Combatting Comment Spam: A Compendium of Resources
In the wake of my comment spammer of last week, I had a lot of sympathetic email from beginning bloggers who have suffered spam comments at their blogs. I also found Adam Kelsey’s "Comment Spam Manifesto" and agree with it (click the link and consider putting its principles to work on your blog). To quote:
"…spammers have turned their attention to weblogs and comment forms. In order to increase search engine rankings you are posting advertisements to our Web pages. What you failed to understand is that bloggers are smarter, better connected, and more technologically savvy than the average email user. We control the medium that you are now attempting to exploit. You’ve picked a fight with us and it’s a fight you cannot win.
We have complained amongst ourselves, tried technological solutions, and tried to understand the nature of comment spam. And we are done. We now intend to fight back. Spammers are hereby put on notice. Your comments are not welcome. If the purpose behind your comment is to advertise yourself, your Web site, or a product that you are affiliated with, that comment is spam and will not be tolerated."
Well said, Adam. If you have also been a victim of comment spam and don’t know what to do about it, continue reading this post to find out what comment spam is and precisely how to combat it…
From Moveable Type and TypePad’s SixApart parent site: http://www.sixapart.com/pronet/comment_spam
http://www.sixapart.com/about/news/2003/10/comment_spam.html
The Wired Magazine article: http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/12.03/google.html?pg=7
And Adam Kalsey’s site: http://kalsey.com/2003/09/comment_spam/#comment-1164
Here is another good article on why it’s important to clean up comment spam quickly: http://kalsey.com/2003/09/spam_begets_spam/
Here’s some of Adam’s further thoughts about how to prevent spam: http://kalsey.com/2003/09/comment_spam/#comment-1164
And some on automatic submission scripts spammers tend to use: http://kalsey.com/2004/12/blog_and_forum_automatic_submission_scripts/
And Jay Allen’s Moveable Type Blog Blacklist/Comment Spam Clearing House: http://www.jayallen.org/comment_spam/
Six Apart also provides for Movable Type users, a free comment authentication utility called "Type Key": http://www.sixapart.com/typekey/
And be sure to catch this blog, which is COMPLETELY about Comment Spam: http://canblogspam.com/default.aspx
XML Feeds and Resources on Comment Spam: Technorati Feedster The Federal CAN-SPAM Act The Spam Weblog - tons of great links CAPTCHA Spam-Fighting Technology (CAPTCHA = visual Turing test plugins) WordPress Anti-Spam Plugins Spam Huntress - Hail the Norse Goddess Ann Elisabeth! A blog for the militant among you who wanna go for the throat
Enjoy!
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