Joho the Blog
An Entry from the Archives

Jay Allen seems to have an answer:

http://www.jayallen.org/journey/2003/09/killing_comment_spam_dead

(from Liz Lawley)

Too fast!
I kept it as a resource in RacineCarnets:

http://fgranger.net1.nerim.net/twiki/FaqMovableType?action=highlight&value=spam

http://kalsey.com/2003/09/ounce_of_prevention/

He looks like he has got it down cold.

Wow. Thanks to you all. It makes me love the Web again.

There are some similar tips from Yoz here: http://cheerleader.yoz.com/archives/000849.html

David = Glad you mentioned this basic blogging truth about comments being spam magnets. This is one of the reason's I don't have comments. Can you imagine the stuff people would write on my site?! I don't want to spend every day spray-painting over vulgar graffitti people have felt free to deface my site with. I know many comments are thoughtful and wonderful, but life is short. Halley

I sometimes feel guilty over never having built a comments system, but I feel that if someone has something worthwhile to say about what I have to say, and if they have the gumption to find a way to publish it on the Web themselves (it's not hard), I'll find out (via technorati) and link back to it.

Those comment spammers are getting nastier. I found this website with 7 tips for a spam-free blog today:
http://cheerleader.yoz.com/archives/000849.html

Maybe you'll find something helpful in there.

Given all the other lovely features of Movable Type & TypePad, it doesn't seem too great a leap to envision a push button method of marking a comment as spam, deleting the comment, having the IP address added to your banned list, and, perhaps even automatically sharing the IP with a trusted group of friends such that their banned lists are also updated.

Certainly an interesting enhancement request worth passing on to the Trotts.

The first tip on several of the very helpful sites y'all listed hasn't done the trick: renaming mt-comments.cgi. I gave it a nice random name and my comment boards are still getting spammed.

On to tip #2...

Dave, One thing. In MT, after you delete a particular comment, you only have to rebuild the entry it was on by clicking save for that entry. Thus alleviating the need to rebuild your entire site.

Tip #2 has failed. I removed the links that go directly to the comments popup but I just got a whole bunch o' spam.

On to #3.

Even if you succeed in making changes to reduce this problem, and I wish you luck, the fact that it is necessary is objectionable in the first place.

Some more effective measures are necessary, how about an immediate death penalty to spammers? The courts won't even allow us to legally deny tele-spammers, so perhaps it will have to be vigilante justice. Just one or two prominent examples might fix the problem.

Thanks for letting us know which tips you're using. As I don't get much comment spam myself I haven't really had the chance to rigorously test them. Since I made that post, I've seen quite a lot of discussion of blog spam around the net, and I think I'll probably be substantially revising some of the tips in the near future as well as adding new ones. If you could continue letting us know which tips are working for you, that'd be great. I'd definitely recommend #6 straight off, though - while it doesn't stop comment spam straight off, it does make it considerably quicker to clean up.

Dave, there are some good comments here too:
http://www.movabletype.org/support/index.php?act=ST&f=10&t=26946&hl=comment+spam

David, I created a hack for Greymatter that adds a simple Turing test (verification word graphic):

http://www.toyz.org/cgi-bin/wiki.cgi?GreymatterCommentHack

I'm hoping someone can port it to MT.

I note, and with some joy, that Halley still felt compelled to leave a comment on someone's blog, even if such vulgarities are not permitted at home ;)

I started with a short hack to my MT code that inserts the URL of the comment into the notification email -- the Trotts should add this as standard code because it's a fast way to get to the comment to either delete or fix it; the downside is that silly "are you sure" dialog that I have never in a whole year of daily use ever clicked "oh gosh no" and that extra step makes removing 20 Lolitas pretty darn tedious.

I've installed Jay Allen's initial hack and it's doing a good job. All I had to do was to create the two template files as per his instructions, but then had to link those to accessible filenames so I could also use the method in our other blogs on this server. Then all that is required is to put the line to call in the comment-spam macro and wrap the comment-display template code with the IF-conditions to trim out the offender.

Since installing it, last friday, I have blocked over two dozen comment-spam attacks, but I have also needed to add three new URL patterns to the blacklist, and when you do those, you then have to go back and at least rebuild the defaced story pages. Jay's method also does nothing for one of my fave MT features, my list of "recent comments" where old stories bubble back to the top if someone notices and comments on them.

But all is not lost ...

Jay left a comment on my blog yesterday with the promosing tease that he would have a more dilligent and thorough fix "no later than Monday" and by the looks of the pre-release screenshots, it's going to make life with spammer-scum a lot easier. It won't be perfect, but it will work.

Huh? Did someone say my name and the phrase "comment spam"? :-)

Here's my (updated) contribution to the solution for comment spam: .

Enjoy!

That didn't work. Really should preview, no?

MT-Blacklist

A bit of a late comment here, but I've been giving this comment spam thing a thought and personally I find IP banning and keyword based filtering a bit crude.

How about a solution that requires some sort of a uniquely "human touch" to post the comment, like the image identifications Yahoo and others use on their free email sites to fight off robots? Details: http://wetware.hjalli.com/000060.html

Damn spammers everywhere i look I see someone spamming a blog for penis enlargement or viagra very frusterating

There are hacks that can be installed at some blogs, do a Google search for Blog Comment Spam and you'll find plenty of options.

use java like:
in the head:

function gotourl(wintype) {

window.location.href = wintype;}
// -->

and in the body template:
sample

this is a spam farm

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