Comment spam, and a Blogger feature request
I’ve had a little flurry of comment spam recently—new posts attract one or two spam comments within 30 minutes of posting—which makes me think of a little tweak Blogger could add to make my life slightly easier.
It’s this: on Blogger’s comment notification emails, include a link to a “delete this comment” page.
This’d make deleting spam a quick, easy process. At the moment, it’s a bit of a mess: follow the link to the post; refresh the page a few times to try to convince it that yes, I am logged in, and it should add the edit and delete icons; give up and pull up the “add a comment” page, where delete buttons also lurk; delete the spam.
While I’m at it, some comment policy: I operate a zero-tolerance policy for comment spam. I will spot it; I will delete it; and quickly, too. I might err on the side of over-zealous; if it smells like spam, I’ll assume it is spam, so if you’re thinking of posting a genuine comment something like “great blog! check out my site here!” you might think about making it a little more personalised and relevant. I reserve the right to laugh, or rage, at particularly awful examples of spam.
In any case, given that Blogger sanitizes links in comments, and that most BlogSpot blogs are, like mine, two-bit affairs with smallish readerships and lowish PageRank: what on earth is in it for BlogSpot comment spammers anyway?
(Yes, I’m aware of the word verification option; but captchas—aargh, another awful neologism—have accessibility issues which I’d rather avoid.)
Categories: Spam
It’s this: on Blogger’s comment notification emails, include a link to a “delete this comment” page.
This’d make deleting spam a quick, easy process. At the moment, it’s a bit of a mess: follow the link to the post; refresh the page a few times to try to convince it that yes, I am logged in, and it should add the edit and delete icons; give up and pull up the “add a comment” page, where delete buttons also lurk; delete the spam.
While I’m at it, some comment policy: I operate a zero-tolerance policy for comment spam. I will spot it; I will delete it; and quickly, too. I might err on the side of over-zealous; if it smells like spam, I’ll assume it is spam, so if you’re thinking of posting a genuine comment something like “great blog! check out my site here!” you might think about making it a little more personalised and relevant. I reserve the right to laugh, or rage, at particularly awful examples of spam.
In any case, given that Blogger sanitizes links in comments, and that most BlogSpot blogs are, like mine, two-bit affairs with smallish readerships and lowish PageRank: what on earth is in it for BlogSpot comment spammers anyway?
(Yes, I’m aware of the word verification option; but captchas—aargh, another awful neologism—have accessibility issues which I’d rather avoid.)
Categories: Spam
Anonymous | September 07, 2005 11:57 AM | permanent link 
