Eternal Spamnation
Posted on October 13, 2006 Posted by John Scalzi 16 Comments
As an FYI for everyone, the amount of comment spammage this site gets appears to be on the rise over the last couple of weeks. Sometimes I catch it before you notice it, sometimes I don’t. However, if I don’t catch it before you’re aware of it, don’t feel that you need to alert me about it; I spend a fair portion of the day staring at the site, and I will catch it. If I’m not cleaning it up immediately, it means I’m away from the computer (usually in the form of sleeping, traveling or having a life that doesn’t involve sitting and typing), and you sending me an e-mail about it won’t make the spam disappear any more quickly. I do appreciate the thought, however.
Also vaguely related: If you’ve accidentally made a double post in comments, it’s not necessary to add a post apologizing for double posting. I usually go through and delete one of the double posts (usually the earlier one), so when I do that I also have to delete the post apologizing for the double post, since the double post no longer exists and therefore the post apologizing for it is just confusing. Basically, you’re just making more work for me. Although again I appreciate the impulse to be polite. Thanks.
Since I know someone will ask, adding a post identifying yourself after you’ve accidentally posted anonymously is just fine.
Just curious, John, how much time per day do estimate that you spend deleting comment spam?
I sense that if it weren’t for the damned spammers, you could have finished The Last Colony months ago. ;-)
Just curious, John, how much time per day do estimate that you spend deleting comment spam?
I sense that if it weren’t for the damned spammers, you could have finished The Last Colony months ago. ;-)
Aggregate, it’s probably not much. But it feels like a long time daily.
Aggregate, it’s probably not much. But it feels like a long time daily.
I put the Monty Python SPAM song on the iPod in your honor, John.
I put the Monty Python SPAM song on the iPod in your honor, John.
So if I double post a notice about spam I shouldn’t post an apology unless it’s anonymous? Got it.
A couple of years ago, I had explained to my preteen nephew how, about 800 years ago, Persian potentates engaged in a kind of architectural arms race of palaces, mosques, etc. To avoid the architect topping his own work, when the project was finished, he was normally offered to have his eyes put out or this thumbs cut off (to be compensated with a group of nubile body servants, of course).
About a year later, I was at my sister’s house, and my nephew was complaining about the amount of spam. He looked at me and said, “When they catch spammers, they should give them that same offer- eyes or thumbs. That’d clean things up.”
I think that, and exploding an EMP over Lagos, Nigeria, would do wonders for the internet.
I have been seriously happy with Akismet, which seamlessly, quietly blocks 99.9% of comment spam. It was written for WordPress, but it apparently will work with MT.
http://akismet.com/
I’ll second Akismet as well. I get hundreds of spam comments per hour, *all* of which are caught by a combination of Akismet and a small number of manual filters.
I’ve had one false positive in six months, and a bare handful of spams (really, five or less), which were easily dealt with by adding a simple rule to the default blacklists.
Eternal Spamnation — not bad. But since you are eliminating any record of the spam (and if possible the spammer’s) existence, wouldn’t spamnatio memoriare be appropriate? Unless that means that all you can remember is spam . . .
Eternal Spamnation — not bad. But since you are eliminating any record of the spam (and if possible the spammer’s) existence, wouldn’t spamnatio memoriare be appropriate? Unless that means that all you can remember is spam . . .
Too bad Spam Karma doesn’t run on Moveable Type; ever since I installed it, my spam woes have gone by the wayside.
Buck: If I was a Persian architect, I would have represented my architecture skills with a well-paid front man. Or five or six.
I don’t know if you can use it with your setup (I use Nucleus for my blog) but I’ve found that YAASP is more effective that Blacklist in catching comment spam–if someone clicks that “post” button too quickly (I think I have mine set up to 3 seconds) the post simply never gets posted. On top of that I use an annoying thing where you have to type in the text of a randomly-generated jpg of letters.
Between the two, I haven’t gotten comment spam posted in weeks, but the F’ers do try a few dozen times a day.
I’m tempted to play with the spammers, however. This spam is almost exclusively to the e-mail address in my Yellow Pages ad.
Most are Nigerian princes/widows/free Bible distributors. I’ve heard there are folks who play and try and get the scammers to forward ‘trust’ money to them, before they’ll give their bank information.
I got a new twist- a Russian bride scammer. I’m an immigration lawyer, and any time I have a guy telling me he’s got a girl in Russia, Ukraine, etc. he met over the internets, I check a black list website.
So, I get unsolicited photos and a letter from a “girl” who saw my posting on a dating site (hunh?). I’ve been e-mailing this scammer for fun- of course, the photos I received have been used in dozens of scams and are prominent on the black list site.
When asked for a photo of myself so that the “girl” can recognize me at the airport, I sent Nick Nolte’s DUI arrest photo! And the e-mails still keep coming. The next one should have the request for ‘last minute travelling money.’
Hey, it’s cheaper than cable for entertainment.