Comments on: Trade Show Zombies, Spammers, and Tadpoles

By: Spam My Blog - Win a Free Link ~ Trade Show Guru

Spam My Blog - Win a Free Link ~ Trade Show Guru — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 21:35:29 +0000

[...] generic spam comments. I’m guessing that you agree with me and hate comment spam and the spamming zombies that leave them. Because the Trade Show Guru is protected by Bad Behavior and Akismet (and a [...]

By: The Trade Show Guru

The Trade Show Guru — Sun, 26 Apr 2009 18:24:32 +0000

Hi Brian,
I wondered if I might get more spam comments on this post, but actually, since I installed “Bad Behavior”, I’ve been getting very little spam at all. It blocks “bad” ip’s, and might be what you are looking for. I think it might end up the topic of my next post. I’ll let you know. ~ Steve

By: Brian D. Hawkins

Brian D. Hawkins — Sun, 26 Apr 2009 13:26:01 +0000

Hi Steve. Are you getting a lot of spam from this post? I seem to get a lot on my blogs when I use the word ‘spam’ in the title for some reason. I get a lot anyway but they seem to target old posts like that. I wonder if their spam software searches for keywords like that.

I’ve been banning a lot of IPs manually but I think there is a WP plugin that will do it. I found it on someone’s post a while back but lost track of which blog.

I was considering using a captcha but those get very frustration. I might try the math spam protector that Kristi uses. I haven’t had any problems on the commenter’s site of that one.

By: The Trade Show Guru

The Trade Show Guru — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 02:14:16 +0000

Hi Kristi,
I don’t think I’ve made it onto any of those lists… yet. But I say “bring it on!” I have no problem deleting any comment that doesn’t add value or make me laugh, or isn’t from a blogger I follow. I’ll probably regret saying “bring it on”… ~ Steve

By: Kikolani

Kikolani — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 23:56:01 +0000

It’s the dark side of being a dofollow commenting site. I thought my site was immune, and then one day, I started getting slammed with spam comments.

I just recently found out that my site is listed in a forum for blackhat seo as a blog to spam because of my dofollow links. It’s nice to be recognized and linked to, but there are better link neighborhoods I’d rather be in.

That’s why I ended up with the math spam protector field – I got a bit lazy moderating, and ended up with over 10,000+ spam comments still waiting to be deleted.

~ Kristi

By: The Trade Show Guru

The Trade Show Guru — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 23:06:20 +0000

hey Will,
I think Bad Behavior blocks “bad” ip addresses from even accessing one’s blog. So if you can access the blog, you can comment. Then you just have to get past akismet, which makes mistakes every now and then. Anyway, I’ll be curious to see if anyone reports they can’t get to my blog… or if I’ll ever find out. So far the “regulars” seem to be getting through… ~ Steve

By: Will

Will — Sat, 11 Apr 2009 19:31:27 +0000

I used Bad Behaviour for a while but decided I did not like how aggressive it was. I was afraid legit comments, (like my last), would get blocked and I would never know. Now I only block and delete spammy trackbacks, and all other spam goes into the spam folder where I can review it. I do find some good ones in there at times.

Part of these numbers might be how we are defining spam. Of the 800 above, I bet 750 were trackback spam.

By: The Trade Show Guru

The Trade Show Guru — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 22:14:40 +0000

hey RT (aka Master),
I read somewhere about combining the Bad Behavior plugin with akismet. Bad Behaviour blocks “bad people” from even accessing your blog. Anyway, I installed Bad Behavior after writing this post, and it looks like it is blocking spam like crazy, and very little is even getting into my akismet spam folder to have to check… I just wonder if anyone legit is getting blocked? Anyway, thanks for stopping by! ~ Steve

By: Master of the Philippines

Master of the Philippines — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 16:00:00 +0000

That plugin is WP-Spam-Free I think. It forces commenters to have JavaScript and cookies enabled in order to comment. My spam is but a trickle compared to what it was a month ago.

By: The Trade Show Guru

The Trade Show Guru — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 15:38:03 +0000

@Will,
I just found your comment in my akismet folder! Have you been making spammy comments lately? Maybe it’s because you used the phrase “Firedrake winged horse”.
Anyway, I think 800 spams in 20 minutes has to be some kind of record! And all of the tadpoles are still alive and kicking. I do partial water changes and put in fresh moss on a regular basis, so we shall see. ~ Steve
@Tim,
I guess it’s all in how one looks at it, so I will try to look at it as an honor. ~ Steve