Our fearless founder Denise noticed some untoward comments on her blog. So I checked the comments on this blog and found about 500 spam comments, all in the last four months (since 26 Jan 2013, to be precise), and most on old posts, which I have deleted. Only one was porn, BTW.
What to do now?
Basically there are five choices, as I see it.
1. Do nothing. That's not a viable option as I would spend WAY too much time deleting spam.
2. Use word verification. I know some of you use it, and I do understand why you do. But as a personal preference, I HATE WV.
3. Approval of all comments. Seems to cut the free flow of the discussion, and makes more work for me. I do this on my own blogs, and that's effort enough.
4. Approval of comments after so many days, since most spam is on older posts. I have done this; it was 8 days, but I changed it to 15 when I:
5. Eliminated anonymous comments, which is virtually all the problem, by utilizing Open ID, which you can read about HERE. It should work with those of you who are using most blogging products. I hope this is not too onerous. If so, write to me at rogerogreen [at] gmail [dot] com.
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I check anonymous comments daily. If they don't sign as someone I know, I report it as spam. Thanks for giving us this information .
ReplyDeleteHi Robert, that's terrible news! and 500 is a massive number. I did not have the word verification earlier on my blog but then started receiving spam, just a couple but enough to make me worry about my blog's security. Since I approve comments I could delete them at that stage but I did let 1-2 go by not being too sure which increased the downpour of more spam. So now if as you would have seen I have the word verifier ON. I know it's a hassle for the reader but I also know that those really wanting to leave a comment will do so despite the hindrance. Hope you can work out a solution soon.
ReplyDeleteSince, I am sure, I have a lot less traffic on my blog, I have not had any spam problems. One blogger has a box with a message "check to show you are not a robot." Sorry I don't remember which. Whatever it takes for you not to spend hours getting rid of spam will be okay with me. It's upsetting to me that people who have no respect or consideration for others are entering into all space of our lives.
ReplyDeleteSpam has become an increasing problem on my blog too. Fortunately most of them are caught by my spam filter and tossed into that folder which is fairly easy to empty. I am tempted also to enable word verification. It's probably worth the hassle.
ReplyDeleteI don't use word verification but I have to approve each comment. They are sent to my email. I can check them midday while at work on my android, but my volume is not so high that it would create a nuisance. There are times I get a number of spammers or anonymous comments and send them all to spam. Some people are very persistent and i have been spammed by porn sites too - disgusting!!
ReplyDeleteI think we've all had this problem. I haven't resorted to WV yet, but will if I have to—and won't blame you if you do too.
ReplyDeleteIn the past I had a lot of spam comments, but now my old posts are safe anyway and when a post is older than a number of days, the comments have to be approved by me. Some weeks ago I got a comment of someone who doesn't like American women. I deleted it of course. Another time I got some comments written Chinese characters. Well I hope I only get comments from decent bloggers.
ReplyDeleteMy blog host Wordpress uses a spam filter that catches it all so far. I go to the tools and delete 3-6 per week. It is the junk mail of the internet.
ReplyDeleteYes I make people sign in now (but not word verification) which cuts down 90% of my spam commnets at blogger
ReplyDeleteThanks Roger - great to see we are on the ball eh? Made me sit up and take note I can tell you!
ReplyDeleteI had to do that on my blog too because of an overload of spam.
ReplyDeletePlease NO word verification!!! I stopped allowing anonymous comments (in Blogger) and have no more problem. I might miss a few comments, but I think most bloggers know by now that you need some sort of ID to post comments.
ReplyDeleteNot nice, I don't like VW, mine has my photo.
ReplyDeleteI'm sorry about Word Verification on my site... I reinstated it because I was getting a LOT of spam every day!! Just didn't want to deal with it anymore. Perhaps I'll take it off in the near future - as a test, but until then. I probably will just leave it. (I'm sorry for the inconvenience!) SG
ReplyDeleteSpamming is the biggest nightmare for any blogger . Word verification is quite irritating .
ReplyDeleteThere isn't one solution that does for everyone - I use captchas because without them I have to deal with a lot of spam and moderation of all comments is too time-consuming - I allow anon comments because some of the anon comments I get are actually quite valuable - I don't mind captchas on other blogs but do get annoyed about blogs that have captchas AND moderation.
ReplyDelete