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Spam 27 November 2006 : A few changes due to comment spam

Due to an increasing amount of spam comments on my site, I am trying out my own version of a plugin (mrw_spamkeywords_urlcount) that should fish out a large majority of the offending posts.

The plugin uses some new features in the latest textpattern (version 4.0.4) that allows for comments to be processed by plugins before being saved. As a result, my live comments preview has been disabled for now – the plugin that runs the previews (nhn_livecommentpreview) is not yet fully compatible with the new handling of comments submission.

This also means that comments have gone back to the defauilt textpattern process of having to preview your comment before finally submitting it to the site. This is a bit ugly and I don’t like making people have to step through a preview of their comment first, but until I tidy things up, it will hopefully help to curb the spam a little further!

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5 Comments

Comment 1

Maybe you could set up a simple VIP code that the user would have to fill in on the comment unless of course most of the spammers are the human variety.

Robert Wellock, 29 November 2006 at 1239

Comment 2

Hi Robert,

Requiring visitors to enter a code from somewhere on the site would probably work quite well, but I don’t want visitors to have to jump through too many hoops just to comment. I’m also avoiding the current “more accessible” CAPTCHA techniques like answering simple questions.

The simple “I am not a spammer” checkbox I had before worked quite well for a while, but I’m going to see how filtering comments works for me for now. I can tweak the filtering algorithm however I like, so I can set it up to be specific to the sort of spam I get here based on keywords, the number and type of links in a post, etc.

dotjay, 29 November 2006 at 1316

Comment 3

The check boxes are fairly easy for robots to bypass nowadays… Even when I added a MD5 system on a “Are you human?” a few slipped past.

CAPTCHA aren’t too great anymore either. So that’s why a simple code ‘hardwired in plaintext’ or easy answer question should slow the “bots” and not upset too many legitimate people.

Since typically the more powerful bots will analyses generated sequences and a hardwired one doesn’t give them the same chance.

Though if the issue is mostly human then obviously it is less affective but 99% failed registrations/post attempts on my sites over the last 6-month have been robot generated attacks – not human.

Good luck with “Crushing them!”

Robert Wellock, 29 November 2006 at 1339

Comment 4

could you please tell me how to disable the previewin 4.0.4?

I am searching a solution for days now…

Thanks!

Michael, 18 March 2007 at 0438

Comment 5

Michael – I previously had a JavaScript plugin running live comments preview on this site, which is now disabled. I simply disabled the plugin, which is what I was talking about in this entry.

The preview step of textpattern’s comments system is one of its anti-spam features. To disable it, you’ll need to play with the PHP in comment.php, but be warned: it can cause comments to stop working entirely.

This old textpattern plugin may give you somewhere to start?

dotjay, 18 March 2007 at 2306

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Jon Gibbins is a web developer and accessibility geek; dotjay.co.uk is his online home.

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