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Sunday, August 21, 2005

Got Spam ?

No, am not referring to the spate of friendly comments by blogdoctor in most of our blogs, but 'the real' spam.

Not sure, since when this feature is available (no release information from Google), but they have enabled 'Word Verification' feature - wherein the commentors would have manually 'enter' the words that they see, created via bitmap. For more details see this article

Ofcourse, you must be well aware by now, that, the goal of blogging is to get many comments, so you can choose to not enable this feature, there by encouraging more visitors.

Start Rant:
It is interesting as to how some of the automated-spammers have not gotten intelligent that they started commenting using 'profiles' - by-passing the 'anonymous' commentor option. It now really is a question for the courts to decide, as to whether, visiting someone's site and saying please visit my site is really a spam ????

Tech Rant : - Guess they use the google's last 100 updated blogs to pick up the blog ID and do a text match for 'this blog does not allow anonymous comments' and decide to use either the anonymous option or 'logged on' option - smart huh ! :-D
:Stop Rant

p.s : If this is not your cup-of-tea, join-in for the masala milk post below :P

21 comments:

.:: ROSH ::. said...

hmm...my blog's been 'spam free' so far, of course with only one comment by our Blog Doc.
I thought bannin 'anonymous' comments would keep it spam free but after readin your blog am thinkin twice.

Arvind Srinivasan said...

ML,

But think of the main-goal :P

Arvind Srinivasan said...

OP,

I knew this was coming - since the
'Bitter Milk' post comment was discussed in spicy/masala fashion - i called it the 'masala milk' post

still confused :-) ?

Kasthuri said...

Hmmm...word verification is not a great idea. Often the words are not clearly visible and I type them wrong most of the time (have to check my eye sight though). In such cases the commentators will be bugged. There should be some other good option. Do u know what Gmail uses for spam filter ? They are good I guess.

Arvind Srinivasan said...

Kasthuri,

IMHO, one can live with the the odd anony. comments - whats the worst that can happen - you'll have to clean your comment's mailbox. :-(

Whats your question on the spam filter from google ?

Ram C said...

last week, I got a lot of comments as anonymous ones. Even after I disabled that feature, i got spam comments with blog name...

KAPS (sambharmafia) had installed some additional feature in the comments section, thru blogger help. I hope to install that soon.

.:: ROSH ::. said...

Main goal? not with spams...no way.

Arvind Srinivasan said...

Ram.C,

Exactly - that is the feature, that i have explained/linked to via this post :-)

Anand,
I know am long over-due for a visit - i will present myself without fail :-)

Arvind Srinivasan said...

BlogDoctor,

"Can you hear me now ?" - good !

ML,

:-)) you will have to remember that, your email id is not harvested ;) just the ability to comment is being spammed :-D

cosmicblob said...

I have somehow been spared by the spammers so far! - though I saw some in my neighbourhood. Guess No spammer dares enter the Cosmos! :-P

Hey Arvind...noticed you have used a copyrighted phrase to someone else...remember cost of pact violation eh? Hmmm...good.

pk said...

So far havnt got any spam comment (except blog doc ;)) I have removed my blog from the blogger list which also means my blog address wont be displayed in my profile but am fine with it, help to avoid unwanted guest too.

Zeppelin said...

thanks for the info dude..
have changed my setting..

Arvind Srinivasan said...

cb,
i think your attitude has helped ward off bd from your blog - but still is surprising...

pact - holds good yeah...on a different note, verizon says, 'can you hear me now' is their patent ;)

Kali-ma,

you have proved your smartness :-)

Arun,

Cool dude

cosmicblob said...

Ahem - did I hear some judgemental statements there?

By the way .. did you send some spammers to my blog? Just got 3 of them on my blahb blog one after the other!! :-(

Arvind Srinivasan said...

CB,

'payirodu iraitha neer, vaaikal vazhiyodi pullukkum posiyumom aange'

Means, when you water your aerable land, some may trickle down and the grass/weeds on the adjoining areas may feed of them...

like that, your 'ad' for your blog, may have caused some spammers to stop by ;)

Unknown said...

niraya paeru vandhu enna car vaanga solli force pannaraango :(

Kaps said...

Hey,

I read this post just now.....Luckily I installed this over the weekend and the spam comments have dried up. hope other bloggers also install it. when r u going to do it?

Arvind Srinivasan said...

Praveen,

Unnoda post kooda romba nalla irundhudhu solli irunpaangale :P ?

Kaps,

I dont plan on enabling that feature - i can live with few selects & deletes on my gmail (atleast for now) - IMHO, word-verification becomes a dis-incentive for people to quickly and freely voice their opinions :-)

cosmicblob said...

Heard that yours is a evasion-aware town..Ahem..seems like you have evaded a question ?

eyeStreet times said...

I have enabled the word verification on my blog. Not sure how discouraging it is to genuine commentors. Will have to see.

Anyways, this word verification is not able to stop another kind of spaming going on in my blog !! :-(((

Arvind Srinivasan said...

CB,

Care to elaborate ?

Eshwar,

I saw your blog was word-verified ;) - now you know why i have a good reason to not comment on others blogs :-))