A word about comments on the blog
Just a general word about comments about the blog-as I'd mentioned back on May 2, I started having a massive issue with spambots and crap here on the blog. I'd always used Akismet and it had worked wonderfully…up until then.
In about 36 hours, I had like 200 something spam comments. 70 came in about 12 hours. Nicole and I were going insane. I tried changing the commenting deal on the blog. That didn't fix it. I tried restricting it so that comments were closed on posts more than a week old. That didn't fix it.
In the end, I had to switch to a different spam plugin here. The one I had been using didn't appear to be compatible with the current version of WordPress and whatever software/technical stuff I can't comprehend.
The spam software works okay, but it's most effective when I keep it set to a specific set of parameters…namely that the first comment left by new visitors are kept in moderation until I clear them through.
The moderation queue just holds comments until they can be vetted as being from real people and not:
Hi, I comes to ur blog from the goggle search engines and wow, nice content! it shuld relly be ranked much higher…perhaps if you didnt talk abt such silly stuffs, you can have higher seo rankings! cheers!
And then links to whatever spam site. And there's always the fun… check out sexy singlez! fun butsects.
It doesn't seem like such a big thing but when you're having to clear out the spam from the blog, and worrying that if one of your visitors clicked on it and it loaded their PC with a bunch of nasty malware…especially when it's in the dozens, or higher, daily. And it is a big thing for me. So I ramped up the spam control.
Most comments are cleared within a couple hours, some within a few minutes, because Nicole is fast. Generally, after somebody has commented and the comment was approved, they can post without any trouble.
Unfortunately, some still get held up and I can't seem to tinker with the spam settings enough to change that. AOL email addies get caught a lot. Posting multiple links will always get your email caught and held for moderation.
Now while I appreciate it, in anticipation of possible offers of suggestions and help, I'm tech-stupid when it comes to issues of CSS and wordpress. I can only get the plugins done when I have my web person helping me and I'm very picky about who helps me. So until she's able to do it…I'm not touching/altering anything. I appreciate the offers, but I almost broke the website last time I touched anything and I'm not doing that again. I'm pretty sure my weblady appreciates that, too.
I hope people can understand, but for the time being, comments from new people will always be held by the spam filter in the mod queue. And the mod queue is persnickety. Sometimes it catches other email addies. Usually AOL email addies, although that may be based more on the IP (and I think those are hub IPs). Hub IPs, if I recall correctly, are something AOL does-they group them together. That's an AOL thing, again, something I have no control over.
Any caught comments are usually cleared through within a couple of hours. Sometimes it can take up to a day if it's on the weekend. I don't keep up with email as much on weekends. That's family time and as much as I love my readers, my family comes first and when they are home, first and foremost, I devote my time to them.
As much as I love her and wish I can make her do only my bidding, Nicole is entitled to a life-she doesn't keep up with email as much on weekends either and that's how we get the notification of an comment in the mod queue…via email.
But comments rarely stay in the mod queue more than a couple of hours even on weekends. And unless it's one of those crazy persnickety things that the spam filter is being weird about, after the first post, most visitors can comment freely after that first post.
I know this is an inconvenience for some people, and I'm sorry. But I'd rather do it this way than risk somebody inadvertently clicking on a bad link on my blog and ending up on a malware site. If you've ever had your PC infected with malware, you can probably understand my concern. I'm also pretty sure none of you come here to read multiple comments for SEO rankings, sexy singlez sites and just where, oh where, can you find that little blue pill…
