Liz Strauss at WordCamp Dallas Transcript: 60,317 Comments

The Reader Appreciation Project has a transcript of Liz Strauss at WordCamp Dallas, along with the video. Her presentation was about the blog conversation and social networking, her claim to fame. She cemented that fame with the number 60,317. That’s the number of comments on her blog. One of the points she made resounded with […]

Blog Struggles: When Are Too Many Comments Too Many Comments?

Recently, what appeared to be a thoroughly delighted fan went through my blog with a vengeance and left over 40 comments within a two day period. Each were personalized and directed to me, with enthusiastic comments and reflections on what was written. At first I was pleased, as I always am when my blog touches […]

When Akismet Goes Bad: What to do when Akismet starts spamming your own comments

The reason why I created Akismet Auntie Spam helper script was because I seem to have a problem few other people do — every couple of months Akismet decides that my own comments and trackbacks are spam. This is unforgivable and a fatal usability flaw in Akismet’s design. Comments and trackbacks from the blog admin should skip the spam check process. I challenge anyone who argues differently to have to deal with always having to double check if their own comments are marked as spam. The delay between posting a comment and it appearing in Akismet almost always assures that you will miss one or there will be an inordinate delay in responding to your commenters.

But enough of the ranting about my problems with Akismet. Here are two things you can do to help when Akismet is marking your own comments as spam.

Fighting Comment Spam: WordPress Comments Mass Edit Mode

Every once in a while, the comment spammers win. Just a little. They use new techniques, new IP addresses, some method that slips by Akismet and other comment spam fighting tools. Your Comments Panel overflows with comment spam. After marking 10 or 20 as comment spam, your natural inclination is to fire off an angry […]

Checking WordPress for Comment Spam That Slips By You

A six month old post got a comment yesterday. Responding to the comment, I noticed a comment spam above it with obscene language in it. Specifically, a request for fetish sex. I was so embarrassed that this person had left a comment and saw that as the last comment. I’m so fussy about monitoring for […]

Attack of the Mean Commenter: Blocking Commenters and Comments on Your WordPress Blog

By now, you all should know that you have total control over your blog’s comments, right? You can choose to allow only registered users to comment, delete any comment you want, edit any comment, and do the same for trackbacks. While it helps to have a good comments policy, you still have total control over […]

Terms of Use and Universal Comment Link Philosophy

By John Pozadzides Are you like me? Do you rant and rave against SPAMmers? Do you keep a loaded sidearm at the ready in case you encounter one? If so… please seek help, you’re taking this too far! But I digress. You see, for the last several days my blog was being absolutely accosted by […]

Comment Spammers Never Stop, Even When Your Blog is Down

Just a reminder. If you let your comment spam fighting stop for even a few seconds, comment spammers will get into your blog. As many users are upgrading to the newest version of WordPress, their comment spam fighting guard is down as WordPress Plugins must be deactivated during the upgrade, and sometimes a few glitches […]

Weekly Digest: Blog Silence Day, Comment Spam Brainstorming

Welcome to the Weekly Digest from Lorelle on WordPress, a one-stop buffet of tips, tricks, and techniques on WordPress and blogging. Past issues can be found in the Weekly Digest category. For information on how to subscribe to this weekly digests of the events and activities on Lorelle on WordPress, check the bottom of this […]

If You Sign Your Blog Comments, You Are a Dork

I was recently at a meeting with a lot of bloggers and I overheard a group of them spouting off about “stupid people who leave stupid-style comments on their blogs”. There was a lot of talk about the idiotic things people leave on blog comments like “Wow, this is so useful”, which you would think […]

Can We Work Together To Stop Comment Spam?

In iwaruna.com’s “Comment Policy Review”, the author explores the struggle most bloggers have in dealing with the issue of battling comment spam on their blogs. I started out hyper-paranoid and became a “Fort Knox of websites,” as a friend put it: I required registration. I required login. I monitored and moderated every comment. I turned […]

Blog Comments: On or Off and Why

Why I Blog About Tech (Not About Medicine) And Why Comments Aren’t Always That Important by Tony Hung on Deep Jive Interests is an interesting perspective on why we blog, and if the interactive nature of blogging important to our reason for blogging. Josh’s blog doesn’t have comments. I’m not sure if they’re really all […]

Akismet: All Our Comment Spam Fighting Eggs in One Basket

Recently, Blog Herald’s Abe Olandres wrote “Are We Betting Our Blogs on Akismet?” and he’s right. Most of us running WordPress practically rely on Akismet to combat spam and according to its overall stats, 93% of all comments are spam (the real figures would be a bit higher than that). Today alone, there are close […]

Building a Better WordPress Comments Panel

Cindy of Digital Ramble wants to build a better WordPress comments panel based upon a plea/whine/beg I made for WordPress Plugins I believe WordPress needs and I covet desperately. The challenge? Create a WordPress Plugin that would add instant AJAX replies from the WordPress Comments Panel without accessing and loading the full post. It would […]

Changing Blogging Programs Won’t Stop Comment Spam

I recently saw a question posed in a forum on whether or not the person should switch from WordPress to Blogger, Movable Type, or one of the other blogging programs and platforms in order to stop the accumulating amount of comment spam on their blog. Honestly, do you really think comment spammers are paying attention […]