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November 06, 2004
Comments are closed
Observant readers will note that entries at this weblog no longer accept comments. Since moving to Movable Type 3.11 I've found that MT-Blacklist no longer works on my system. (And yes, before anyone asks I do know that you have to use a different version of MT-Blacklist for Movable 3. That's the version that refuses to work, and which isn't even generating the entries in my server's log files which would allow me - or rather, the experts on the MT-Blacklist forum - to start diagnosing the problem.) I've done the whole "rename your mt-comments.cgi" and "don't put links to your comment form on the front page of your site" routine, but that did next to nothing to stem the flood. I've been using the comment moderation features of MT3 to weed out comment spam before it made it to the public part of the site, but this has proved an increasingly unsatisfactory solution: for the last month or so I've found that when I check my site after any significant interval - such as in the morning or when I get in after work - I've spent anywhere from five to fifteen minutes deleting comment spam and (where appropriate) banning the IP addresses associated with particularly bad attacks.
An hour or so ago I got back home from a 36-hour work trip during which I didn't have internet access. I logged in to MT and found that there were some 1,600 comment spams. Better yet, after I'd filtered the list on what looked to be the most frequently used IP address in the first screenful of entries and told MT to delete the comment spams, it responded with an error because the URL it built passing the numbers of the comments to be deleted was too long for MT to process.
At that point, I decided that, sad to say, the fuckwit spamming bastards have won. Existing comments will be preserved, but I simply will not waste any more of my time cleaning graffiti from my web site. Since I moved my weblog to this domain and started using MT I've been pleasantly surprised that so many readers have gone to the trouble of commenting on what I write here: although I'm uncomfortably aware that I've occasionally been guilty of being a wee bit tardy in replying to comments, I do read every single non-spam comment and I've enjoyed conversing with my readers, be they the "regulars" or people who've found their way to an entry because they googled for "IE Sucks" or "Party of Five" or "Farscape" or (ahem!) "Oprah Winfrey." Anyone who wishes to let me know what they think of posts here, to ask questions or to point out errors is welcome to use the email link at the foot of the sidebar on the front page of this site. I'm undecided as to whether I should add an "email me" link to each individual archive entry. I'll think on that over the weekend.
(For what it's worth I did scroll through those 1,600 comments trying to spot any legitimate comments and approve them before I closed commenting. If I failed to post your comment before closing the site to comments then all I can say is that I'm sorry.)
Posted by John at November 6, 2004 12:07 AM
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» Die, spammers, die from Making Light
Sore Eyes has shut down its comment threads in the face of an increasingly uncontrollable problem with comment spam: Observant... [Read More]
Tracked on November 16, 2004 02:06 PM