Blog Spam
Wednesday, January 14 2004
Blog spam is becoming more and more annoying for many people out there, and I heard someone say that you can't defeat it because of how open the commenting system is, much like email. (I don't remember who said that). But it seems like there are two things we could do that would drastically reduce the amount of spam we all receive:
1) Disable any comment API, or if it is enabled require some sort of login to use the API.
2) Create a little graphic number generator that users have to read and input, this should cripple any automated tools. (Someone has already done it)
People would still be able to manually add comment spam, but I think the majority of spam is coming from some sort of automatic tool.
-James
Comments
- #1 Con Tendem on 1.14.2004 at 8:33 PM
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what about a plug-in similar to movable type spam filter? <br>
- #2 James Avery on 1.14.2004 at 8:35 PM
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That would also be very cool, filters work pretty well for email, but I thought that maybe we could come up with something stronger considering that we have more control over the delivery technique... but they are definitely a good start, and I sure wish I had one now.
-James - #3 Jeremy C. Wright on 1.15.2004 at 1:17 AM
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No offence, but 90%+ of comment spam is done manually: finding sites (like mine) with high PageRank and exploiting them.
I have anti-spam software installed (Jay Allen's) and still get 1-2 a day, in spite of that. - #4 Jeremy C. Wright on 1.15.2004 at 1:19 AM
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As an aside, the #1 idea really is the best way of doing things. Any large-source provider of forward-facing services (market leap for instance) will tell you that the number generators only stop the more simple bots.
Ones developed by... More ambitious interests, to put it lightly, are fully able to overcome them if it's in their interests. - #5 Doug Thews on 1.15.2004 at 4:34 AM
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Most of my blog spam revolves around a single post where I berated the number of spam e-mails I was receiving selling online drugs without a prescription. Once I put up that post, Ii started getting a bunch of posts that were links to drug selling sites.
I guess it's because (like Jeremy mentioned) of the post's page rank on search engines.
My two suggestions are:
#1. Use some kind of registration system
#2. Have a pre-approval system that e-mails you when a comment is added, and waits for you to approve it
#2 might not be very popular because it doesn't allow for instant viewing of comments. #1 is probably where we're headed. I also use the IP banning properties of MovableType to kill off the repeat offenders. - #6 P Hansen on 4.07.2004 at 10:31 PM
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What happens if someone has a cool website they have run across and want to tell others about? I have found lots of good sites through word of mouth!