Since I've been receiving an increasing amount of spam in my post comments lately, I've been decided to no longer accept anonymous comments. This means that anyone with an account that allows blog commenting, including e-mail accounts like Google's Gmail and the universal profile at OpenID, can leave a message, but that users without such an account - or who are not currently logged in - cannot.
When I first launched ES, I deliberately opened up my comments to accept those made anonymously. Because I realize that not all readers are bloggers, and that many do not have profiles set up to comment on blogs, and I wanted my posts to be opened to anyone who wanted to express an opinion. But long lists of potentially dangerous virus-infested links to bogus designer goods, dating services, get-rich-quick-schemes and other such silliness are not helpful to anyone, and although these types of comments are mostly caught by my Blogger comment spam filter, they do appear to those that have subscribed to receive comment updates on any post.
The option I have chosen, to accept comments only from those with valid account IDs, is what I believe to be the best option at this time. I could hold all comments in moderation, and/or require verification (typing the letters and numbers symbolized in a distorted image of a text snippet into a little box, which has become standard procedure on most blogs), but as a blog commenter myself, I really like seeing my comments appear on a post immediately so that I know I haven't made a mistake, and I find the verifications fiddly and sometimes plain incomprehensible!
Hopefully, I will not have to move up to those stricter options, and this precaution should be sufficient. If you should have any problems leaving a comment with your ID, please e-mail me and let me know. And if you are new to using an account profile to comment, feel free to try a sample comment on this post to see how it works :)
NOTE TO BLOGGERS: Feel free to borrow this graphic for your own site.
10 comments:
Sorry to hear you're having so much problem with spam. I am glad that you have chosen to moderate comments rather than just closing your blog. I enjoy reading it, and I appreciate the extra effort you're making to keep it going.
Be Blessed,
Jeanne
ooo well done you ... I've only had good comments luckily but I've had lots of spam to my private email on all sorts of things which luckily get caught too :) love mouse xxxx
Sorry to hear you're having problems with spam.
So far all the spam I've had has been pretty harmless, and caught by Blogger.
Hope you don't have to take any stricter measurments!
Thank you all so much for the positive responses :) I really appreciate the support!
Jeanne: What a lovely comment! It's really encouraging to know that you value what I do so much :) Many wishes for bountiful Blessings to come to you too!
Mouse: I'm glad that you're not having problems with your own comments! I must say that the Blogger spam filters are really good, but evidently there's some Super Secret Spammer Trick Of The Month that's getting these things through where they weren't going before, at least to my little corner of cyberspace :)
Emma:Thanks very much! I'm glad most of yours are getting caught! I really hope that this will do it too. And maybe I'll be able to open them up again when this unexpected spammy surge wanes, hopefully soon ;)
I hope the moderation works for you! Nothing nastier than seeing those spam comments and having to go and delete them.
Thanks so much for the best wishes Karen! I hope so too. Some of them are also really nasty content-wise, actually. I really love your new cute little froggy avatar :)
It's a pain to have to limit comments... I get spammers quite often also. I use the moderation, though and like it because I do have readers who comment but don't have accounts.
Sorry to hear you've been having so many problems with spam comments. I definitely think you're doing the right thing though and fingers crossed it will solve the problem :)
Thanks for the support ladies :)
Meari: Yes, I imagine that you have a lot of problems, with such a high profile and so many readers! Perhaps moderation would be the better route. I will definitely take your advice into consideration; thank you very much for sharing your experience! :)
RD: Thanks very much for the positive words and the best wishes :) I hope that this'll be the end of it too!
I use the word verification thingie and haven't had any spam (touch wood). I quite like it on other blogs because sometimes you get a funny one (panties this week!) and my son laughs at them!
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