Lumpy's Corner

Having achieved the quick fix in but nano seconds, I began to systematically search the web for more permenant solutions. My expedient fix did stop the comment spam but within forty minutes the trackback spam began. So I turned my expertise loose on the trackback script. Problem solved so be it in a most unsatisfactory way, solved nonetheless.

My "solution" is equally as drastic as it is expedient. It assures that I shall not recieve spam this also assures, unfortunately, it also assures that nobody can post a message or trackback. I feel this rather defeats the whole purpose of blogging. I obvioulsy needed a somewhat more perfect solution, actually, a better word would be satisfactory.

The immediate course of action was simple. It is quick and easy with Movable Type I informed mt.config what the new names were and renamed the comment and trackback script. It killed all spam for 11 days and has stopped about 95% of it.

Rest assured though, it is but a temporary fix. A well written bot will find this rather easily. Before I get all involved regarding "what" to do, let me pause a moment and elaborate on "why" anyone would comment spam blogs. There are a number of reasons I am aware of:

1. First of all, spammers are bottom feeders that rely on feeding in hordes to get on tiny morsel of food. Spammers only hope that one out of evry hundred thousand or so actually bite. This may seem like burning down the rain forest to kill one ant but, oh wait, that is what it is.
2. Spammers are blanketing the web to have more sites "refer" to their site. This helps with their rankings on certain search engines. This is a bot fooling a bot.
3. They simply lack any shred of decency or common sense.

So, all things considered, SPAM is just stupid. Movable Type has a guide to avoiding comment SPAM. It is a good read and, especially if you are a MT user, should surf here and give it a read. (Even if you are not a MT user, it is still worth a read.)

The article suggest a lot of different tactics, some of which make sense to Lump and others which seem about at useful as spam itself. In this blog, I am going to cover all of the suggestions they offer that do not involve plugins. Lumpy's Corner managed to go 21 full days without a comment spam by doing what I described I shall discuss.

Before I dive into that, I must clearly state that I do not endorse not using plugins. I recomend using every means available to combat this problem. Any solution is a mixed bag. The MT tutorial likens it to having a retail store and combating shoplifting. One is confronted with stiffling the customer's freedom in an effort to secure the store. It becomes a tedious balancing act. The real quesion is how to tip the scale.

I shall start with how to deal with it at the bare bones level, without plugins. What can one do to start? For starters, do what I did. Rename your scripts. It will stop a good number of dumb scripters and, if you deal with the config file, it will do nothing to your MT performance.

This tactic falls under the area of dealing with spam by "obscurity". Spammers will write scripts so that take advantage of the given structure of a content management system. If you leave everything set to the default, it would be the same as leaving the layout of every store you own identical. This would be heaven for shop lifters. It would mean that they could develop a tactic which would work in any store, any time.

Most of what one can do without installing additional plugins falls into the catagory of obscurity. Most of these tactics I agree with. There is one that I do not agree with. If you look in the lower right colum of my main page, you will notice many, many links to blog sites. They are like various phone books for bloggers. The "guide" suggest not listing in them because many spammers use them to find your site. My only issue with that is simple; why would you open a store and not list it in the phone book?

I don't know about all of you out there but I want to be found. I think that the suggestion defeats the purpose of being known. I have submited the corner to all of those links I list.

The other suggestions listed in the guide are:

• Do not use the default words for descriptions such as "comments" and "trackback". Change them. Although this will not confuse a well written bot, it will kill a few. It is also a good idea to rearrange the order they apear in your template
• Edit your comment templates
  
  • Change the default names
  • Rearrange the order
  • Add a "dummie field", a feild which does basically nothing

They also suggest forcing comment previews. I implemented all of the measures except that one. I remained comment spam free for 23 days. I think they are all worth the effort, which is minimal. The reader should also consider the fact that if evry blogger implemented them it would deffinitely make the spammers have to work a bit more. Spammers are aversive to work so it would have to help.

In a future post I will go into plugins that will help

Happy bloggin' all,
Lumpomtic