Metablogging

A win for the spammers

John Quiggin48 Comments

I’ve always resisted imposing general restrictions on comments. To make life easy for genuine commenters, I’ve dealt with trolls and spammers manually. But, after a period when they’ve been in retreat, the spammers are back in force. So, I’m implementing a moderation scheme. If it works as intended, commenters will have their first comment moderated until I approve it, and will then be automatically approved.

To simplify things, regulars (or those who plan to be regulars) can just comment here, and I’ll approve them en masse.

If this doesn’t work, I’ll probably go to one of those annoying code-deciphering thingies. If readers would prefer annoying code-deciphering thingies, feel free to say so.

If it works well, I’ll be able to reduce the class of words, like pharm*cy that trigger the automoderation software.

Update It looks as if everyone who has a comment in the database is approved, unless they trigger the automoderation tests. And, so far, the spammers are being consigned to moderation, so this may work OK.

48 thoughts on “A win for the spammers”

  2. It’s a shame you had to do it, but I’m personally quite looking forward to your next post, in which I trust you’ll discuss the question of whether it’s economically possible to go debt-free, thereby repaying your college loans, by selling all-natural viagra and xanax as your own boss through an online pharmacy.

  4. Hmm, Ender and Joseph got through without moderation, and Andrew is obviously overqualified. Not sure if this is working, but I’ll just have to wait and see what happens.

  8. So is there an economically just and technically feasible solution to uninvited spam?

    As a side comment, it was interesting at the Turin winter olympics, how often our young (canadian) IT whiz medallist was paraded as a high achiever, and how rarely it was pointed out that his wealth and business success was based on spam.

  10. I don’t mind the deciphering thingies – provided it is not one that is too difficult even for humans.

  12. I found that the combination of Bad Behavior and Spam Karma stopped spam completely. Moderating all new commenters stops the spam from appearing, but you still have to wade through it all to pick out the people from the spam.

  16. As a side comment, it was interesting at the Turin winter olympics, how often our young (canadian) IT whiz medallist was paraded as a high achiever, and how rarely it was pointed out that his wealth and business success was based on spam.

    The Fairfax press did do a bit of an expose on him, which was rather not well received by both other sports hacks and the athlete in question.

  17. Like Ian, I find the Akismet plugin useful, though it makes more Type I errors than I’d like (on my site, 1/30 of the comments it blocks are geniune).

  22. Nabs, that’s a disgraceful example of pussy abuse – reminiscent of a feline Abu Ghraib….

  24. OI’ll be fick4ed if I can understand what Tim fick4ed Lambert said but Oi fick4ed loike it;

    I found that the combination of Bad Behavior and Spam Karma stopped spam completely. Moderating all new commenters stops the spam from appearing, but you still have to wade through it all to pick out the people from the spam.

    God Bless

  25. well, I not be guilty of Bad Behavior and Spam Karma me lud

    irrespective, how do you find me , me Lud

    Guilty of Bad Behavior or what m’lud

  31. Count me in also.

    I am okay if you implement a turing test. However if you do then please make sure it is such that if you get it wrong you don’t lose all the content of the post you are trying to upload.

    Regards,
    Terje.

  32. Count me in too, if it is o.k. that I limit myself to only a few topic.
    Hope the new scheme reduces your work load.

  34. Count me in… I’ve got the “moderate first comment” thing too, it must frustrate first time commenters a bit, but presumably people will come to understand that’s just one of those things.

  35. I’m not a frequent commenter either, although I am an avid reader. Please count me in too.

  36. PrQ,
    While we are metablogging, would it be possible for you to set up all links from your articles to open in a new window? It stops the right click -> menu choice run around.

  37. Andrew Reynolds,

    I am not sure I like your suggestion. I kind of get sick of having extra windows. When I want another one I generally prefer to open one explicititly by choice.

    Terje.

  38. Lets see how I go.

    I too much prefer to have control over when a window pops up.

    Andrew, perhaps you could try holding down the shift key on your keyboard and when you click on the links. In Internet Explorer and Firefox this will open the link up in a new window without needing to right click and choose the item from a menu first. Or if you are using Firefox, you can use the Ctrl key in the same way to open the links up in a new tab.

  40. John, you should take a look at Akismet. It’s a really simple plugin that has been very effective at LP — thousands of spam comments caught, with only a very few false positives.

  42. Or if you are using Firefox, you can use the Ctrl key in the same way to open the links up in a new tab.

    I am using IE7.0 Beta 2 and in it CTRL+CLICK also opens to a new tab.

  44. Hi Nicholas, I’ve trimmed the forbidden word list, so you may escape moderation from now on. I may go to Akismet as well.

  45. I enjoy the range of topics and the ability to post from time to time – if only to give a differnt slant.

    I will continue to post if I am able to.

  46. DEAR SIR / MADAM,

    THIS LETTER MIGHT SURPRISE YOU BECAUSE WE HAVE NOT MET NEITHER IN PERSON NOR BY CORRESPONDENCE. I CAME TO KNOW OF YOU IN MY SEARCH FOR A RELIABLE AND REPUTABLE PERSON TO HANDLE A VERY CONFIDENTIAL BUSINESS TRANSACTION, WHICH INVOLVES THE TRANSFER OF A HUGE SUM OF MONEY TO AN ACCOUNT REQUIRING MAXIMUM CONFIDENCE.

    I AM WRITING YOU IN ABSOLUTE CONFIDENCE PRIMARILY TO SEEK YOUR ASSISTANCE IN ACQUIRING OIL FUNDS THAT ARE PRESENTLY TRAPPED IN THE REPUBLIC OF IRAQ.

    OUR DISTINGUISHED COLLEAGUES IN THIS BUSINESS TRANSACTION INCLUDE THE SITTING VICE-PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, RICHARD CHENEY, WHO IS AN ORIGINAL PARTNER IN THE IRAQ VENTURE AND FORMER HEAD OF THE HALLIBURTON OIL COMPANY, AND CONDOLEEZA RICE, WHOSE PROFESSIONAL DEDICATION TO THE VENTURE WAS DEMONSTRATED IN THE NAMING OF A CHEVRON OIL TANKER AFTER HER.

    I WOULD BESEECH YOU TO TRANSFER A SUM EQUALING TEN TO TWENTY-FIVE PERCENT (10-25 %) OF YOUR YEARLY INCOME TO OUR ACCOUNT TO AID IN THIS IMPORTANT VENTURE.

    I PRAY THAT YOU UNDERSTAND OUR PLIGHT. MY FAMILY AND OUR COLLEAGUES WILL BE FOREVER GRATEFUL. PLEASE REPLY IN STRICT CONFIDENCE TO THE CONTACT NUMBERS BELOW.

    SINCERELY WITH WARM REGARDS,

    GEORGE WALKER BUSH

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