Spam Is Spam Is Spam

Word Verification is great for automated spam but it doesn't stop people from typing in garbage.

I clean out the comments in 'Submit Your Blog' periodically. I want people to see the finished blog listings and not something that may be 'in progress'. Another reason I do it is to control comment spam.

This morning I deleted a long-winded comment that had nothing to do with blogging. As usual I checked the Blogger profile and any links to determine if the comment was spam or just misplaced. I found out he blogger had been leaving the exact same comment on forums and blogs for at least six months! He is even using the same Blogger profile.

Several bloggers mentioned the spam comment but didn't delete it. Two of them even quoted from it.

We all look for interesting things to post about and comments are fair game. We have to be careful that we don't give spammers free advertising.

The person who left the comment is a spammer. He does not care what the content of a post is. He leaves the same comment in different blogs. He is the same as the person peddling v**gra. Spam is spam.

Don't help comment spammers. Report their blogs and/or profiles. (I did.)

Reporting Spam Blogs

Spam blogs are a pain for both bloggers and blog readers. Blog comments can get swamped with crap and "splogs" clog up search engines and directories.

Bloggers can use word verification or equivalent to stop automated spam comments. One thing they shouldn't do is link to the splog and write something like "I hate these spam blogs! Avoid www.spamblog.blogspot.com!!". This just helps the spammers.

If you do find a spam blog you can report it to search engines and blog services.

Google has page called Report a Spam Result. Other services should have something similar.

Many Blogger blogs have a "flag blog" button in the Navbar at the top of each page. Visitors can "flag" a spam blog and when it is reviewed it will be deleted.

"Flagging" works if the navbar hasn't been deleted or the blog doesn't redirect the visitor to another site. If either of these is a problem visit "Report a spam blog".

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Note: Blogger's automated spam catching features can cause problems. This happened to me and it took a while to fix.

Spurl Hit With DoS Attack

I was researching Social Bookmarking services this morning and found that Spurl had suffered a Denial of Service attack.

This is what was on their website tonight:

We are currently forced to offer reduced functionality due to heavy spam attacks. The lists with New and Hot spurls are therefore disabled until further notice.
Our apologies for the inconvenience.

I get tired of the spammers attacking websites. It makes it harder for legitimate users. When stricter controls are enforced innocent people can get mislabeled as spammers.