Just because I haven't been writing here much lately, that doesn't mean that I haven't been spending any time working on le blog. That's because, while I haven't been posting, the comment spammers have. And it's gotten particularly out of control in the last month or two.
So, I've spent several hours both yesterday and today going through every single goddam post on this blog (all 1357 of them), deleting anything that carries even the faintest whiff of spam, and shutting off the commenting option on all posts that don't currently appear on the home page (i.e. most of them). Going forward, this will clearly require a more elegant solution.
Meanwhile, here's some related linkage:
- a Wikiepedia entry on link spam, which explains what it is, and why people do it; there are also some links to more information
- a BBC article on how spammers are targetting blogs
- a Wired piece on the evil genius of comment spammers
- the Online Journalism Review looks at bloggers fighting back against comment spam
- the Blog Spam Database maintains a list of spammer domains and publishes it as an MT-Blacklist file
Comments
you're alive! and you're fighting spammers! keep up the good fight & don't eat too many danishes ;)
Posted by: josie | November 14, 2004 9:42 AM
Yes, Blog Spammers are a malicious, unethical bunch. I shut down comments entirely on my blog until I could find a more satisfactory solution. I am beginning to think it's going to require a in-house created solution and I'm not entirely disappointed at that options since I'm not completely happy with many of the blog systems out there. I'll keep you posted on my new system as things develop.
Posted by: Dave Carlson | November 14, 2004 11:00 PM
Try MT-Close2
http://www.redbrick.dcu.ie/~cammy/sw/000480.shtml
I was getting a lot of spamments on old entries. This MT-plugin lets you close all of your old entries so no further comments can be added.
Posted by: Adam@Mookie | November 15, 2004 12:45 PM