well, well

nov 02 2006

last week i had alot of spammers attacking my comments. as most bloggers know, it sucks, big time!

when i created the back-end for the comments it was pretty standard. ie. i had basic validation on the comments - supply a name, a valid url and a comment.

the average scum-of-the-earth spammer jumped at the opportunity to nuke my comments. initially it was pretty easy to block them because they were all using one keyword that set them apart from the genuine commentor. but then (and i hate to say it) they got 'clever' and diversified their spamming. so i worked out another method to block them. this was a very impractical way of dealing with it because i had to physically update the comments web page and upload it everytime i changed it.

so, last week - after some serious spamming was hitting the comments - i decided to make a better spam blocking system. i don't use a blogging tool like wordpress or blogger, the backend is completely developed by myself, so i had to develop something to block the spammers.

so now i have a system that is practical and convenient, which i can't go into because i think the average spammer can read... but i think a week later with nothing coming through is pretty good!

what i'd really like to know though, what purpose does spamming comments fufill? is there tons of money it? do people actually see a spammed comment and click through? is it a page ranking thing on google?

Posted by sarah | tech, ranting, web

comments

sarah | 2006-11-11 08:36:14

my spam is similar but not from the same person, that happens very seldom. they have some sort of script though that is getting through. it's missing some vital information though and doesn't show. every now and then it meets the right criteria and gets through. i do like the wordpress system you described about a previous commentors post going through, but i don't ask for an email address so simply validating on a user name or web address (both are shown) would be asking for more trouble...

i could start doing it though, i really like the idea. hmm...

coda | 2006-11-10 14:37:40

Sarah: I used the "sh*t" word in my comment ;)

My spam seems to come and go these days. The trend this week is 30 at a time from the same user, all saying the same thing.

I like what WordPress does, it checks if the visitor has commented before (based on name, e-mail address, whatever) and if so puts their comment live otherwise it's subjected to moderation. That together with the Aksimet plugin provide quite a powerful solution.

I prefer the peace of mind that moderation provides.

Chris M | 2006-11-09 00:13:20

Spam.. grief, I managed to write some code, which has successfully kept comment spamming on my website away for a good couple of months so far, however my mail server.. I'm currently getting around 5000+ spam messages a day! Can you believe it! We are in the process of getting ready to move servers, as 5000/day is just too many to handle!

Sarah, I spoke to you last time, and you showed me a couple tricks for preventing spam, I would be interested in whether you changed your code completely, or just built onto it, drop me an email if you got the time!

Right, heading over to SomeNoOne now.. :-)

sarah | 2006-11-07 19:03:26

it's definitely a big pain. since the change i have had two spams slip through - they were odd though and didn't appear in the 4 latest comments i have on the left hand column (what's the point then)?

i know damien also had problems and i was considering going the same route as him with the comment approval, but i like the comments appearing instantaneously.

if i had wordpress or blogger installed and running i'm sure i wouldn't have had such a problem! but i did the backend myself and i dig it that way - sometimes i have issues accessing blogs running on wordpress or blogger!

tripeak | 2006-11-07 17:25:53

Yeah - having the same problem Sarah - at least wordpress catch most of mine. Quite annoying! Damien - think you had some serious problems a while ago too hey?

sarah | 2006-11-07 07:47:44

what were you trying to say? i have a few swear words in the list of words not allowed...

i hope you hadn't written alot? although you could've used the back button i think and then just modified your comments...

coda | 2006-11-07 00:15:44

oh I see, sh*t ...

coda | 2006-11-07 00:13:56

I just tried to comment and received the following: "You tried to either spam the comments or enter a banned word, please try again coda!"

sarah | 2006-11-02 17:19:12

this article has shed some light on to the question i posed about 'what purpose does spamming comments fulfill?'. okay, somebody clicks through to one of these splogs, they see all the gibberish and then they click on a google ad? seriously...