November 23, 2004
Spam, it's what's for breakfast.
Spammers are dumbasses. How the hell can they think that by pissing off people with excess crap they're going to get things sold? Dumbasses, I tell you, complete and total dumbasses.
Between Saturday and last night, I had almost 10k comment spams. Ten thousand! Most of them were blocked by the MT Blacklist, only about 200 or so got through, but still, that's a shitload of comment spam.
Yesterday, I get a trackback ping from this post at Margi's. Apparently, she was trying to post a comment and my host had disabled my comment server. At the same time, I get an email from a reader that she had gotten the same message posted at Margi's from my host:
If you are seeing this web page it’s because Moveable Type comments have been disabled on the server your site is hosted on. The server was hit so hard by Moveable Type spammers that either the load on the server is out of control or it crashed and had to be rebooted. All mt-comment.cgi files will be disabled until the spam attack stops.There are options you can take to prevent this from happening again:
1. Use moderated comments. The newest version of Moveable Type allows you to pre-approve comments before they are posted.
2. “Hide” your Moveable Type installations. Spammers are scanning for /cgi-bin/mt/mt-comments.cgi. Installing Moveable Type in a different folder may make it more difficult for spammers to find it.
3. Convert your Moveable Type weblog to a different weblog such as Word Press or Expression Engine that’s not susceptible to spam bots.
I was pissed. Now, I dont get the voluminous comments that other bloggers get, but I love hearing what readers think and appreciate the debate. I value my commenters and their opinions.
Zombyboy had the same problem last week and then again yesterday. In last weeks post he was undecided as to what to do. Remove comments altogether or install a turing test or use moderated comments or have the commenters register before being able to comment or, ultimately and much to my dismay, kill the blog.
Personally, I hate having to moderate comments and having to register to comment. It adds another layer between me and you. Imaging if your visiting a friend and before he lets you in the house you have to sign an application. Or before you can say something aloud at the home you have to whisper it in his ear. It just seems a bit impersonal to me.
So I contacted my BlogFather Dean Esmay and sought his blogworldly advice. After I told him that I dodnt want to have commenters need to register, he suggested that I close comments for older entries. To do that, I needed to upgrade my MT. And, since I dont know squat about html or code or MT and such, it was up to him to do it. Which he gladly did. I didnt even have to ask him.
Closing the old comments has worked pretty darn well. Ive only had about 10 spam comments blocked by the MT today and no comment spams get through onto the page.
So, here's the crux of this post: Spammers SUCK and Dean Esmay ROCKS. I now eat spam for breakfast.
Posted by Val Prieto at November 23, 2004 09:42 AM
Trackback Pings
TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.babalublog.com/cgi-bin/mt/hut.cgi/1173
Comments
I moved over to WordPress recently because I was getting hit by the MT spammers. Glad you got it worked out ... until they figure out a new way to get around it. :-(
Posted by: bryan at November 23, 2004 10:47 AM
It calls to you, Val.
Posted by: Aaron's Rantblog at November 23, 2004 11:00 AM
Your finally up & runnin.........
we wanted to know if you repubs wanted to join
my democronic parties?
Posted by: Radhi El Busafi at November 23, 2004 11:22 AM
YAY, Dean!!
He's the best!
Posted by: Amanda at November 23, 2004 11:26 AM
I moved to WordPress AND closed comments after 7 days to get rid of it.
I haven't seen comment spam for months.
Posted by: pam at November 23, 2004 11:53 AM
When I combined the Turing test AND MT Blacklist, I crushed the spammers' tiny skulls. Try it.
Posted by: Steve H. at November 23, 2004 12:07 PM
I use HaloScan and have only been spammed like once or twice that I know of. Also, if you use a non-stick spray, they did to be removed easier, or so I've heard. Maybe you could line your code with wax paper?
Posted by: j.scott barnard at November 23, 2004 02:07 PM
"did" should be "tend", but I don't really care what you all think about my stuttering.
Be sure and get your "Che" gear for the new college semester here. Viva las idiotas útiles!
Posted by: j.scott barnard at November 23, 2004 02:13 PM
This is all very inteersting this high tech stuff, but isn't there a way to exact revenge on teh comment spammers? Surely SOMEONE should be able to pin point a location and physical address to whihc we can send tons of snail mail.
Posted by: Patrick at November 23, 2004 03:43 PM
Yay, Val! Yay, Dean! You KICKED SPAM'S ASS!
I'm very interested in the "close comments" thingie for Word Press. Must. Contact. Guru.
xoxo
M
Posted by: Margi at November 23, 2004 06:38 PM
Yep, Dean's a sweetie!
Posted by: Lucy at November 24, 2004 02:29 AM
I hear you, over the past 2 weeks I've gotten spammed about 500 times (comments section of my blog). My Blog "Rick's Kenpo Training Blog" http://www.DavisWebPages.com - powered by "B2" which emails you with the IP address of each entry, so I added some PHP code to block every spam IP address I receive. I've blocked about 25 IP addresses so far, according to my logs, these IP addresses have tried to add hundreds of spam comments since, but not a single one got through.
Happy to tell you what code to add, if you use a PHP based blog software that you host yourself.
NOTE: Tracking the IP addresses spamming me were "bots" (programs) from Germany, I think these spammers are paid by companies to get their name in many places to increase their chances of showing up on top in the search engines.
Best of Luck,
Rick
Posted by: Rick at November 26, 2004 09:37 PM
