alex sysoef
expert wordpress

For Those About To Spam, I Salute You!

I have to admit, I have a Love/Hate relationship with spammers on my blog:

  • I Hate the time and effort that goes to waste to deal with them
  • I Love the inspiration they provide me with to constantly evolve the methods of dealing with them and also Content I create on the topic

It seems that no matter how solid of a protection we put in place – it only works for a while and then we begin to see an influx of comments filled with bunch of BS that supposed to make me “feel good and approve their crap”.

Think again!

I consider comment spam a “low level” attack on my blog, as I have described in my post Triple “P” Of Total WordPress Security. While there is still quite a bit of Spam Bot activity – I see an ever increasing amount of human generated spam.

It seems that outsourcing comment spam becomes quite popular option and it is no longer limited to  Internet Marketing niche and standard adult sites and pills, as I seen it before. I see it now used for just about anything that could be sold on internet and every time I look up the IP range where this comment comes from – it clearly indicates third world countries where labor is cheap.

And So I say, using the variation of well known phrase:

For Those About To Spam, I Salute You!

To me this is a battle,  it is personal and I’m getting quite good and quick on pushing that “SPAM” button. I will continue to improve the automation and share it with my readers to help others beat your idiotic efforts.

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About The Blog Author

Alex Sysoef is an IT Consultant, Internet Marketer and ProBlogger who shares his passion and knowledge of WordPress, SEO, Social Media and traffic strategies on his blog WordPress Howto Spotter. Connect on Twitter or Facebook

32 Responses to “For Those About To Spam, I Salute You!”

  1. MikePaetzold says:

    Amen Brother. Have been ranting on this topic regularly and always looking for the fine line between making it hard for the real people to add comments and eliminating the cretins.
    MikePaetzold recently posted..3 Ways To Get More Traffic To Your Blog From The Search EnginesMy Profile

  2. Nigel Tu says:

    What have you found the best way to deal with spammers? A blog plugin? I run 3 blogs and get upwards of 20 spam comments a day. Its gotten to the point where I just dont read them and delete them all which is a real shame as there are probably some really interesting comments and opinions mixed in with all that spam

  3. David Perdew says:

    Alex, you always lead the way. Spam of any kind is such a drain. I spend a good 45 minutes each day dumping my junk folder in email. After I review it quickly for anything that’s important, it’s straight to the delete button.

    And it’s getting to be the same with the blog. Unfortunately, it’s hard to tell sometimes if the comments are SPAM or real. But frankly, if it’s not specific, I delete it.

    I don’t want to be taken advantage of. Thanks for bringing this up and continuing to fight it.

    David

  4. Dennis Edell says:

    Please be careful that you're not just hitting spam on anyone with bad English. ;)
    Dennis Edell recently posted..UPDATES-My Profile

  5. Andre Arnett says:

    I am glad you can find the humor in these attempts to enter people’s blogs by any means possible. I find it very annoying and just have a hard time understanding what kick they get out of it. But I do like your post about it. Thanks.
    Andre Arnett recently posted..All About Affiliate Programs 101My Profile

  6. Joni Solis says:

    So please do tell, what captcha WordPress comment plugin did you go with?

    Also I just now finally installed a new WordPress blog site with your Expert WordPress program (love the step by step videos!) and noticed that Akismet is only free for non commercial use. I really don’t want another monthly bill, so can you suggest another free WordPress pugins for spam?

    “Akismet is free for personal use.” http://akismet.com/
    Joni Solis recently posted..New national organization to help horse rescuesMy Profile

  7. Some of the spam I receive is just ridiculous. I mean who is really going to let a 10 paragraph blog in a comment full of links through?

    I know what you mean about seeing more human spam now, though. If someone’s not at least attempting to add to the conversation, I’m not approving it.
    Jared Detroit recently posted..Zoho CRM Quick Start GuideMy Profile

  8. Joni Solis says:

    Thanks for the spam pugin info.

    Strange, when I do a search for WP-SpamFree in the WordPress pugin search box in my WordPress admin I get only two results: AVH First Defense Against Spam and Mollom.
    Joni Solis recently posted..ringofbeauty-wp FlickrMy Profile

  9. Akismet is really good for most spam. I’ve found one called (WP-Ban)??? that worked for a blog that got an exceptional amount of spam. Basically you can identify IP addresses that are contributing most of your spam and ban them. I found that to work well as I most of my spam was coming from a couple of IP addresses.
    Jared Detroit recently posted..Zoho CRM Quick Start GuideMy Profile

  10. Brilliant article, little confused, but it seems to make sense! Your blog is unique in that you get three nofollow comments before you get dofollow, which I believe is a great way to stop spam.
    Christopher Roberts recently posted..Why Is New Technology So ExcitingMy Profile

  11. Greg Plummer says:

    you said in your post that you locate the ip and those that came from third world, do you delete them without even having a look at?

    if yes then you are not fighting spammers but with the third world.

    i am hired for this job but i do read the full post then if there is something to say, i comment other wise i leave.
    Greg Plummer recently posted..Best Fix For PC Registry Problems And Computer CrashesMy Profile

    • TheSpotter says:

      Greg,

      I’m not fighting any country but if I can see consistently spam coming from same location what do you think I should do? Waste my time on dealing with that spam every day or just use the rules to completely blog IP’s I know always send spam my way? My goal is to provide useful information for people on this blog but time is always short I use most efficient methods to do things.

  12. Murlu
    Twitter:
    says:

    What’s discouraging is how there are many programs that autocomment on thousands of blogs at a time. I was hit with a flurry of spam comments from adult sites that made me spend hours cleaning it all up – yeah, it sucks but makes you happy that you worked toward keeping spam out :)
    Murlu recently posted..How-To Setup A Simple Online Store Using PaypalMy Profile

  13. Jamelia says:

    If you make your blog no-follow you will receive more quality comments and less spam.
    Jamelia recently posted..Making Money from WordPressMy Profile

  14. skykid says:

    Ever since I started using Disqus for the comments at my blog the spam decreased significantly, some very creative spammers find their way – but as I daily review all comments and contact emails they don`t achieve much – if anything.By the way when it comes to ip addresses its increasingly easy for one to use any range of them with little or no technical skills , so I don`t think they can be used to determine the location of the spammers.

  15. Ploy says:

    Spammers are everywhere just to get a backlink they would comment 2 to 3 words and for them that is enough. Using some plugins like Akismet will do the job to stop them, and keywordluv for those who comment in our blogs the best way they can.
    Ploy recently posted..Do You Think Spam Blacklist a Good InvestmentMy Profile

Trackbacks/Pingbacks

  1. RT @TheSpotter: RT @TheSpotter For Those About To Spam, I Salute You! http://bit.ly/9v8Boh A big AMEN!!!

  2. Andre Arnett says:

    RT @TheSpotter For Those About To Spam, I Salute You! http://bit.ly/9v8Boh

  3. Shari Voigt says:

    RT @TheSpotter For Those About To Spam, I Salute You! http://bit.ly/9v8Boh <–Love his 'tude about comment spammers

  4. [...] ranking, like it or not but it is a fact of our daily life as bloggers. I have personally battled comment spam problem and described it on my blog several times.My current solution – Intense Debate plugin [...]

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