:talking to myself (again):

8.23.2005

08.23.05 Public Service Announcement - SPAM

SPAM - we all get, some worse than others. I saw on someone's post a solution to make it harder to be spammed. Check out this Link. It has to do with 'Word Verification' . I'm not sure if I will do this, spam hasn't been too much of a problem for me and it creates extra work to resond to a post.
What is the word verification option?
The "word verification" option can be found on the Settings Comments tab for your blog, and it looks like this:



If you chose "yes" for this setting, then people leaving comments on your blog will be required to complete a word verification step, similar to the one presented when you create a blog:



What this does is to prevent automated systems from adding comments to your blog, since it takes a human being to read the word and pass this step. If you've ever received a comment that looked like an advertisement or a random link to an unrelated site, then you've encountered comment spam. A lot of this is done automatically by software which can't pass the word verification, so enabling this option is a good way to prevent many such unwanted comments.

posted by :phil: at Tuesday, August 23, 2005

13 Comments:

  • i haven't had too much of a problem yet, but i've seen alot of people who do. i'll have to remember this for future reference. thanks.

    By Blogger fugusashi, At August 23, 2005 7:26 AM  

  • Spam Sucks.
    Nothing like getting excited over having a few comments on your blog only to find out some asshole is selling vacuum parts or some such.

    By Blogger Henry, At August 23, 2005 8:51 AM  

  • Have you thought of using Haloscan, Phil? I don't like Haloscan as a commentator, but I think it solves a lot of problems for people who get too much spam or too many trolls.

    By Blogger fugusashi, At August 23, 2005 11:13 AM  

  • yeah--i've been seeing lots of these too, but i think they are too much trouble.

    spam (at this point) just doesn't bother me. weird, huh?

    By Blogger SquirrleyMojo, At August 23, 2005 7:59 PM  

  • I haven't had a whole lot of these either. I didn't know what to write today so I thought I'd do a public service message.

    By Blogger :phil:, At August 23, 2005 8:10 PM  

  • Thanks for the good tip. Luckily I won't be be getting too much spam on my old blog...maybe on my new one, hope not.

    By Blogger Wendy, At August 24, 2005 12:30 AM  

  • Phil! Without spam, I'd never have this great ceiling fan. Or parts for my Rainbow Vacuum.

    By Blogger mr. schprock, At August 24, 2005 12:01 PM  

  • I like spam with tomatoes and mayo on white bread.

    By Blogger Lillee, At August 24, 2005 12:38 PM  

  • I've had some spam the past few days and have added a word verification like :phil talks about. It was sad to get all excited about a great than normal amount of comments and find out that a bunch of them are spam!

    Thanks for the urban legends comment--it's great!!!

    By Blogger PBS, At August 24, 2005 5:13 PM  

  • Phil, I don't wanna subject my real fans to an extra step when they're kind enough to leave a comment, but I fear I'm gonna have to soon. I had 12 spam comments on the same post, all left within 20 minutes of each other. Fie! Thanks for the info.

    By Blogger Chloe, At August 24, 2005 7:17 PM  

  • There's part of me that does not really like having to type the word verification thing either. I find it hard to decipher sometimes. But I totally understand when people add it to their site. Luckily I have not been flooded with spam, and as mr. schprock said, how would I know about great ceiling fans or vacuum cleaner parts

    By Blogger :phil:, At August 24, 2005 7:33 PM  

  • I get spam here and there. I just delete it. It is annoying. The only one I kept is the one where my friend spammed the spammer :) That word verification is tough sometimes. I usually fail on the first try..

    By Blogger Toni, At August 24, 2005 7:52 PM  

  • Thanks for the tip. I just encountered my first comment spam the other day.

    By Blogger islandbum, At August 26, 2005 2:01 PM  

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