Using "invisible hyperlinks" to identify spam and spambots

[zaxar_borisych]

Title
Using "invisible hyperlinks" to identify spam and spambots

Short, concise description of the idea
The CSS "style='display: none;'" feature that spambots use to embed invisible hyperlinks into LJ comments, does not have any valid use in LJ - and should be used to 1) kill spambot comments on submission; 2) spot and destroy spambots themselves.

Comments

[charliemc]

+1

[zaxar_borisych]

this is three weeks old. i haven't had any "display: none" issues lately, so i figured it got implemented already?

in any case, whoever fixed this - made me very happy, so i thank her from the bottom of my heart.

[girlfight]

I'm pretty sure nothing was changed, those particular bots probably just stopped bothering you.

[zaxar_borisych]

great, i'm looking forward to a productive discussion on the subject then :-)

[andy]

No, apparently this behavior didn't get altered. However, it would suck if LJ implemented a content monitoring system like this, as it may put service common carrier status in jeopardy.

[azurelunatic]

So it doesn't get stripped, the bots that have been doing this have just been put to rest.

[azurelunatic]

Supposing something like this were part of the HTML cleaner, even if not used to try and shut down spambots?

[andy]

Yeah, HTML cleaner has a system that prevents "wiping" a post by using a shady CSS with position:absolute/relative in a comment.

[andy]

As for "killing spambots on submission", LJ already has a system in place for this, called "mark this comment as spam" and available when you delete a comment.

[ex_uniquewo]

+1 Not to mention comment settings (minimum security and CAPTCHA) or entry settings.

Implemented Differently

[boredinsomniac]

This CSS has been disabled because of its use in spam comments.