I was researching an article and ran into a blog that might have had the answer I needed, but I ran from it almost immediately. There were 74 comments on the post of which over 50 of them were comment spam.
A quick scroll down the list of penis enlargers, casinos, free views of big boobs, Viagra, Asian sex, porn, hair loss drugs, and other drugs, disgusted me.
I want to know:
Do you care enough to keep your blog comment spam free?
Do you? This blogger certainly didn’t. Stopping comment spam on your blog is so easy with Akismet for a variety of blogging programs, including WordPress, and Bad Behaviorand Spam Karma 2 WordPress Plugins. Why should your readers see even a single penis enlarger or casino ad on your blog? Huh?
I write a lot here about how your blog should speak well of you and your ability to communicate, so what does a comment spam covered blog say about you? Here’s a few of my judgment calls on spam covered blogs:
- Lazy
- Careless
- Procrastinating
- No self respect
- Lack of self confidence
- Inability to research
- Inability to problem solve
- Lack of follow through
- Lack of commitment
- Doesn’t care about others
- Just doesn’t care
With these snap judgments on a comment spam filled blog post, do you think this is the type of resource that I would like to read or recommend? What do you think and assume about someone with a comment spam packed blog?
More importantly, in our constant battle to put an end to comment spam through creative and imaginative means, the evil spammers win with that blog. That blog is the reason they keep littering the web with their fecal matter. Because there are enough lazy, careless, lackadaisical blog owners who don’t care or give up under the onslaught instead of thinking more about their readers and the battle to fight comment spam than doing something about it.
To those bloggers, a kick in the head.
Keep proving you care about your readers and get rid of comment spam when it gets through your comment spam filters. Think about cleaning out comment spam like cleaning your blog house. You want to make a good impression when visitors come to call, don’t you?
If you don’t have any comment spam fighting tools installed, or think depending upon captchas or registration is going to protect you, think again. They get past those meager methods. You are only torturing your readers and commenters, not stopping comment spam from getting through. Get serious comment spam protection and open your comments to the world.
Put your readers first and kill all comment spam.
Related Articles
- One Year Anniversary Review: Blog Housekeeping and Maintenance
- One Year Anniversary Review: Comments on Comment Spam
- One Year Anniversary Review: Comments on Comments
- How NOT to Comment on Comments
- Comments on Comments
- What is Comment Spam?
- A Day in the Life of a Paranoid Website Administrator
Site Search Tags: comment spam, spammer, blog comments, akismet, spam karma, bad behavior, wordpress plugins, comment spam wordpress plugins, fighting comment spam, fight comment spam, stop comment spam, comment spam free blogs
Copyright Lorelle VanFossen, member of the 9Rules Network
9 Comments
I delete all fecal matter immediately, as soon as I see it. I also employ Expression Engine’s Blacklist/Whitelist module which has served me well so far. I can add any spam IP or URl and can disallow user agents. That has helped me keep recurring spam down to a single occurence.
I think the death penalty for spammers is something even the most fundamentally religious people might appreciate … if said people also happen to be blog owners.
My spam settings are nice and high. With SK2 and BB I’ve got most spam covered.
The little that gets through goes into moderation so I can delete them immediately.
I was recently in a similar prediciment where I was inundated with comment spam. Fortunately when I first setup my blog (and with subsequent updates) I ensured that comment moderation was turned on. This worked fairly well even though some spam comments got through somehow. I was eventually forced to install Akismet to help sift through the rubbish. Although the majority of bloggers who let their readers sift through many of the make your donger longer and win big spam comments, are indeed careless; I think there are some of us who simply become overwhelmed by the sheer volume and hence take a while to sift through the crap whilst trying to work out how to stop it.
I generally don’t have to pay much (any) attention at all for spam comments, because Akismet generally catches.. well, all of them. I go to the Manage Spam page once a day, usually in the evening, do a quick scan, then click Delete All.
I’d still deal with the spam if it were more work, but I certainly wouldn’t enjoy it.
I love Akismet. It lets me do on my blog what I WANT to be doing: blogging, instead of fighting against penis enlargers and casino swindlers.
Gah, spam entries. I used to get tons of them on my blog, and then I went to investigate anti-spam plugins for WP, and I don’t know what the differences are between Akismet, Bad Behavior, and Spam Karma 2. I’d rather have loads to choose from then none, though!
I am using Akismet. I don’t allow a comment to go through unless a commenter has a comment already approved. Between one and seven spam come into my inbox a day that are missed by Akismet which I manually mark as spam and delete with the other 2 to 600 spam per day.
Thank you Akismet.
I have deleted a couple of blogs from my reads list because the spam comments are not being deleted.
Nice post.
Well, i for one do try to delete Spam, but to be honest i am getting very tired of being bombarded by comments like ” great blog… now try these pills”!!! – WHY DO THESE PEOPLE BOTHER??? It is so obvious that i will delete their posts… or do they count on the fact that a % of bloggers are 2 busy to go through their blogs comments?
They bother because it makes money. It must, or they would stop, right? Spammers use programs that trace from one blog to another through their links, leaving behind computer generated idiocy. There isn’t always a human behind these comments, though there often is, especially on comments which make sense.
Which is why there is such a backlash rising from those who use keywords or nonsense names in comment forms. If the comment is in doubt in any way, many are fast on the delete or spam button.
Gah, spam entries. I used to get tons of them on my blog, and then I went to investigate anti-spam plugins for WP,
11 Trackbacks/Pingbacks
[...] While reading this post about comment SPAM at Lorelle on WordPress I had an enlightment. An analogy. SPAM comments are like a bad hygiene for your blog. It’s like someone who doesn’t take a shower – no one dies, but a lot of people suffer. And the chances of getting a nasty desease rise significantly too. I write a lot here about how your blog should speak well of you and your ability to communicate, so what does a comment spam covered blog say about you? Here’s a few of my judgment calls on spam covered blogs: [...]
[...] Lorelle hitting another homerun has posted about the evils of comment spam and how our laziness or other apethetic attitudes can ruin our blogs. Do you care enough to keep your blog comment spam free? [...]
[...] Follow any comments here with the RSS feed for this post. Post a comment or leave a trackback: Trackback URL. « Phpheadache [...]
[...] I do keep my blog free from comment spam, catching and removing the few that occasionally slip through as fast as I can. [...]
[...] Do You Care Enough To Keep Your Blog Comment Spam Free? [...]
[...] all of the names of the nine Spamwraiths are known). And they make your blog an unsafe place to be, scaring away your normal visitors and taking the fun out of [...]
[...] be a real person, but it is a good chance it’s a spambot, and your not helping anyone, and at least not yourself by letting it slip through. Tags:comment spam, spam, [...]
[...] But one note before we go on. Just because you’re about to find out how to leave links in comments, please only due so when your comment truly warrants it. Don’t add your affiliate links in the comment box. And don’t pepper every comment with 3 self-promoting links back to your blog. Both of these are prime ways to turn off the blogger you’re leaving comments with. Likely, you’ll not end up in the comment box, but in the spam filter. You may even mean well, just remember that spam is in the eye of the blog owner. [...]
[...] Every few months take a few moments and search through your Comments panel to find out if any of these nasties have managed to slip by. It will save you from embarrassing yourself with your commenters by keeping a clean house. [...]
[...] all of the names of the nine SpamWraiths are known). And they make your blog an unsafe place to be, scaring away your normal visitors and taking the fun out of [...]
[...] Comments: If there are spam comments in the comment queue, I’m gone. Clearly this blogger doesn’t care about their blog to keep it cleaned [...]