I'm really sorry to have to do this, but I'm not going to be able to allow 'anonymous' comments on this Blog much longer. I'm dealing with having to delete northwards of 25 spam comments a day and it's starting to wear me down. I'm also probably going to have to enable the Captcha images too to stop spam-bots. This I'm particularly upset by, because I myself am dyslexic and hate the sodding things because they make me feel stupid. But seriously, the level of spam I'm currently having to deal with is taking the piss and I need to do something to weed it out. I'd rather be spending my time writing articles and answering your comments. Peace out!
Thursday 25 October 2012
Arrrggghhh spam!!!
I'm really sorry to have to do this, but I'm not going to be able to allow 'anonymous' comments on this Blog much longer. I'm dealing with having to delete northwards of 25 spam comments a day and it's starting to wear me down. I'm also probably going to have to enable the Captcha images too to stop spam-bots. This I'm particularly upset by, because I myself am dyslexic and hate the sodding things because they make me feel stupid. But seriously, the level of spam I'm currently having to deal with is taking the piss and I need to do something to weed it out. I'd rather be spending my time writing articles and answering your comments. Peace out!
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It's a shame, but needs must.
ReplyDeleteI can only imagine having to spend time and effort to sit down and filter through something as idiotic as spam is frustrating as hell.
It's just really infuriating. If it was all being caught by the spam filter I'd say it wasn't too much of a hassle. However, the fact the spam filter then picks up legitimate comments and I have to trudge through them all (and there is a lot!!!) to make sure they're all spam just drives me nuts. It takes a huge chunk of my spare time up. So anything that cuts the amount of spam down will help hopefully.
DeleteWell, those captcha haven't managed to shut me up before and I highly doubt they will be able do so now! So if it helps lighten the load for you, I'm not bothered personally.
DeleteDamn and there was me thinking it would.
DeleteDon't bother with Captcha, bots can now deal with those too. At work on the corporate site (often targeted for spam) they blew through it in 20mins. :(
ReplyDeleteReally? TBH with you the spam increase started when I turned Captcha off the first time. I just seemed to get hit left right and center with the stuff. It could of course just be a horrible coincidence. We'll see I guess.
DeleteAre the Spam comments getting through? If not, then is it a big problem?
ReplyDeleteThe spammers found my blog early this year, but so far only 2 in all that time have made it past the filter, so never show on the blog. Nearly all get caught by the filter, which I check once a day, quick visual scan to see that yep, it's spam, click the 'check all', click delete and it's cleared.
I'm dyslexic too and really hate the captcha.
If the filter works that well for everyone, and I imagine it does, it would be a lot less effort for everyone who makes comments to once a day scan their spam filter results than to fill out a captcha for every comment they make.
Agreed Laughing Ferret, sadly about 25 a day ARE getting through. A further 50 or so get caught. The annoying thing there being that sometimes it catches genuine comments.
DeleteThe filter works, but I think the shear volume of it my site is now getting means that a lot of it seeps through the cracks as it were. Never used to be the case, but for some reason recently the volume of spam hitting my Blog has just shot up.
At our wargame days, Postie serves us spam sandwiches with pickles!
ReplyDeleteMmmmm Spam!!!
DeleteHi Jody, spam is soooo annoying. But hey, you've got loads to do without having to deal with spam. People (including myself) go slightly mad and boggle-eyed at those dratted captcha images, but in the end we put up with it simply becuase posting a comment is always a fun, good, interesting thing to do. So, don't worry - if you have to 'captcha' people will still be here, commenting, mate. Well, I certainly will be!! All the best!
ReplyDeleteWell it's good to hear that some people will still stick around. I'm most annoyed about the sodding loss of anonymous posting. I wanted my Blog to be a place anyone could drop a comment down if they stumbled across an article. It sort of worked too. But the spam have got to levels now that I just don't think it's worth the hassle. I've tried living with it as best I could, but it's just starting to drive me crackers now!!! I hate spammers, it's so bloody pointless on a Blog like mine, yet they totally ruin threads and piss people off. They're all so badly written as well, seriously if you are going to try to hide a comment on a English language Blog the least you could do is make it vaguely understandable. Most of them are inane gibberish at best.
DeleteJody, a bit of a post-script. After reading your post I checked my own blog and spam filter. The number of anonymous spam comments which I've received today has shot up. They didn't appear on my log, I've deleted them all, but I wonder if there's just somehow which the spambots have got through the Blogger filters just recently. I'll keep an eye out and drop you an email offline if I see it continuing. Cheers.
DeleteWhile it's good to know it's not jut me that is having the problem, trust me, I take no pleasure in it at all. Personally I think the people responsible for spamming should lined up and shot!
DeleteOr is that a bit extreme? :P
I shut my Captcha off, it annoys me when I have to do it, so I won't annoy people on my blog. So far, I have not been hit with spam, even so I will go to approval before I go back to Captcha.
ReplyDeletePersonally, I want to find these aholes that do these spam programs and just kick the crap out of them and beat them with their own PC keyboards....
