Comments Resolution

Here is where things stand:
*I wanted to get rid of the spam, but it seems there is no workable solution right now for adding registration without a huge hassle. However, I may get in the habit of shutting off comments when I know I’ll be away from my computer for more than a day or so, so I don’t get inundated.
*In the meantime, to keep the spam from ending up on the site, I’ve instituted a form of comment mediation: the Whitelister (hat tip to Chaz Hill of Dustbury). Basically, your comments will go into moderation unless I have your email address on a list. I already entered the addresses of the last 20 or so commenters here, which should include most of the regulars, but if you leave a comment and it doesn’t show, email me (if I don’t catch it right away myself) and I’ll add you to the list of trusted commenters. It stinks, I know, but the goal here is not to become a spam farm.
Anyway, I’m still hoping for the day when most of my blogging time can be spent, you know, blogging.

9 thoughts on “Comments Resolution”

  1. With all due respect… this is NOT any kind of solution.
    “20 or so” people can comment?
    We tend to agree politically – at least until this last election. We certainly do not share favorite teams in professional sports.
    I tend to time my comments everywhere. I’m guessing my last comment – probably blocked unintentionally due to techinical difficulties – was to something you wrote that couldn’t accept the fact that the GOP is right now losing not so much because they are screwing up but because they simply aren’t pulling in the vote.
    But since I’m not one of the “20 or so” regulars I’m guessing I just don’t rate anymore. Kind of exclusive, right? Intentional or not – kind of exclusive like the politics you speak of anymore.
    Again, with all due respect.
    Blogging is about conversation. About those of us with less influence having a voice. And yes, “20 or so” doesn’t quite do it.
    Too bad also – you make good points…. for a Mets fan! 🙂

  2. Wow. Your spam problem must be unreal. Is it targeted, or just spambots responding to the amount of traffic you generate?

  3. It’s bad, as in hundreds of comments at a time bad. What I’d still like to do is close comments on the old entries, since that’s the main source of the problem.

  4. I don’t get it. Why would some group (one presumes) spam a blog with comments so heavily? It would seem to be a marginal effort at best. I mean, I assume the point is to get traffic on the sites they are linking, or sales or something, IE money. I only very rarely click a link in a blog comment section, only if I’m in a serious debate with someone that is linking up references.
    Bizarro.

  5. The reason for spam is that if a spammer puts a link on my site (and 20 other sites) back to his site, it raises his rankings in Google. Whether anyone ever sees the spam comment is irrelevant. It’s bots vs bots, and we sentient beings are collateral damage.

  6. Crank, I am sure I speak for most in that we appreciate the forum you provide and the work that goes into that. I for one am happy to abide by any process that makes your job easier. Thanks for everything you do.

  7. My woodworking club’s website has a similar issue. We actually have one member, who is retired, who has volunteered to spend time each day removing the span from the forums.
    Same as Irish, I certainly appreciate all your efforts, and any help you need, just ask.
    If Dante were alive today, there would be a ninth circle of hell added for spammers.

  8. I suggested the Whitelister to Crank because it works extremely well for me, and I started with no email addresses at all: as the regulars showed up in the moderation queue, I copied their addresses into the Whitelist, and all their comments were subsequently approved immediately – provided, of course, that they made no typos, since the Whitelister isn’t quite smart enough to notice that you’ve left a letter out of your email address.
    On my own site, there are now 100 on the Whitelist, and they account for roughly 95 percent of all the comments I receive. I have had, so far, no instances of a legitimate comment being inadvertently deleted since its installation.
    Spammers, given their penchant for making up different bogus email addresses for each assault, have so far been unable to sneak anything past the Whitelister.
    (I used to close comments on old posts after a week; with the current MT spam tools, I can now let them go for a month or longer, though I figure anything older than 60 days is stale.)

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