Wednesday, January 20th, 2010...8:11 am
The Flood of Worthless Comments
I can’t recall when it started, but I’ve noticed a gradual increase in the number of worthless comments on my two blogs. A worthless comment is a non-specific comment, usually a compliment, posted by a spammer. The spammer then has a link back to their site. They are hoping the search engines and my readers will visit their site.
If you have a blog, you already know what these spam comments look like. They aren’t the typical BUY, FREE or DISCOUNT spams that are easily filtered. They look like this:
I was very pleased to find this site.I wanted to thank you for this great read!! I have enjoyed every little bit of it and I have you bookmarked to check out new stuff you post.
This type of comment, especially from a stranger, adds nothing to the discussion. Because it is not overtly SPAM, my blog filter can’t decide if it is valid and I get an email asking me if I wish to approve it. This happens several times a day, which is more than real comments. Of course I reject everyone of these worthless comments, but it is an annoying waste of my time.
I tried experimenting with a plugin that turned off comments after 60 days of posting. The logic is that real comments would be more attracted to recent posts. This had no effect and I’ve since turned it off. I really don’t want to add a CAPTCHA, nor do I know if it would be effective. I’m stumped.
Have any of my fellow bloggers solved this problem?
Tags: blogging, comments, criticalmas
11 Comments
January 20th, 2010 at 10:09 am
I get these too. Currently using Akismet and it does not catch them. They seem fairly handcrafted — usually with no embedded links or crap. They’re just vacuous. :-\
Sadly, I don’t have a good answer.
January 20th, 2010 at 11:12 am
I get them all of the time. However, they tend to come in spurts, so I think for me the 60 day thing would work, though I might drop it to 30 days.
However, my current solution is to just delete the emails from my blog requesting confirmation. If they are not approved, they won’t show up, so while it’s not ideal, it works.
January 20th, 2010 at 11:20 am
Maybe a CAT-CAPTCHA?
January 20th, 2010 at 12:30 pm
I was very pleased to find this site. I wanted to thank you for this great read!! I have enjoyed every little bit of it and I have you [s]bookmarked[/s] added to google reader to check out new stuff you post.
January 20th, 2010 at 12:33 pm
@Matthew –
January 21st, 2010 at 3:56 pm
hahahahahaha…Matthew. Funny.
MAS – I use Wordpress and they have a fantastic plug-in that filters those out. (This is a Wordpress blog, isn’t it? If not, they support 20 other blog formats.) Get Akismet: http://akismet.com/
Separates those comments out as SPAM and you delete them in bulk. If it isn’t sure, you can check it before it’s published as a comment. The more you use it, the better it works. Bonus? It’s free.
January 21st, 2010 at 3:59 pm
I use Askimet. It is excellent with obvious SPAM, but not as good with the worthless comments.
January 21st, 2010 at 11:55 pm
I love these comments…. especially because on my blog they post them to things that aren’t articles but episodes. so its a bunch of link and the audio and they tell me I write well…
the only thing I’e found to stop them is the captcha, or you can try to disable all comments not funneled through OpenID, I think there is a plugin to do just that
January 22nd, 2010 at 2:44 am
As a user I often have difficulty seeing the characters inside a CAPTCHA. It takes me a few attempts many times to get it right. This does discourage me from commenting, which is why I am reluctant to add it to my sites.
However, I am a fan of the Math CAPTCHA. “4 plus 3 is”
January 22nd, 2010 at 2:49 am
43 of course
January 22nd, 2010 at 1:26 pm
cute. now i have to do MATH? jeez.
anyway – Akismet works for me even with the other spams like what you mentioned. though my blog is younger than yours, and maybe the Japanese IP deters some would-be spammers from finding me.
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