Comments on: Comment Spam Warning Signs

By: To Follow or Not To Follow, That is the Question | OMNINOGGIN

To Follow or Not To Follow, That is the Question | OMNINOGGIN — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 18:30:28 +0000

[...] crusader) wrote a great post about why we should Do-Follow our blog comments. He also wrote a good comment moderation guideline that visitors need to know. I am not as harsh of a moderator as Andy, but from now on I will start looking at these things on [...]

By: MODELTOP.EU News » Blog Archive » Consider These Things When Commenting

Fri, 30 May 2008 23:40:11 +0000

[...] (not that these policies are always visible to the user). Andy Beard for example, just posted his warning for comment spam, which clearly illustrates his take on the [...]

By: Jag

Jag — Wed, 14 May 2008 20:34:05 +0000

Hi Andy,

Okay my blog is also ‘do-follow’. And I get lotsa commentators leaving ‘keywords’ as their names. Can get quite irritating especially when some of the ‘keywords’ are really out-of-place (e.g. I got ‘manboobs’ as a nickname of a commentator once before!)

Usually, if these comments pertains to the post’s content, I will close one eye and let them pass.

But if the comment is obviously a generic one and is posted only to get link juice – I will delete them.

As compared to those who leave their real names, I respond to them and their comments far more than those who leave a ‘keyword’ instead.

Jag

By: Clement Nyirenda

Clement Nyirenda — Fri, 09 May 2008 04:29:29 +0000

Andy

Thanks for the tips. Since my blog is a dofollow one, I usually receive junkã€€comments.These tips will help me a great deal.

But can someone help me explain this scenario. I sometimes receive junk comments on my blog but when I check my web stats I don’t notice any visitors during that particular period.Usually when someone leaves a comment on my blog, the timing of the comment corresponds to the time of the visit in my web stats.How do these guys leave comments on my blog without being tracked by the web stat application? Is my blog still secure?

By: Not John Chow

Not John Chow — Thu, 08 May 2008 21:08:13 +0000

Andy,

It is okay to be harsh! It is your blog after all!

By: timethief

timethief — Thu, 08 May 2008 19:52:31 +0000

re: “Akismet also frequently seems to block genuine pingbacks and that can snowball.”

Have you considered using Defensio, instead of Akismet? I switched to using Defensio on my wordpress install on my own domain. I’m very pleased with its performance and do not hesitate when it comes to recommending it to other bloggers.

By: Andy Beard

Andy Beard — Wed, 07 May 2008 17:57:14 +0000

I am certainly serious about things that can affect my business, such as my domain being blacklisted for email delivery.

By: J 4 JOKES

J 4 JOKES — Wed, 07 May 2008 17:46:03 +0000

Well, who doesn’t hate spammers? But, we all have to deal with them, no matter we like or we don’t. But I guess, a lot of your time gets choked into this as you seem to be a real harsh moderator! Are you a serious kind of a person in real life? Then, my blog is strictly a no-no for you. Well, I pen a little serious blog too.

By: Michelle Gartner

Michelle Gartner — Wed, 07 May 2008 03:43:22 +0000

I read through all the comments and a lot of it was more on the technical end. On my blogs I use Askimet and I use moderation. Both are do follow too- so I can appreciate being vigilant about spam. My husband I have a business blog that gets a crazy amount of spam- I am not sure if it’s for the PR 4 link or the
fact that it says do follow or maybe it’s no particular reason at all.

However on the site I run by myself- I tend to let comments in that are kind of in the first three bullets you posted
“Short comments
Off topic comments
Comments that don’t add something very specific to the conversation”

Why do I allow these, because I believe that some people aren’t spammers and are possibly shy or want to just point out the fact that they are a reader. I think it’s a little harsh to block someone who just says “great post.” Maybe they are intimidated by what the blogger wrote- especially in tech fields, but they want to be seen and that’s ok with me. I think if they get black listed and see that their comment never shows up- you might lose a reader. I certainly don’t want to lose my shy readers. JMHO-

By: » Link Building Through Comments Search Engine Optimization Journal

» Link Building Through Comments Search Engine Optimization Journal — Tue, 06 May 2008 13:21:10 +0000

[...] upfront post from Andy Beard regarding comment spam raised an interesting question. Should you use comments as part of your link building [...]