Ugly Times and Drastic Measures

I blame Google’s new blog search (http://blogsearch.google.com/) for the recent plague of spam-in-the-comments section. It’s super cool, but as we all know, everything cool has it’s not-so-cool side. Or maybe it’s just a coincidence that, within a week or two of the release of Google’s blog search functionality, I’m suddenly getting copious amounts of spam…

Heh.

Which brings me to the next point:
The spammers seem to be using quite a range of IPs. Meaning it’s a lot of people, not just one isolated loser who likes to try to bring in some extra cash by being a sniveling pain in the ass.

Which brings me to the next point:
I’ve flipped the switch, disabling anonymous comments. To post a comment, you’ll need to create an account (if you haven’t already) and log in. Sorry. =(

Which brings me to the next point: I’m looking into other options (like building a simple spam filter), but because I generally don’t like coding, it may be a while before anonymous comments are once again enabled.

About Mark Egge

Transportation planner-adjacent data scientist by day. YIMBY Shoupista on a bicycle by night. Bozeman, MT. All opinions expressed here are my own.
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4 Responses to Ugly Times and Drastic Measures

  1. BrianEgge says:

    You could add some sort of captcha test for anonymous posts. I added a static one to my guest log, and it removed 99% of the spam. Now, if I do get spam, I know someone was manually spamming my guest log, and I take pride that it’s much quicker for me to delete the comment, then for them to post. Filters & blackholes will always have their problems, and will be used when there is no better way.

  2. markegge says:

    Thanks. I’ll get on that.

  3. kriz says:

    mark is having great experiences about india it seems….belive me all the bloggers (well wishers of mark mean to say), he hasnt touched a drop of divine liquid after reaching here… and somebody should guide how can add a new blog entry here than having comments….