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Tuesday, April 16, 2013

Explosion of Spammers

Those of you who frequent the blogosphere may have noticed an invasion. The explosion of spammers, as I like to call it. Lately they are slipping through the cracks absolutely everywhere on Blogger. I have word verification deactivated on my blog here because quite honestly, it is a pain in the rear and it drives me crazy  personally. However, something has got to give with these spammers spewing all over everyone's blogs.

So, I have reactivated the moderation. I'm not quite ready to reactivate word verification because I know how incredibly frustrating it can be for commentors. As a frequent commentor myself, I hate having to jump through it's hoops on blogs that have it activated. It can sometimes take three tries to figure out what those stupid letters and numbers say. And who has time for that? However, with the latest invasion, I completely understand why more and more blog owners are reactivating this feature.

In fact, if moderation gets flooded with more spam than I can handle, I'm going to have to reactivate word verification to try and stave off the invasion. Have you noticed the invasion? What have you had to do to fight off the hordes?

Update: Thanks to all the great suggestions, I'm attempting blocking anonymous instead of turning moderation back on.

Photo credit: Photos combined, altered and designed by CP Design from photos downloaded at: StockFreeImages:  © Chrisharvey

23 comments:

  1. I used to have my blog set to moderation after 3 days, and that took care of the worst of it, but now I'm getting spam on day one -- I'm almost glad to know it isn't just me. blogger was doing such a good job of filtering it out for a long time.

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    1. Yeah their filter has gone to pot. And I'm seeing the spammers slipping through on everyone's blogs. Such a shame!

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  2. It is sad, for I have a terrible time guessing the right wavy letters. I've stopped visiting some blogs that have it. Yet the Spammers are like lice these days. What to do?

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    1. I know, me too! That part shouldn't be on right now though, I have that turned off. I hope it didn't make you do that... All I have turned on right now is moderation where I have to approve the comment. Which in itself could get to be a HUGE pain. We'll see.

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  3. We had this problem too and it was slipping into the published comments. We stopped accepting anonymous comments and that solved the problem. Maybe you should try it too.

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    1. I saw that option, but wasn't sure what to click on. I'll have to take a harder look at it. Thanks for the idea!

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  4. Hi Heather. I've noticed the increase in spam comments too. Try changing your settings to only allow comments for posts 30 days or newer. Most of the spam seems to come to older posts. Since I made that change, only 1 spam comment came through, and that required moderation so I was able to delete it. Just a suggestion. :)

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    1. I tried that but had two spammers in my moderated comments this morning. It seems they've grown wise to that.

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  5. If you just block anonymous, it works well. I've pretty much stopped commenting on blogs that make me have to put in passwords to comment. I've got better things to do than squint at letters and numbers.

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    1. I know the feeling Theresa! That darn word verification is so ridiculously hard. I'll try blocking anonymous, thank you!

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  6. Spammers are evil. I agree that turning off anonymous comments helps.

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    1. Evil indeed. And honestly, with the way everyone feels about them, it can't work!

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  7. I had to reactivate word verification when I was getting 30 plus spam comments a day. I just don't have the time to sort through it all.

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    1. I know, it's crazy isn't it?! It seems that once they target you they go crazy.

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  8. I don't have much of a problem w/ spam on blogger but a couple of years ago when I had wordpress I got so much spam I couldn't see real comments. I'd empty my folder and two hours later it would be full again and that was w/ word verification.

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    1. Oh wow, that's awful! Good to know it isn't just a Blogger problem.

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  9. Oh the invasion, now I know which one you're talking about. Kind of sad, makes me wonder what do these spammers gain from annoying the dickens out of everyone. Hoping things don't get any worse :-)

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    1. It's become much better since I blocked anonymous. Thank goodness! They were driving me insane!

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  10. My blog got deleted for two months b/c blogger bots flagged it as spam. It was very upsetting. And I have captia and everything. I have no idea what the issue was as blogger sucks at communication. I almost moved over to wordpress, but I didn't want to do all the work, to be honest. Now I back up my blog every other day and I created a backup blog to use just in case. It's totally frustrating. The blog I was on while mine was down got deleted the day mine went back up. WTH is that about?

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    1. That's crazy, and terrible! I had no idea that happened to you, I'm so sorry to hear that. I LOVE your blog!

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  11. Heather, it's a shame we can't just blog and not have to moderate. But... there we have it. Spam invaders. I'm thinking this could be the title of a YA novel.

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    1. LOL! It could. Too bad I don't write YA any more. ;)

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  12. I have noticed a huge increase in spamming on my blog even with mod on. I will look into the anon and see if that helps :D Thanks Heather, hope it all works out for you :)

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