Spam Comments

Original Post: 12 May 2014
Posted Here: 29 November 2017

For a while, I thought that the most challenging part of maintaining a blog was coming up with frequent posts. Then I discovered that the real challenge was in managing spam comments.

Yes, coming up with frequent posts is challenging. I'm not a very talkative person, so I really don't have a lot to say. Also, when I'm writing posts, I am neither writing nor marketing my short stories or novels. So I've got even less to talk about. I recently discovered that spam comments were reducing even more of my time for writing of any sort.

One of the "big things" about blogs is the ability of readers to make comments about the posts.

Commenting allows readers to carry on conversations about the post with each other and the blogger. My copy of "WordPress All in One for Dummies" suggested that I needed to manage comments - check to see that a comment was relevant and not offensive to other readers before it appeared on the blog. They showed me how to make WordPress settings which would put prospective comments into a temporary folder (or "queue") until I decided to allow them to appear on my blog. No problem. The problem was spammers. Just as you probably get spam in your email account, spammers try to place their stuff on blogs, as comments. So part of managing comments requires wading through tons of spam and deleting it.

Sometimes the commercial nature of spam makes it obvious, but sometimes a comment like "I am just finding your blog and really am liking what you are having to say in this post." isn't so obviously spam. But notice that they didn't actually say anything beyond an empty compliment. And they probably provided links to some commercial sites like Ray-Ban Sunglasses. And they may be speaking in rather weird English - which does make its identity as spam more obvious.

"WP for Dummies" suggested that I purchase and install a plugin called Akismet. This plugin saves me a bit of time by checking potential comments, identifying those that are probably spam, and then placing them into a special "Spam Queue." Now I can quickly scan these (in case one is a legitimate comment - about as common as spots on a tiger) and then perform a mass extinction.

I used to check my Span Queue about once a week, but recently I found that I was having hundreds of items to review. I had to delete screen after screen of spam. As my blog began to contain more and more posts, it contained more and more targets for the spammers. "Dummies" came to the rescue again. They suggested that WordPress Settings be changed to limit the time that comments are allowed for posts. Now, posts over two-weeks old no longer allow comments. The rationale: if no comments have been added after two weeks, the topic is no longer so "hot." If someone finds the post after the time limit has expired, they can always email me.

The time limitation made a big dent in my spam load. Now I was only getting 20 or 30 a day. Still a nuisance. But where were the spammers directing their "comments" if not at my old posts? It turns out that posts are not the only targets for comments. My "About Jack Ryan," "Comments Policy," and "Publications" pages are also targets. Apparently, these pages are not treated like posts, so the two week expiration date doesn't work.

"Dummies" wasn't much help this time. It's a huge book, so maybe I missed it, but I couldn't find any way to disallow comments on pages. I searched my WordPress Settings, and searched again, and again. And again with no luck. I was sure that if Settings had nothing helpful, then perhaps the Edit function would contain something useful. It didn't. Then I recalled that WordPress has two editing pages: Edit and Quick Edit. Edit is more elaborate, so I normally use it. Then I remembered that Quick Edit is not just an abbreviated version of Edit. It has some functions that Edit does not. In fact, there is a check box labeled Allow Comments. After unchecking that box for the above mentioned pages, I've gone 4 days with absolutely no spam in my Akismet Spam Queue. (This post will probably change things.)

Maybe now I'll have time to write a post (here it is), a short story, or to do some marketing.

Keep Reading/keep writing - Jack