Comments on: How comment spam destroys blogs http://www.esztersblog.com/2005/08/17/how-comment-spam-destroys-blogs/ social commentary, gadgets, art, travel and whatever else comes to mind Sun, 30 Aug 2009 00:34:18 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 By: NB http://www.esztersblog.com/2005/08/17/how-comment-spam-destroys-blogs/comment-page-1/#comment-13167 NB Wed, 17 Aug 2005 15:56:23 +0000 http://www.esztersblog.com/?p=166#comment-13167 Oh, wow, I didn't realize that blog spam was such an issue. I guess it seems only natural for people to exploit blogs given the amount of e-mail spam circulating. That is rather unfortunate. Oh, wow, I didn’t realize that blog spam was such an issue. I guess it seems only natural for people to exploit blogs given the amount of e-mail spam circulating. That is rather unfortunate.

]]> By: scott http://www.esztersblog.com/2005/08/17/how-comment-spam-destroys-blogs/comment-page-1/#comment-13166 scott Wed, 17 Aug 2005 13:14:10 +0000 http://www.esztersblog.com/?p=166#comment-13166 I have had the same problem. I've gotten as many as 300 spam comments in a day. It's not that I need a newer and more clever way to catch them; even when my filters do catch them it's still taxing my bandwidth, my server, my app, etc. I've had recent periods where my blog was inaccessible, just couldn't be reached. Then mysteriously it's back. I check the error logs and see some script has been hammering away at me looking for MovableType files to spam me (I use WP). Just the act of my server going "what do you want? MT? No, I don't have that. What do you want? MT? No, I don't have that." five jillion times is enough to bring my blog to its knees. And not a single spam comment results from it all. Bastards. I have the perfect metaphor for what these folks do: they pee in our pool. For a little gain to themselves they ruin things for everyone else. I have had the same problem. I’ve gotten as many as 300 spam comments in a day. It’s not that I need a newer and more clever way to catch them; even when my filters do catch them it’s still taxing my bandwidth, my server, my app, etc. I’ve had recent periods where my blog was inaccessible, just couldn’t be reached. Then mysteriously it’s back. I check the error logs and see some script has been hammering away at me looking for MovableType files to spam me (I use WP). Just the act of my server going “what do you want? MT? No, I don’t have that. What do you want? MT? No, I don’t have that.” five jillion times is enough to bring my blog to its knees. And not a single spam comment results from it all.

Bastards. I have the perfect metaphor for what these folks do: they pee in our pool. For a little gain to themselves they ruin things for everyone else.

]]> By: Chris http://www.esztersblog.com/2005/08/17/how-comment-spam-destroys-blogs/comment-page-1/#comment-13165 Chris Wed, 17 Aug 2005 12:19:50 +0000 http://www.esztersblog.com/?p=166#comment-13165 If you're not too wed to the Wordpress platform, I'd make the suggestion to move to a service like TypePad. The advantages of TypePad includes the fact that they host a whole lot of blogs and using those blogs' comments as input, they do a really good job identifying comment spam and blacklistin the spammers before it becomes a problem. I'll have maybe five spam comments slip through every month, though I have posts going back two years. For ~$15 a month, I get spam and trackback filtering, they host the server and worry about backups, and they worry about the scummy people looking to screw up blogging for the rest of us. In return I give up things like running PHP to do custom things on my pages, but I've done okay simply using client-side JavaScript. If you’re not too wed to the WordPress platform, I’d make the suggestion to move to a service like TypePad. The advantages of TypePad includes the fact that they host a whole lot of blogs and using those blogs’ comments as input, they do a really good job identifying comment spam and blacklistin the spammers before it becomes a problem. I’ll have maybe five spam comments slip through every month, though I have posts going back two years. For ~$15 a month, I get spam and trackback filtering, they host the server and worry about backups, and they worry about the scummy people looking to screw up blogging for the rest of us. In return I give up things like running PHP to do custom things on my pages, but I’ve done okay simply using client-side JavaScript.

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