Bad news, folks. The comment spammers are back and worse than ever. These are slimy spammers using automated software to put spruious comments with links back to their junk in my comments boxes, cluttering them up with all kinds of junk. In the past, I’ve been able to block this because they would always come from the same IP address, but not anymore.
The only thing I can think to do is turn on members-only commenting. In other words, in order to post a comment you have to sign up for an account on the blog and be logged-in. If you don’t already have an account, click on “Register” in the menu bar above the first entry on the main page.
I’m sorry to have to do this, but in the long-run it will avoid the worse problem of having to deal spam everywhere.
Did I tell you I hate spammers?
Well, that stinks. Not the part about registering (because it only took a moment) but the part about insidious spam.
If you have the option to convert to Movable Type, consider it. An optional plugin to MT does a nice job of blocking comment spam. In MT 3.0, a similar feature will become standard.
Dom,
Not bad news at all, just an honest view of the status quo.
The Movable Type option that RC suggested is only a temporay fix, imho.
Might I suggest simply doing away with comments altogether?
I, for one, would certainly continue to read you here. I come for your commentary on current events from a RELIABLE Catholic perspective, not for any illusory sense of community that happens down here in the bowels of the comment section.
Early on in my blogging / online journal keeping life I decided that the inclusion of a comments section was far more trouble than it was worth, for a number of reasons, and I’ve run my site without them since then. And I have never regreted (sp?) that decision.
Whatever you decide,
all the best,
Roscoe
Actually, I’d like to see Dom move to another server just to improve the performance of the site. As he knows, it runs slowly.
Anyway, contra Roscoe, comments-with-registration is better than no-comments-at-all.
There are a couple of reasons I don’t switch. For one thing, running my own server gives me control over it. I can look at the server logs in real-time and see what’s going on. I have almost unlimited disk space. Plus, it costs me nothing.
However, I would like to switch to a real host eventually to fix performance and provide some degree of security. If anything happens to my current server, I’m out of business.
The big obstacle is I don’t want to start shelling out cash for a web host. At the moment, the only cost of this server is time. I need to start making some money off the site if it’s start going to require cash (and Amazon referral payments won’t cover that bill.)
I dunno, RC.
It might run slowly (I’ll puff on a Te Amo whilst waiting for this post to…uh…post) but there are so many positives! Like, the response notification, just to name one.
If I had OS X AND if I had the time, patience,—aw, let’s face it—goodness to run a daily blog rather than my own lazy web site, I’d use this software in a sec.
I like the comments feature also. One day, when Domenico hosts his own talk radio show, he’ll be glad he’s had this experience!
I dunno, RC.
It might run slowly (I’ll puff on a Te Amo whilst waiting for this post to…uh…post) but there are so many positives! Like, the response notification, just to name one.
If I had OS X AND if I had the time, patience,—aw, let’s face it—goodness to run a daily blog rather than my own lazy web site, I’d use this software in a sec.
I like the comments feature also. One day, when Domenico hosts his own talk radio show, he’ll be glad he’s had this experience!