Anti spam in operation
Due to being recently bombarded with an insane quantity of comment spam to my blog postings, which gives me more comment moderation to do and takes some of the joy out of getting comments, I have now installed a number of anti-spam measures.
All comments classed as trackbacks now require that the site they are from links to me (essentially what a correct track back should be anyway). All comments posted are scanned for common spam traits against a large central database, and as if all that wasn’t enough, you have to enter a little code from an image when you post a comment now to prove you are not a robot. Hopefully this lot will keep all the nice comments that I enjoy reading and automatically can the spam. Only time will tell though.
Need help using my Calendar plugin on your site?
Are you in my address book yet?
I've canned 3,563,942 spam blog comments so far and rising.
I have a zero tolerance on spam!
Give me one reason to stay here... and I'll turn right back around 
Darren Said,
May 20, 2006 @ 11:02 am
You should seriously think about getting this plugin http://akismet.com/ I use it and you no longer have to moderate spam, as it puts it straight into a bin and deletes it after 15 days.
From time to time you just need to look in the bin to make sure nothing non spam hasn’t been put in – so far this hasn’t happened to me but its caught all spam.
Kieran Said,
May 20, 2006 @ 11:59 am
As you will note above, I have actually installed the akismet plugin, but I decided to install capcha and track-back plugins as well, after all I don’t want people sending track backs if they haven’t linked to me, and the capcha will keep automated spam out of the bin because it won’t get there in the first place. All angles – manual and automated spam – are therefore covered 😉
I haven’t yet turned off comment moderation because the main reason I had it on in the first place was to stop anyone writing something really rude/insulting etc. etc. and it going live on the site straight away, rather than as a spam-fighting measure. I don’t censor comments that provoke debates or that disagree with me, its just the rude/insulting stuff I want to keep off the site.
Had a look at your travel blog; I’m liking the detail you go into and the effort you take with your postings, they area both interesting and factual. Updated regularly too. Good work 🙂
Darren Said,
May 20, 2006 @ 3:42 pm
Thanks Kieran – I try and post once a day, and make the entries useful for the readers. At first I used to get bored blogging, but now I know people are reading my entries I enjoy it much more.
Kieran Said,
May 20, 2006 @ 5:54 pm
Indeed, it only takes me a quick look at the stats for hits at times after I have written a post to know its worthwhile. That and I enjoy writing about things to get them off my chest so to speak, even if they are mundane things, in fact especially if they are mundane things because few of my friends would want to hear me rabbit on about them 😉