On SPAM

by Andrew

2010-05-03 08:58:03

When I switched over to the new site design I enabled open commenting (when I say "I", Shanti did the initial coding). Since then I've been getting a steady trickle of SPAM. I save a copy of all SPAM I receive so I can annalyse and hopefully stop it. What follows is just my own log of what I've tried:
Originally, when we first switched over, we didn't filter anything and didn't get any SPAM, but that's probably just security through obscurity in action.
(24 April 2010)
I implemented a simple captcha by Cap Captcha.
(28 April 2010)
The first bot showed up. Interestingly though, it just posted jibberish links. I did some research though and found out it's a known bot.
(1 May 2010)
I kept getting a trickle of SPAM, which didn't seem to be bothered by my captcha at all, so I blocked hyperlinks from comments.
(2 May 2010)
Still getting SPAM, just less and now without hyperlinks. Grrr.
(12 May 2010)
And suddenly it stopped. I haven't gotten any spam in the comments for over a week. Wierd.