Comments on: New comments policy

By: Andy

Andy — Mon, 21 Jan 2008 14:02:51 +0000

ahh, the never ending battle with spam. The problem is self-feeding. The more you publish posts, the more your blog will appear on the front pages of blog searches, or as links from other blogs. These ‘human’ posters are simply prepping the way so that they can launch a spam bot later. I used to have a challenge question, but found after a couple of months it would be cracked and my moderation queue would fill up again.

By: doctorvee

doctorvee — Sun, 20 Jan 2008 21:27:49 +0000

Ah yes, I remember that post of yours now Rhys. I take it you’re just marking all such comments as spam now?

By: Rhys

Rhys — Sun, 20 Jan 2008 21:23:57 +0000

I know EXACTLY the comments you mean. I’ve got 20 of the sods sitting in my moderation queue. Even a comment policy doesn’t stop them , I posted about it a few months ago and am now getting similar comments to that exact post! Can’t people read?

By: doctorvee

doctorvee — Sun, 20 Jan 2008 18:03:13 +0000

Yes, and of course there is the small fact that nofollow does nothing to stop spam.

By: Calum Leslie

Calum Leslie — Sun, 20 Jan 2008 16:46:07 +0000

I dunno if you consider it an option, but if you put “nofollow” in the rel attribute of those links, it should stop people spidering it, taking away the incentive to put the link up.

That said, you might want legitimate links to be publicised!

By: doctorvee

doctorvee — Sun, 20 Jan 2008 16:37:49 +0000

I’ve considered the challenge question option. It looks very simple and effective. However, as I said above, I strongly suspect the current problem is caused by humans rather than bots. They are only coming in groups of a maximum of three at a time rather than the several dozen typical of bots. It might be worth a try if the problem persists though.

By: Longrider

Longrider — Sun, 20 Jan 2008 16:22:33 +0000

Hmm. Not had this one happen to me, yet. For some time, I was using Bad Behaviour, but the latest incarnation caused the site to grind to a halt. So far, the most effective method of stopping comment spam has been the challenge question as this sorts the bots from people. It is simple and effective and since installing it last year, I’ve not had one single comment spam. To make life easier for real people, I use just the one challenge question. Okay, I may be speaking too soon, but I suggest trying that to see if your spammers are bots or people. If the former, you will have fixed your problem.