Stay off the SPAM list

Stop Comment Spam

If you are running a blog right now, you may have noticed some Comment Spam.  Comment Spam is one of the bigger problems with allowing anyone to comment on your site.  Don’t know what comment spam is? 

Here are some resent examples:

1. Hello, great site, I just followed you
2. You write great content, thanks for posting it.  On a side note, I run (some website) which focuses on ….. and ….  (this one has 2 paragraphs of what their site is about, and nothing to do with the post you just made).
3. Grood Infos, just subribed (glaring typos with short comments like that you will see all the time, usually with a url link that goes to a different country)
4. Free  xxxxx  tape,  (insert name of celebrity) caught on camera, ….. (this will go on for a while and basically be filled with links to porn sites). 
5. Good post, I will be coming back.  (What makes this Spam is that it is usually left on several posts, by the same person or similar person).
6. Repeatitive comments.  Comments that you see on several posts all with the same or similar text and from the same or similar person.
7. Anything that has a link to some strange site or the person’s “name” is weird

The best thing about WordPress as far as Comment Spam is concerned, is that there are several tools you can use to combat it depending upon your degree of infiltration.  Below are just a couple:

1. Akismet – Simply sign up at WordPress.org and get a registration key.  Then you can activate this plugin that comes with the WordPress setup.  This one tool has stopped most of the Comment Spam on all of my sites.  There is still the random one or two that will get through, but this tool is the best.
2. You can change the settings to make it so only registered users can leave a comment.  This will likely reduce the number of comments you have, but will make it much more difficult to Spam.
3. You can add Captcha plugins to your comments or to the registration process. Since WordPress is open source, you can write your own plugins for it which could include these tools.  Or you can search the WordPress Plugins directory for some tools.
4. You can close any post to comments.  Every now and again I saw one specific post being hammered by spammers.  These Comment Spam messages were all being caught in the Akismet Spam quarantine, but there were hundreds of them each day.  This drags down the server, reduces loading speed (if you are opening the site while these spammers are hitting it) and fills your spam quarantine with hundreds of comments making it very difficult to check for false positives.  What I did then, was looked at which post these were being left on and simply closed that post to comments.  This solved the problem.  I have done that several times throughout the last 6 months.
5. You could also just turn comments off.  Seth Godin’s blog doesn’t allow comments.  You would most likely be after a different type of audience if you were going to be turning your comments off though.

There are many other options to get rid of Comment Spam, but most likely the list above will reduce it to a minimal level.

What are your tips for reducing Comment Spam?  Did I miss any?

Ben
Blogmaster General

Teaching you how to blog and interact online.
Have you subscribed to my RSS feed?   How about following me on Twitter – @JohnnyOptimist