The comment spam is overwhelming. I can’t keep up. I’ll deal with it when I get back from NYC. If anyone has a real solution, I am ready to listen. Now the spammers are changing URLs for every comment. FUCKERS.
Meanwhile, the dinner tonight was quite interesting. A room full of folks in the banking business, buy side analysts, major investment houses, etc. I asked the room – who planned to put in a bid on the Google IPO? Wall Street answered – not a single hand went up. Hmmm.
Did they say whether or not they think the SEC will approve the Dutch auction process for an IPO this large?
John, unfortunately, I would recommend going to an only-trackback situation. You can then evaluate TypeKey for MT3.0 to see if that may be a solution.
Sadly, Mark Pilgrim’s predictions about comment spam have been all too accurate.
In regards to comment spamming … I think about one of the easiest things to do is pattern matching on the domain name. I am sure you can come up with about 30 words that will show up in the domain name every time one of these spammers come through here. Words like … uh well you know. ;0)
As a rule, if the domain does not contain any of the words in your list … it flies through. If it is on the list, then it goes into a holding bin to await approval (or deletion). But having all of the comments in one screen will make your life much easier I would think.
This type of approach is used on forum registrations also, along with IP banning and email addresses. The phpBB forums get hit by a registration bot that knows how to run through the process and will register a whole slew of members on one of its runs. We used about five words like (you know) and it has cut down on these reg bots pretty well.
Just a thought.
How much are you willing to pay for dealing with comment spam? 🙂 My first suggestion is killing inline html in this post area. Second suggestion is bayesian filtering on the linked sites. Third suggestion is a bigger gun 😉
Make everyone register to post? Time is annoying and spammers don’t generally like wasting too much time. A real long registration list should do the job. Make it worth the time if your serious about registering to comment.
John, check out this page, with has a bunch of tactics on reducing comment spam:
http://cheerleader.yoz.com/archives/000849.html
i download a fresh blacklist every time i despam using MT-Blacklist. Click the *updated list* link under the *Add* tab. Copy all of that text (Ctl+A) into the Import blacklist text field.
it’s not perfect, by any means, but that’s the only way i’ve been able to (somewhat) keep up.
Hulk hate spammers.
Hulk SMASH spammers.
They keep coming back.
Even Hulk get tired of SMASHING them.
Good luck John … 😉
Use a simple PHP script to block the offending IP addresses (or IP range). Hotscripts.com have loads of different types.
As an alternative look at referencing a blocking script in the relevant MT template page.
Either solution should work.
Tim, that works best for me. Without MT Blacklist and that thing built into Movable Type 2.661 where you can set it so spammers can post more then 2 times in a row within X seconds, I would be dead.
I still get spam, but not as bad as it used to be since I added all of this stuff.
Of course no one’s gonna raise their hand, this is, in fact, a dutch auction we’re talking about. Six months from now when you ask “Who owns Google shares?”, a good 50% will raise their hands.
Chris, you’re right, it’s probably that no one wanted to tip their hand. But the sentiment in the room was pretty consistent – they felt rebuked by the fresh faced upstarts out in California, kids who have never known failure or loss. And this on the heels of two terrible years for their industry, with scandal, losses, criminal investigations. Google’s letter felt, to them, a bit like piling on. I shed no tears for the industry, but is my impression of thier response.
John,
Expression Engine offers CAPTCHA for both member registration and comment posting (A CAPTCHA is a computer-generated test that humans can pass but computer programs cannot). Great platform. Very flexible. Used Pmachine Pro for Real Simple Shopping.
Thanks
Stuart
I use MT-Bayesian – http://mt-plugins.org/archives/entry/bayesian.php – it is easy to install and maintain. It requires just a few minutes per week to train. And, what is very useful – if a comment will be recognized as a spam one, it just won`t be showed on a page.
Comment Spamming? It gives me a headache.
I’m not that teckie, So I’ll vote for long registration for entries.
Have you not heard of MT blacklist? Suggest you get it post-haste.
PS and spammers don’t change URLs for every comment – you can ban the main name of the URL (as a catchall). I think you mean they’re on rolling IPs. Aren’t you a tech guy? I’m a tech retard, and even I know that.