Comment Policy
As a result of the growing comment spam problem, I’ve had to start taking a hard line against commercial content in my comments. So far I’ve been doing this according to a set of rules that I hadn’t bothered to write down anywhere, but that’s changing as of today. I’m going to supply a link to this post at the top of the comment form, so everyone should be clear on what the rules are.
This action was prompted by a comment posted today, which was on-topic and friendly in tone but clearly advertised a piece of software that the commenter was selling. I realize that this is a real gray area, so I e-mailed the commenter to tell him why I was deleting his remarks.
Here is my message to that commenter, which will serve as a statement of policy and case-in-point for future comments:
[name withheld],
Since your comment was advertising a product of yours, I’ve deleted it from my weblog as excessively spammy. Your intention may have been merely to be helpful, but the unending flood of comment spam has forced me to take a hard line against commercial messages in my comments.
My informal comment policy — which I’ll be posting someplace obvious on my weblog as soon as I get the time — has been as follows:
- Comments obviously advertising a product to which the commenter is linked will likely be considered spam.
- Commenters who enter a commercial or sales-oriented web site as their URL in the comment form will are likely to be considered spammers.
- I use the word “likely” in these rules because the decision is ultimately up to me, and that decision is final.
- Any off-topic, hostile, overly vulgar, or trolling comments are fodder for immediate deletion.
I do appreciate you stopping by my blog. I want you to know that you are welcome to return and make additional comments, provided that they are in keeping with the policy described above. Additional comments in violation of the policy will result in your domain name and / or IP address being added to my blacklist.
Regards,
Adam Messinger
I ask that all my visitors please keep these simple guidelines in mind as they compose their comments. Thanks.
Good rules. I still with approve after submit method on my comments (until my boyfriend install the S-code plugin).
Now I’m fighting against spams on trackback. Did you have this problem on trackbacks?
Comment by Bibi — February 28, 2005 @ 4:32 pm
I’ve never had any trackback spam to speak of, though I’ve heard a lot of other people talking about it.
I think most of the credit for my lack of trackback spam belongs to my web host, TextDrive. They’ve introduced server-level filtering that catches tons of comment, trackback, and e-mail spam before it ever reaches their users’ sites. Just one of the many reasons that I’m very happy to be hosted here!
If you’re not interested in changing web hosts right now, you may want to look into Jay Allen’s outstanding MT-Blacklist plugin. It blocks both comment and trackback spam, is highly configurable, and mostly automatic.
Good luck!
Comment by Adam — February 28, 2005 @ 4:50 pm
I’ve had somebody actually post their blog entry in my comments. I don’t know they what they were thinking but that is the weirdest “spam” I ever got. It sucks when you actually have to post spam rules. What is this world coming to.
Comment by tanya — March 2, 2005 @ 6:36 am
Tanya: In a way, it was bound to happen sooner or later. When you allow input from the whole world onto your web site, someone is eventually going to try and take advantage of you for it. I agree, though — it’s a hassle, and a real shame.
Bibi: Got your e-mail about how you’re already using MT-Blacklist, but I’m responding here just in case this info might be useful to other people with the same problem.
If you want MT-Blacklist to check for trackback spam, you should enable two features in the configuration screen. The first, near the top of the page, is “Scan incoming TrackBack pings.” This should check the trackbacks against the same blacklist as the comments.
The second option, closer to the bottom of the screen, is “Block duplicate submissions.” This isn’t specific to trackback, but I’ve noticed that duplicate trackbacks are more common than duplicate comments.
I’m using MT-Blacklist 2.04b, and I’m not sure if these same options exist in previous versions. If you have an older version you should really upgrade anyway: 2.04b fixes a bug that was causing major drain on server resources during heavy spam attacks.
Hope that helps.
Comment by Adam M. — March 2, 2005 @ 8:19 am