Wednesday, August 30, 2006

I Don't Like Spam!

I don't like spam!Two days ago, I noticed that I still get lots of hits to old posts here at this little blog. And I got to thinking.

A while back, I installed a plug-in that closes old posts from comments and TrackBacks. The idea was to reduce spam.

So, this week, I wondered if perhaps I had over-reacted. I wondered if perhaps I should have not closed all the old posts.

Anyway, I disabled the plug-in, meaning that posts wouldn't close after a certain period of time. Then I went and updated all the old posts in the database to re-open them for comments and TrackBacks.

Big mistake!

Within minutes ... heck, within a minute ... the spam filters had caught some of those "Nice site! Visit my blog..." and "generic-viagra" and such comments and TrackBacks.

Within an hour, there were well over a hundred caught.

They come in spurts. I'll get a couple of dozen within a minute or two, then a hour or so will go by. Then another wave. Sometimes only a handful in an hour. And overnight last night, there were only a couple of hundred.

Anyway, I remember now why I closed all the old posts. I knew why I had done it, but I remember ... really remember ... why I closed the old posts.

I haven't gone back and re-closed them.

But I might.

Comment spam is evil.

I like Spam®.

But I don't like spam!

13 comments:

  1. What is the name of that plug-in that closes old posts? I love Spam Karma, but I too every now and then get something on a post from '05 ... thanks!

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  2. When was the last time you had Spam? C'mon, make me believe you!

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  3. Linda: Actually, I ate Spam® for breakfast one day this week. I like Spam®.

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  4. Holy cow! Does it still have that congealed stuff on it? I bet you like beef jerky, too! ;)

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  5. For all you detractors out there: Spam® helped save Great Britain AND the Soviet Union during World War II. Both Lady Thatcher and Nikita Khrushchev said so!

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  6. Ah, no wonder I'm not getting ping backs when I link to one of your posts that isn't at the top of your screen.

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  7. I've been using that plugin for months and wouldn't even dream of shutting it off. I don't get as much comment spam as you do, but I get my share; probably 60-70 per day (three times that on weekends). Death to spammers! I despise them. Not crazy about Spam® either ;-)

    Got my auto-close comments set for 20 days, thinking about modifying to to 10 days, but that would certainly interfere with some great conversations over at the GTL that often run right up until the 20 day mark where the comments are shut off as it is. And as for Aksimet and Spam Karma, they're both great, but I always have to sift through the spam to catch the trackbacks, which always seem to get eaten :-/

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  8. GTL: Well, you write important stuff about things that matter. I write about baseball and silly stuff that really means nothing. So if I closed pings on everything, no one would notice or care.

    I've switched back and forth between Akismet and Spam Karma ever since WP 2.0 came out, finally settling on ... both! And yeah, I still have to release some good pings. Nothing works like I'd like, but it works better than nothing.

    You've got the solution, though: Death to spammers!

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  9. I keep mine moderated and delete them each time I post. The shout box is worse that that because you have to go in and delete everything every few minutes which is why I don't use it right now.

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  10. I don't think you can buy Spam® in Belgium :-)

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  11. Raf: That's a shame. But you can buy it here.

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  12. Oh my goodness! Who knew?!

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