Recently someone posted a comment on one of my entries advertising not one URL, but 176 URLs. With Jay Allen’s MT Blacklist plugin for MT 2 (I believe there’s a variant for MT 3), it’s easy to remove. And I can block comments altogether if I go away. Every time I look at the Activity Log, I can see many attempts to post URLs that are already on my blacklist being warded off.
Then there are comments that are not spam. There is a school of blogging that won’t remove anything without a note saying something has been removed, and won’t alter a spelling without indicating by strikethrough what the original error was. I have deleted a few comments, but not always with a note. I remember once deleting a comment by an Austrian who felt the other comments had been getting at Austria and used a swearword or two. I don’t see why swearwords should be smeared all over my comments, unless we’re discussing them, of course.
Werner Patels, who has a German-English translation weblog and sometimes comments here, has stopped comments altogether, in part because some people who comment on his site are just advertising themselves:
bq. In case anyone has wondered: I have disabled the comment feature on this blog. There is simply too much spam flying around out there (not to mention some wise guys who think that their less-than-intelligent comments will get them those “15 minutes of fame”……).
Absolutely right – as the Germans say, ‘Wo er Recht hat, hat er Recht’. I think I’ll take this as my model and if I feel like it, I’ll remove a comment that is just posted for self-aggrandizement. Of course, if I myself post such comments on other people’s weblogs, I would not like to be removed.
You are a wonderful person (and so am I). Would you like to buy some Niagara memorabilia?
What have you got? Is this from some past honeymoon trip?
I’d like to point out that I still invite comments on my blog – via e-mail, that is. If it is a valid comment (i.e., it has to do with the topic discussed), I will gladly post it myself.
I can also offer you conagra, pellagra, and sinagra, but I’m afraid I’ve run out of …
Werner: Yes, the same applies to my blog. I’ve disabled comments on everything older than a month, but I would post a comment sent by email. I should probably make that clearer somewhere.
Trevor: Of course you have none left – no wonder after a honeymoon at the Niagara Falls. I suggest you keep your pellagra – you never know when it may come in useful. How about some podagra, or Tanagra?
I disabled comments on posts not appearing on the front page. So I have had a grand total of 2 spam comments in as many months. Result!
Very good. They’re obviously incapable of spotting the current page.
My biggest problem is getting across to the bots that spam no longer goes on the site but that I still have to clear it out of the database.
I spoke too soon. Three spam comments today. :(