Yes it really annoys me too, for the obvious reason that I have enough trouble trying to read text as it is (I'm dyslexic) without somebody trying to make it even harder!!!
DeleteApproval on my site would be insane!!! lol. On average I get 20+ comments a day, with about another 25 extra a day in spam and a further 50 being picked up by the spam filter. Nearly 100 comments a day to vet. That would create more work for me than I currently do.
Did you ever try the disqus widget for blogspot? I installed it on my blog and never had to complain about spam (yet). But maybe that's just because my blog has a much smaller audience.
ReplyDeleteI really, really hope this doesn't come across as me being a really big headed jerk... but... I do get a lot of page hits a day for a hobby Blog, and I have a fair few repeat customers. So on the whole I'm going to say part of the issue my Blog has is down to it's own success.
DeleteHoisted>Petard?
DeleteQuite possibly Minitrol, but personally I never intended to cause anyone any harm with my Patard... it was just for show!
DeleteSorry to hear that. Don't know if blogspot allows the use of external plugins, or the instalation of them, but check "sliding captcha" in your favourite webcrawler, you will find lots of implementations/plugins for your web (like http://accessibiliteweb.com/stuff/captcha-slider.html)
ReplyDeleteThis is not as obnoxious as usual captchas and dyslexia is not a problem with them. They aren't perfect, but captchas aren't either.
Best luck.
Cheers. I willing to give anything a go at the moment. So I'll look at it.
DeleteI sympathise. Not with the spam I don't get any I barely get comments at this stage but the work you already put into it - it would be too frustrating to maintain so I agree with captcha though I will curse it.
ReplyDeleteBesides If I don't post about how much I hate Captcah on Facebook once a week people would think I was ill but NEEDS MUST!
PS does anyone else think the captcha comments are a subtle dig at you? No just me? I'll get my coat.
I don't know anyone who likes Captcha... apart from the Captcha Sale Rep, and even he's lying I reckon. The things are absolutely fecking infuriating. Good God, if I didn't have 20:20 vision as well I'd be completely unable to fathom the sodding things. I seriously feel bad about implementing them here, but I feel I have no choice. Hopefully though registered users won't have to endure them more than once in a blue moon. I think there's settings to let registered users bypass them once they've done them the first time.
DeleteI've encountered a rise in spam comments on my blog as well. Over the last couple of months it has gone from one or two a week to half a dozen per day. Nothing on the scale you have to endure but still b***dy annoying.
ReplyDeleteI hate Captcha's but I'll put up with them if it means being able to comment on great blogs like this one. I'm sure the quality of your writing will continue to attract readers (and comments) regardless of whether you activate Captcha's or not.
I absolutely hate the bloody things too. I'm looking for alternatives right now, and to see if I can enable them on here. I doubt it very much unfortunately.
DeleteAs to the spike in spam. Like you I had one or two a week, and they were normally grabbed by the spam filter. So I just stored them up and deleted them at the end of the month. No hassle, a 5 minute job at most. But recently, for some reason it has been spam central round here. At first one or two got through and then that seemed to open the floodgates. It's been like a red rag to a bull. Obviously they repeatedly hit place they get 'successes' from, which is annoying because it means I have to be on my guard now to try and keep any traffic they might get off of this Blog to a minimum.
It's your own fault for being popular.
ReplyDeleteYeah I know!!! Well at least only one got through today.
DeleteI get around 5 spam posts a day, funnily enough they're all from the same chap, Mr Anonymous.
ReplyDeleteMr Anonymous need a brick in the fucking face.
DeleteI thought you already had captcha? I always have to do one of them when I comment here.
ReplyDeleteGod-damn spam. I don't have much of a problem with it, but on one particular post I get semi-weekly bots just blowing past the filter and pasting in links. And they aren't normal links either, they're super-creepy. I won't mention the p-word in case you get 'em too.
As far as I can tell the only thing that's different about that post is that it has a bunch of random characters and plus signs at the beginning in a lame attempt to simulate imperial encryption!
I did have Captcha, but I disabled it a few months back after a few people asked me to because it was driving them bonkers, which it does me.
DeleteAs to your 'specific' spam problem, well I've had a similar issue myself. Luckily I've been able to sort it out every time it pops up. But it has just got far too annoying.
I hear what you are saying about CAPTCHAs making you feel stupid! The story of my life. I am not sure if CAPTCHA is all too effective anymore. Spam companies can pay people to solve 1000 CAPTCHAs for 10 dollars or something!
ReplyDeleteI myself use a CAPTCHA bypass browser extension called rumola to solve CAPTCHAs for me because they are so prevalent and I find them so difficult to read.
I think the web is going to have to come up with something else ASAP because from what I can see forums are just getting more and more spammy despite having CAPTCHA activated!
You're probably right, but since I banned anonymous posting AND put Captcha on it has cut the spam down significantly. Plus what does appear on my Blog is now caught by the spam filter instead of actually sneaking onto the comments sections. However, anything other than Captcha would be a bonus if you ask me.
Delete