This site has been so bombarded with spam comments over the past few days that I may have a nervous breakdown. I had to close many of the comment threads in earlier posts because the deluge was overwhelming.
I’ve looked into MT plugins for comment spam and they all require a knowledge of basic code that I don’t possess. If anyone knows a truly simple solution, please share it with me. Thanks.
UPDATE: I really appreciate the offers, here and in emails, to help me fix this nightmare. I don’t want anyone going out of his way to work on this, so I am having one of the creators of an anti-spam program check out my directory and install the program at a small charge. This morning I got 45 separate spam comments, all from an “enlargement” site. What a waste of my time.
1
By Niraj
Have you tried MT-Blacklist? It’s a plug-in, but it is so effective.
If not, I would advise waiting for MT 3.0, which has built-in spam guard.
May 2, 2004 @ 6:45 pm | Comment
2
By Harry Hutton
I don’t have any solution for this, I’m afraid. But, as luck would have it, the Nigerian governement has just offered me an oil contract and if you send me your bank details I’ll give you 5%, or $60,000,000,000,000,000.
I can also find you Viagra and Hot Teens, should you require them.
May 2, 2004 @ 6:49 pm | Comment
3
By manan
http://cheerleader.yoz.com/archives/000849.html
Tips 2 & 6 are essential as well as installing MT-Blacklist (its really easy, just upload as ASCII into plugin folder).
May 2, 2004 @ 6:53 pm | Comment
4
By David Mercer
Richard, I use James Seng’s scode plugin, it’s the one that has you enter a number in an image as part of the comment form (also used at samizdata and lots of other blogs). Yes, it may take some unix tweaking to install on your webhost, and they may or may not have everything it needs. I can lend a hand with installation gratis if needed.
It’s found here:
scode blog comment turing test
Cheers, and good luck!
May 2, 2004 @ 7:08 pm | Comment
5
By richard
I looked into Blacklist earlier today — it’s a little too complex to install for a computer cretin like me. I have enough trouble downloading my yahoo email, let alone uploading ASCII files to God-knows-where.
David, I may well take you up on your offer. I received more than 25 spam comments just in the past hour, all from the same emailer but all with different IP addresses. Nightmare.
Harry, very funny.
May 2, 2004 @ 7:25 pm | Comment
6
By Harry Hutton
Thank you, Richard.
I’m in Hong Kong. Looking out of the window I can see what I think is one of your -Beijing’s- warships, sent to try and intimidate us.
May 2, 2004 @ 7:56 pm | Comment
7
By richard
Sorry about the warships, Harry. It wasn’t my idea.
May 3, 2004 @ 11:53 am | Comment
8
By David Mercer
Just drop me an email if you decide to take me up on it Richard, I know how difficult a “simple” installation of various webcrap can be, and I’ve been using unix for over 15 years!
May 3, 2004 @ 1:06 pm | Comment
9
By richard
David, I actually wrote you the email yesterday, but as I was about to send it, I decided it was asking too much — so I deleted it and emailed Jay Allen, developer of Blacklist, and asked if he’d help me for a small service fee (very small). He helped me to install it this morning, and it looks like a great program. Let’s hope that’s the end of this time-wasting nuisance. Thanks again for your offer.
May 3, 2004 @ 1:17 pm | Comment
10
By David Mercer
De nada…if they start getting too clever for Mt-blacklist, lemme know and we’ll slap in the turing check, too (ya can use both!)
May 3, 2004 @ 6:40 pm | Comment
11
By Kasey
Hi all,
I found this post by looking for information pertaining to the SCode plugin for MT. Just wondering if anyone’s had success installing it…
I’ve installed it, but the code seems too effective at blocking spam. Not only does no spam get through, but it won’t even let people add a post, even if they use the appropriate security code! I’m also getting two funny lines of code that show up at the bottom of the comments window when someone tries to add a comment.
If anyone has experienced this when installing SCode and can tell me what the culprit is, I’d appreciate it. By the way, I do have MT-Blacklist installed. I know there was a conflict between SCode and MT-Blacklist. But I’ve made all the modifications I’ve been advised to do (as posted on the mtplugins.com website) and am still having problems.
Thanks for letting me post!
May 18, 2004 @ 8:01 pm | Comment
12
By METANOIAC! a weblog from China
In Celebration of my 1st Comment Spam
For most bloggers, comment spam is a topic that frequently sparks complaint. I, on the other hand, find reason to celebrate. Maybe this means more people are starting to look at my site. My traffic has gone up in the last week, due largely to 2 posts- …
November 13, 2004 @ 8:44 pm | Comment
13
By METANOIAC! a weblog from China
In Celebration of my 1st Comment Spam
For most bloggers, comment spam is a topic that frequently sparks complaint. I, on the other hand, find reason to celebrate. Maybe this means more people are starting to look at my site. My traffic has gone up in the last week, due largely to 2 posts- …
November 13, 2004 @ 8:45 pm | Comment
14
By METANOIAC! a weblog from China
In Celebration of my 1st Comment Spam
For most bloggers, comment spam is a topic that frequently sparks complaint. I, on the other hand, find reason to celebrate. Maybe this means more people are starting to look at my site. My traffic has gone up in the last week, due largely to 2 posts- …
November 13, 2004 @ 8:48 pm | Comment
15
By METANOIAC! a weblog from China
In Celebration of my 1st Comment Spam
For most bloggers, comment spam is a topic that frequently sparks complaint. I, on the other hand, find reason to celebrate. Maybe this means more people are starting to look at my site. My traffic has gone up in the last week, due largely to 2 posts- …
November 13, 2004 @ 8:48 pm | Comment