| Email subscription to comments |
Hey all. Yesterday I finally got around to implementing email subscriptions to comments on posts in my custom comment module code for Blosxom. I run a custom comment module because of the static generation mode I use for the site, which helps reduce load on Andrew's server.
Email subscription to comments on a post that you have commented on is the default, but it is easy for the user to turn it off. If you post and opt for email, you'll also get an email when your own post survives moderation, which might be useful for some people.
It will be interesting to see if willingness to be emailed a comment is an effective spam signal or not -- so far with a sample of six spam comments, it seems to be evenly split between the two options, which is interesting because it means some spam bots are smart enough to turn the check box off. Or are they using a POST without using my form at all?
(That makes me wonder if moving the URL for the submission CGI might reduce spam...)
If there is any interest in a public release of my uber crap perl code let me know, and I might try and find the time to clean it up.
posted at: 10:28 | path: /diary/spam | permanent link to this entry
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#1
Simon Russell
I used to get a lot of comment spam on my photoblog (done with Pixelpost). I figured they were just POSTing directly, so I changed the names of all the fields (to unguessable garbage), the URLs, and even added random hidden fields with fixed values that were expected to be there.
All of the things worked -- for about two days. Then they just "learn". So I've started wondering if they actually just script an IE window -- perhaps that's the easiest way to get past Javascript stuff; just do what users do.
The only way I've stopped comment spam so far (if anyone's reading this, please don't try and break it) is to put a "mathematical problem" in, which you have to solve before posting a comment.
I think I'll do the same thing on my blog when I get around to actually writing a comment engine (that comes after the RSS feed)...