Spam Comments
Much longer and larger post incoming, but I have a quickie question I need to ask.

I'm getting a LOT more spam comments ever since I removed the word verification out of courtesy to some people who find it to be a pain to comment because of the verification box. I sympathize with that, because I really do hate those verification thingies, though I understand their necessity.

I have very few comment moderation options available:

  • Turn off Anonymous Commenting (which would mean that anyone who comments needs at least an OpenID, which is annoying)
  • Turn on Word Verification (which is also annoying for the afore-mentioned readers, and a serious PitA for mobile phone users)
  • Turn on Comment Moderation (I currently just turned this on to screen any comments on posts older than 3 days - that's an FYI for those who might be wondering why some of their comments haven't shown up yet) (I like comments to show up ASAP anyway... I don't like the idea of screening others' words)

What I would ideally like is that either A) All anonymous comments are screened or B) All anonymous comments are subject to word verification, but if this is possible with Blogger, I don't know how to do it.

As a side note, half of the spam comments I get don't even have a link anywhere. They are just random combinations of words. Case in point, the last one I deleted said the following: "Brim over I acquiesce in but I about the list inform should prepare more info then it has."

I feel like there is some important message in there that I'm just simply not enlightened (or stoned) enough to interpret.
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3 Responses
  1. Matticus Says:

    Between the options, I would allow anonymous commenting but leave the CAPTCHA on to verify that its a human behind it.

    Past few years I spent blogging, I noticed that people aren't as likely to register just to leave a comment.

    But they will leave a name and a sequence of characters to show that they are human.


  2. Anonymous Says:

    Usually the spam commenters have a link to a spyware URL in their name-hyperlink, or in their profile. They just post random words so that the comment will come up when people search for those words, click on their name (hopefully), and be directed to the malicious sites.

    Nah, I was just kidding. There's really a secret conspiracy hidden within the lines of those comments, they're leaving clues for you to figure it out. Do us proud!


  3. Tam Says:

    As you know, I've been having a tonne of commenting woes lately ... so I would suggest moving to Wordpress, it's way better for comments than blogger and has better spam-detection. Okay, that's a nuke 'em all option, and I wasn't being serious. Sorry you're having spam-related angst.

    Can you turn on commet moderation for the first comment only? That's what I usually have, which means you can catch spam and regulars don't get troubled.

    Alternatively the Word Verification thing isn't *too* much of a pain, I reckon. I think most people would rather type in four words than have to jump through a thousand registration hoops in order to be able to comment.


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