I guess a sign this blog is really taking off is the amount of spam people are submitting via trackback and comments. I’ve gotten a flood of it the past week. (Note: during the time I’ve been writing this I got two spam comments.)
For instance, it looks like someone from Paul’s tips has been making an appearance here. Posting the exact same post over and over: “Nice post. Reminds me a bit of Paul’s Tips(link removed), which you should probably check out if you’re interested in this sort of stuff. Good luck with it.” They have used different names for these posts but the same IP address. (I guess they didn’t realize I’m a network administrator and tracking this stuff is second nature to me).
I really don’t know Paul or his tips, but perhaps he has some value to offer in his posts instead of resorting to this selfish behavior. It would probably increase the likelihood people would use his services. Plus, if I haven’t made it clear, I am open to collaboration and working together.
Trackback spam
I am also getting a ton of trackback spam that links to probably the most nasty stuff known to man. I am not open to collaboration with these people. But I think they need help. How one could start a business dealing in such human misery is a sign of at the very least severe self-loathing, at the worst, psychosis. The fact they have to spend their days and nights spamming is a sign of their desperation.
So if you are from one of those sites and you are reading this, I’d say it’s never going to work. You know what you are doing is hurting yourself and others. You can’t hurt other people without hurting yourself. Get some help.
I really hope I won’t have to enable comment screening. I’ve really enjoyed the comments from regular readers and visitors. I am a bit concerned screening might limit the number of comments and resulting ideas people post here. We’ve seen so many enlightening posts, it would be a shame if they were slowed.
What do you think? Would comment screening affect your posting behavior?
Technorati Tags: spam, tackback spam, Paul’s tips, blogging
{ 8 comments }
Yeah. . . comment screening would probably limit posting. I generally don’t like it. Sucks that you’re getting the spam, but I guess once you reach SuperBlog status, that’s the breaks.
What about requiring registration?
Please no registration! Just screenning comment
Ah, Spam in the blog comments. I must deal with this all the time. I can offer you only meager advice at best.
1. If you don’t want to force people to register to leave comments (and I don’t do that either), you can make comments less attractive places for spam. Consider eliminating HTML tag support, or eliminating external hypertext links. Or consider limiting external links to ONE per comment.
2. Don’t have these options? Does your blog software have an anti-spam filter or plugin? My CMS has a bayesian filter module for comments. Its dumb at first, but gets very smart over time at automatically blocking posts with spammy words. It even emails me when it blocks spam comments.
3. By vigilant with your DENY HOSTS lines in .htaccess file. You can block specific IP addresses from viewing your site. Does adding individual IP addresses sound like a thankless job? Well, it isn’t bad when you just add a few addresses a week. Over time, you’ll find yourself blocking hundreds of IP addresses. That’s the costs of login-less comments.
Over time, the spamming bot owners realize that your site is not an attractive place to do this, because you remove it and fight it. Then they tend to move on to sites where the owners aren’t do anything.
Of course, by posting my URL, I’m sure I’ll be getting more this week…
Good luck.
I have also started having this blog spamming problem slightly over a month ago. The spams just keep coming back every few days and they just get smarter.
Initially, I implemented IP blocking. However, it proved to be ineffective. The spammer managed to get away with several blog comments within a short time frame but different IPs. I think I have more than 20 different IPs associated with the spammer to date.
Now, I have implemented comment screening by blacklisting some common words associated with spams and also common spam links. I keep adding to the blacklist whenever the spams come back. So far, this solution has managed to reduce spams, although not eliminate completely. The spammers just know how to work-around it.
I have considered implementing user registration or disabling HTML, but these features would make posting less fun.
Hey Vicott, long time no see.
It looks like you’d be able to do some wildcard blocking on your site. Have you tried blocking using the asterisk on the last octet or two octets?
Like you might use 182.25.33.* to block all 255 addresses in that range. If you go back another octet, 182.25.*.* You are throwing a wider net, but that spammer at least won’t be able to get through.
I used to do that on Pocket PC Addict using an automatic script and there were so many spammers being blocked, I’d occasionally get messages from legitimate users that they’d be blocked.
So I’d start with the last octet and move up as needed.
Actually, I do read your blog pretty frequently although I seldom post comments here. It’s in my synchronisation list in Sunnysoft World-Offline =)
Anyway, I edit the codes for my blog quite alot so I have quite alot of flexibility with the ways to block spammers.
From I see, blocking the last or last 2 octets do not help as the IPs are really very random. That’s why I gave up IP blocking and switched to keyword/domain/sub-domain banning instead. It’s not completely foolproof but at least I can see that the spammer has got sick of my site and reduced on the spams. *Hopefully the spammer’s interest in my site does not revive again*
As much as I wanted to get rid of spammers, I do not wish to create issues for genuine visitors who want to put their their comments.
There are spam filters being developed for blogs and if not already in beta wlll be available soon, so the issue could be resolved by software.
Paul Slinger