in most cases, we only want to forbid a domain to be added in the mainspace; only in some specific cases of spam we want a domain not to be added anywhere.

Benefits:
Removing an irritating downside of adding a website to MediaWiki:BlockedExternalDomains.

Note:
Limiting filtering to mainspace is not currently possible with Special:BlockedExternalDomains, but we can use directly AbuseFilter for that. However, this is not a good practice for the following reasons:

  • it's less practical that MediaWiki:BlockedExternalDomains
  • AF can be edited by less people than MediaWiki:BlockedExternalDomains
  • Using AF for blacklisting would mean split again where the blacklisted websites are stored (some are already on MediaWiki:Spam-blacklist and some on Special:BlockedExternalDomains)

Event Timeline

What if someone adds a blacklisted link via a transcluded template (not necessarily in the template namespace)? AFAIK not even AbuseFilter can catch that without basically SALTing the entire mainspace page after the fact.

matej_suchanek renamed this task from Add an option for each domain in Special:BlockedExternalDomains to only appy the block to the mainspace to Add an option for each domain in Special:BlockedExternalDomains to only apply the block to the mainspace.Jul 6 2025, 6:53 AM

What if someone adds a blacklisted link via a transcluded template (not necessarily in the template namespace)? AFAIK not even AbuseFilter can catch that without basically SALTing the entire mainspace page after the fact.

I've thought about it. I guess that, then, if the risks/benefits balance is bad, a sysop unchecks the checkbox to prevent any further bypass.

In the usecases I think of on fr-wp, it's very unlikely anyone would want to bypass the blacklist in such cases, as targeted insertions of the domains are not from bad faith actors (i.e. are not spam).