Since moving over to this mu.nu domain back in. . . checking, checking. . . 2004, I've had to do battle against a lot of different varieties of comment spam-bots.
If you're not at all familiar with comment spam-bots, consider your existence blessed, because spam-bots are easily within the top five reasons why I consider dumping this whole blogging. . . er, ThunderJournaling. . . thing entirely.
I won't, of course, because this site has become a repository of nearly eight years of personal ruminations and ridiculousness that carries immense value, if only to me.
Still, comment spam-bots represent a serious pothole to an otherwise smooth and enjoyable blogging ride.
For those who don't know, comment spam-bots are basically automated apps that crawl through cyberspace, landing on blogs equipped with comment engines, and then just repeatedly, repeatedly, REPEATEDLY, keep posting comments that include links to whatever piece of shit product the purveyor of said comment spam is determined to advertise.
The concept behind comment spam-bots is simple enough. Dumping a whole bunch of links to their site in the comment section of other sites, IN THEORY, should boost their visibility on search engines which, IN THEORY, take into account how many times their site is linked to from other sites.
The inherent flaw with this tactic is that it's based on principles search engines worked from back in, say, 2005. Since that time, search engines have tweaked and retweaked their algorithms so much that lowly blogs like mine and others pretty much escape the radar of search engines anyway. If your Web site or blog doesn't get more than 5,000 visitors a day, search engines basically don't give a shit about you, no matter how many links to other sites you may have.
With the exploding proliferation of more and more Web pages blinking into existence on a daily basis, blogs and other personal Web pages are given about as much consideration as an ant in a cornfield. The major search engines long ago determined which sites were deemed important and, I'm here to tell you, this Thunderjournal sure as shit wasn't one of them.
But that doesn't stop the comment spam-bots. No sir. Whether it's knock off "UGG boots," "World of Warcraft (WOW) Gold" or, my personal favorite, "Replica Watches," they continue to pollute my comment threads from years and years ago, tacking a seamingly endless fecal trail of spam onto posts that have otherwise been dormant for ages.
What's ironic is, my comment engine disabled hotlinking years ago, so all these comment spam-bots attempting to fill my blog with links to their sites, are basically posting meaningless dead text that no one's going to see anyway.
Still, even though I shouldn't care in the least if these intrusive spam-holes are polluting the comment threads of posts from years ago with their completely useless drivel, it nevertheless bothers me.
Why? Because it's still MY BLOG. When I revisit a post from 2007, after which there was a lively discussion between myself and other actual readers, it just sucks to see an endless piss stream of "UGG Boots" and "Replica Watches" nonsense.
As Adrian Monk would say about the Internet: It's a blessing. . . and a curse.
Posted by Ryan at February 10, 2010 09:47 PM | TrackBackSo much of your problem could be resolved by simply installing a captcha word verification system. Bots fail against them. And its odd, I almost never get comment spam.
Posted by: Erik at February 14, 2010 10:16 AM
Stumble It!
