Junk comments becoming a swelling tide....

[mechtild]

SPAM comments.

Since the winter, maybe as early as the fall, I've been receiving comments in old posts that turn out to be junk. Mostly they're anonymous. But sometimes they're from registered LJ users. However, if you go to the user's profile page, you can see they don't really have a journal -- they have no posts and no personal info.

Comments

[mariole]

Yes, I get this crap. I just delete it. But it's a pain, because I have to look it up and make sure it's complete garbage. If it contains a link, I know it's one of those scam things as well.

I hate this.

[mariole]

Adding, CAPCha however you spell it sounds like an option I'll use as well. I don't want to contribute to the tide.

And the option to delete a comment is now reduced to only delete-- there was no "mark as spam" the last few times I did it. Maybe they got too many requests?

[mechtild]

I have never not been able to use "delete as spam". That must have been a glitch, Mariole.

The CAPTCHA's are not perfect. I got another anonymous ad/spam comment just today, and the CAPTCHA function is in place. But it has reduced the anonymous spam comments tremendously. Now I need to select "show CAPTCHAs to non-friends", since I am still getting a lot of junk comments from LJ users likely to be bots.

[mariole]

> That must have been a glitch, Mariole.

You're right; it went away for a few days, and now it's back.

I hope they can't get around the CAPTCHA; those things are such a pain, I hope they actually work! Such a bummer about non-friends; most of my comments are probably that, or half, anyway, since I don't really friend much beyond the LOTR community. But I get about 1 spam per day; it sounds like you get much more.

[mechtild]

Actually, since I've been using the CAPTCHA they've gone down to nearly nothing. Yeah! I wish I had thought to do it earlier. I just started it a few days ago. One anonymous spammer did get by yesterday, which prompted me to write this post, exasperated, but it hasn't happened again. :)

[mechtild]

Do you get them in your old posts, mostly? Just curious. I have a theory about it: these spam comments all have shown up in Mechtild entries that have a lot of comments, and my reposts of the last couple of years haven't garnered comments like the old days. I was wondering if the spammers target entries soley based on how many comments are one there, hoping to hit ones that have a promising viewership.

[mariole]

No, they're not all old posts. Some of them are pretty new. They seem to hit the same posts again and again. I have a theory that these particular posts might have some keywords that they're searching on. For example, my Sherlock story (fairly new) is often hit, and the subject in it is personal blogs. So they might be looking for blog, or journals, or communities-- something like that.

Anyway, I'm setting up capcha (I can't spell things with goofy spelling) on my journals. What a pain, but I get these enough that it's got to help a little to shut these jerks down. Thanks for raising this issue!

[mechtild]

I think CAPTCHA's will be a help to you, Mariole. Good luck.

The idea that they're looking for keywords is an interesting one. Too bad I've been deleting all the comments as I go or I could take a look and see what else the posts had in common. :)

[mariole]

CAPTCHAs in place.

I also selected "Screen comments from non-friends with links" on the same Privacy page. Formerly I screened only anonymous; this will now catch those junk ads and keep that from appearing. Then I delete them with extreme prejudice (ban, spam, delete all).

What a nuisance.

[mechtild]

Ah, I will do that, too. I didn't want to actually delete comments with links, not automatically, because commenters sometimes link helpful links -- real commenters, not spammers.

[mariole]

I think you'll like that fllter; if it captures enough, you might be able to take CAPTCHA back off for non-friends.

I'm not big on auto-deleting either. I'm here to communicate, durn it!

I hope LJ gets this under control. I remember hotmail used to be lousy with spam, and suddenly they get this great filter and hardly anything gets through; and what does goes into "Junk". So it can be done. Let's hope LJ has the technology!

[mechtild]

I've got my fingers crossed!