As if there weren't enough blog comment spamming services out there, from the spam bots to real people at BuyBlogComments, there's a new one out there promising to "read" the blog posts and "formulate a human-like response that adds to the conversation." http://www.blogcommentator.com/ Can Akismet or WP-SpamFree handle this?
Clever but understandably annoying, as technology gets smarter us humans really will have a battle trying to keep websites clean. Its sad but spammers are always one step ahead.
Thats why I have to manually check the comments even after being filtered by Akismet. There are those out there who don't care for others but just wanted to spam their way hoping to get as many back links as they can
I've been getting those types of comments for quite a while now actually. So like wisdomtool, I still manually check comments on top of akismet. What I've found with people using these kinds of tools is that they're not too bright... so even if the tool is human-like, the overall behavior isn't. For example, I regularly find that the spammer will target about a dozen posts on the same blog. It's pretty easy to judge the comment quality when they do that, versus simple link-building. Many of the comments are just a bit too similar, and they never really add to the conversation (like with questions, answering the questions of others, etc.). Something else the spammers often do is they'll target several of my blogs at once. Again, it makes them stick out like a sore thumb. Something else I keep an eye on is the URL they're including with the comments. If they're completely irrelevant (like to a prescription drug site), I just delete the comment. If it's questionable, I'll just delete the link until I see if it's an actual person participating.
I have been getting these types of spam messages almost every day, that’s why apart from using Akismet, I manually approve comments to ensure spam doesn’t gets posted on my blog.
Same here. As wisdomtool and yogesh_sarkar said it's good to check all your comments before approving them.
I allso hand pick the comments so no crap or spam gets posted. But i still get loads of spam waithing for approval that will never stop. I like the readers to post good comments that actualy add to the article not something like(good stuff) or (i like it)...these never get approved if they cant be botherd to post a good comment they dont get the backlink SIMPLE....
yes, you can usually tell when they are "fake" comments. I also am picky on what comments I approve since I have "DoFollow" plugin to reward those who post good ones. I seem to get more "pingback" spam..usually they are from content scrapers who annoy me even more then your regular spammers!
But requireing registration may discourage some genuine, but lazy people from commenting. I've had some odd spam comments recently, they clearly hadn't read the blog, just found a keyword, but they didn't have a link or website, just an email.
A combination of DeLink Comments (it's a plugin) and requiring approval for all comments that contain any links is a great way to combat this. Yes, I'm a genius of unspeakable evil, and I love it.
That's because it was just launched at midnight on March 31st... i.e. too new for PR... i.e. also on April Fool's Day
I know... its a big bugger... it says things like this: Hi there. great stuff viagra viagra tremedol viagra buy online ***** enlargement blah blah Insane I tell ya!
But the domain is from 2007. If you have such an amazing product you would test it first before you launch, I would test it on my own site.... Wouldn't you?