When I started (actively) blogging in late 2003 (or was that early 2004?) I didn’t have too much issue with spam, however as my sites became older and gained traffic I also experienced an increase in spam.
Fast forward to the present and the amount of spam I get is ridiculous. Easily over 800+ spammers daily! I’ve written about my dislike of spam before.
Even though the spam rarely makes it’s way on my site, I still find it annoying to see it in my admin panel!
There are many tools available to combat spam and over the years, I’ve tried many.
Earlier today, I did some behind the scenes maintenance to help me combat spam. I renamed my comments.php file and included a few additional rules in my .htaccess file.
Since trackback and pingbacks are the #1 way I receive spam comments, I also installed the WordPress plugin WP-BlackCheck. Even though it’s only been a few hours, I’ve noticed a decrease in the amount of spam I see in my admin panel. The developer is Stargazer, check them out at their site. I’ll keep an eye on the Plugin, but thus far I’m thrilled to see hardly spam in my comments queue.
Are you having issues with my plugins? I’ve logged out and sent some test comments and everything appears to be working properly. But if you run into any issues, send me a note and let me know if you’re experiencing any problems.
Hiya! TWO blog posts for me today, too! 🙂
Just posted a SOUP!!!!
Yeah…Spam is getting out of hand! Just heard on the Radio about the crack-down on text message spam – Approx 29 companies are getting hit!!! GOOD!!! I’m glad! They should be HIT!
Jennifer recently posted..Algerian Tomato Soup with Cous Cous & Chips Made Out Of Beans – Stop The Madness!
@Jennifer, What type of text messages are they spamming? The way you worded that, it sounds like that might only apply to mobile devices. The problem with website spam is anyone can do that if they are using an automated program.
Aynaria recently posted..Creating the Blind hem on your sewing machine
I’m not sure what the content of the text messages are most times I have gotten a few randoms but I just delete them…Yes…only to mobile devices! Isn’t that NUTS!? I kind of expect it online these days but now phone/text messages…Grrrr!
Jennifer recently posted..Fearless Friday
Hahaha, that picture is hilarious!!!!! I can’t believe they think anyone is interested in those links?! Or apparently people do click on them since the crap doesn’t stop!
Your amount of spam is extreme. I used to have maybe 40 a day at most, apart from certain days when the spammers were more active. Now I don’t get any at all, since I installed the anti spambot plugin.
Susanne recently posted..Lovely thang
I like it to @Susanne,
Well in my case my site somehow found it’s way into a wonderful forum where spammers were posting links of sites to spam. I discovered that lovely bit of information when I followed a link and landed on a forum where the users used automated programs to spam websites. I’m guessing it’s because I use dofollow, and this site has page rank. I think it’s a three.
My main problem has been trackback and pingback spam. I do like that the plugin checks to see if the link is legitimate, most aren’t, so therefore it’s blocked. However, looking at my admin panel today I only see seven spam in my admin queue, but over 2,000 (mostly pingback/trackback) spam were blocked. So I’m thrilled with the Plugin.
The seven spam comments that bypassed the plugins I use were manually written by humans who wrote spam comments, so no plugins will stop those. However since brand-new comments are held in moderation on my site(s) they won’t ever make an appearance here or elsewhere.
Aynaria recently posted..Compassion
I get quite a bit of spam too but I just delete them. I think they will be deleted automatically if you just leave them there…but I’m a stickler when it comes to such things. Simply have to clear away all unwanted stuff – can’t stand them lurking around somewhere.
suituapui recently posted..What’s wrong with me?
@suituapui, Yes you can set it to remove the spam after a certain period of time, but I’m like you I like to remove unwanted things too.
Aynaria recently posted..Enjoying the journey…
I haven’t had a big problem with trackback spam in a while, and usually don’t get more than 30 comment spams a day. I also have no more than 10 real readers too. lol 🙂
DragonLady recently posted..Weekend randomness
@DragonLady, I don’t recall getting this much trackback spam with my old personal sites… it was high but nowhere near this amount.
The amount of spam has me annoyed since it means I need to brush up on what I do know about spam and be diligent in applying what I have learned to my sites. I’m tempted to disable trackbacks altogether since that would be a quick fix to this problem.