WordPress : Tackling Comment Spam For WordPress users one of the sites devoted to stopping comment and content spam. The most recent spam attacks have come in the form of hundreds of bogus trackbacks. I have currently disabled trackbacks on this blog since the tools to stop it are not fully developed.
Here’s an example of what can go wrong on a blog. This links to the online blog archive of humorist Dave Barry. It’s what happens to your archives if you do not shut down comments– a pathetic mess.
Comment spam is a fact of life if you have a blog, but using WordPress, you have not only some good built-in tools at your disposal, but also some excellent plugins and methods you can use which are constantly being developed.
Please do not think that you can ignore the issue of comment spam – you cannot.
This page represents all the methods I am currently aware of, but check the Support Forums for updates (though I will try to keep this page updated).
Are wikis getting plastered with spam?
What is proper etiquette when leaving a comment. If I find another blog with a topic related to mine, can should I post a link to my blog in a comment on that one?
It’s up the individual blogger, but what you describe is not uncommon. What’s the worse that can happen? Just don’t make it seem like spam.
In response to Jim’s question, wikis are getting targeted by spam.
To solve this, some wikis require the user to log in (or just to post more than X external links) A small number of them solve the problem by requiring e-mail confirmation of user accounts before posting.
MoinMoin can optionally cache a copy of a centralized blocklist stored as a wiki page on the official site (which apparently works very well). Another common practice is to use specialized tags to instruct google to never follow external links from that wiki.
Finally, some sites use Captchas. (usually distorted text images)
Something that I’d like to see is the ability for people to post their email without the @ sign. I’m told that stops most of it because they typically scan for that and lift the text adjoining it automatically. Without the @ sign it seems to be too much work for them. Unfortunately it seems to be too much work for the sites as well as virtually nobody will let you in my experience! I’m trying it on here for the first time…
I’ve been trying to avoid captchas. I personally find them annoying. And, as I noted, it’s this new generation of trackback posts that began to appear in the last few weeks. Even the captcha would not stop that since it is not a true post that needs a confirmation.
Could any of these Google ads to the left be used to generate future spam? I have no idea, but it doesn’t really matter. What looks like an ad could be trouble. Blogs are filling with ads and nobody running a high volume blog can stop ads from creeping into comment posts. This blog is moderated, which is too time consuming where thousands of messages are being exchanged. The more popular blogs will grow by not filtering the content. This isn’t like writing a letter to the editor, because there is no print version, so why try editing? Waiting 24 hours for a post to appear! The whole point of the web is instant publishing and a free exchange of ideas. This blog here is moderated, but I can see no profit in moderating it. It takes time and there are a million places to post stuff right now. What are the benefits of moderating your blog John? I’d hate to see this blog bomb. You have no control over what Google posts. Hell, Google doesn’t control what this bot does here. You wrote, “Considering the content on this web log, the Google evaluation bot seems to suck. It’s ridiculous. I’d be interested in knowing if anyone can understand how it works and why OCD keeps cropping up. I’m sure mentioning it here isn’t going to help, either.” It sounds like everybody should trust some Google smart bot to make judgements about ads and you can’t trust people to post in the space you provide here without first checking it out. You might do better if you quit moderating posts and started moderating the ads based on the content. If spam creeps into the post, so what. It may make the posts more competitive with the ads and produce better ads than this stupid bot does.
What is software escrow?