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Tuesday 11 November 2014

Comments

Yesterday’s blog entry only generated a single comment … and that was from someone who wanted to share his hatred of American Women with anyone who wished to read his comment.

Now I am not against the concept of ‘free speech’, and I think that the person who made the comment is entitled to his opinion, just as I am entitled to mine. That said, I thought that the ‘comments’ area of my blog was not to proper place for these views to be aired, and I have removed the comment that had been made.

One reason why this particular comment appeared is due to the fact that I do not have any mechanisms in place to vet comments before they are published. I used to have such a system … but removed it as I felt that it made it difficult for regular blog readers to make comments about what they had read. At present I do not plan to reinstate comment verification on my blog … but if the sort of non sequitur comment that was published yesterday begins to appear regularly, I may have to do so.

24 comments:

  1. Bob,

    I have never had any sort of "verification" on any of my blogs . . . and I have very seldom had to remove even spam.

    Of course I don't post nearly as often as you do, nor do I reach as many readers . . . but I prefer to remove the occasional remark to preventing someone from leaving their comment . . . (I know that I have from time to time chosen not to comment due to the nature of the "verification process").


    -- Jeff

    PS, I hope that you have a Remembrance Day that moves you.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Bob,

    That spambot seems to have affected a lot of gaming blogs. I've seen that comment on quite a few. It even spammed mine - I'll delete it in a day or so, but posted a "reply" for the meantime.

    I've been relatively lucky so far as I've had very few spam comments in the nearly 3 years that my blog has been running. I think this is the fourth.

    Tamsin

    ReplyDelete
  3. The perils of social media. I can't/dont understand why people can be so rude because they can hide behind an avitar.

    ReplyDelete
  4. When I removed verification there was a trickle of spam getting past the filter but it rapidly increased. I got tired of holding up everyone till I could censor comments but finally decided to just disallow anonymous commentsd. I may have lost 1 or 2 legitimate commentors but its cleaner and easier all around and my address is there if someone wants to reach me. (like the far eastern retailer who wrote to say that according to my blog I am short of batteries for electronic devices......)

    Deleting works too but.

    ReplyDelete
  5. I too was hit by that particular spam bot - it's a scam website that will download all sorts of nasty things to your PC while trying broker "foreign" brides - never click on a link unless you know who the source is.

    Google's ID verification usually does a good job but in the hacker's game of cat-n-mouse theres almost always a hole

    ReplyDelete
  6. The most recent posts on both my blogs got hit by the same misogynist... I took the same action you did.... :o)

    ReplyDelete
  7. Bluebear Jeff,

    I am reluctant to introduce comment verification in the light of how few 'spam' comments my blog receives ... but I may have to if this turns out to be the first of many.

    All the best,

    Bob

    PS. My wife and I made a special trip today to Dover to pay our respects to someone who died during the Great War,

    ReplyDelete
  8. TamsinP,

    It is sort of reassuring to know that I was not the only blogger to get 'spammed' ... but I didn't find people who this more than a little irritating.

    All the best,

    Bpb

    ReplyDelete
  9. Irishhighlander,

    I suppose that people make this sort of comment because it makes them feel good about themselves.

    All the best,

    Bob

    ReplyDelete
  10. Ross Mac,

    I hope that I can avoid having to introduce comment verification, but I may have to if this turns out to be the first of a growing tide of 'spam' comments.

    All the best,

    Bob

    PS. I have had similar 'I understand that you need ...' messages from Far Eastern suppliers. A nice thought ... even if I don't need what they want to supply me with!

    ReplyDelete
  11. Jmilesr,

    Sorry to hear that you were also 'spammed'. This 'spammer' sounds like he is particularly unpleasant and manipulative.

    All we can do is make things as difficult as possible for 'spammers'. The more time they waste trying to find ways around the systems put in place to stop them, the fewer 'spam' comments they will be able to send out.

    All the best,

    Bob

    ReplyDelete
  12. Steve-the-Wargamer,

    Sorry to hear that you were also 'spammed' ... and relieved to see that you did what I did.

    All the best,

    Bob

    ReplyDelete
  13. I got this one too. I had to introduce comment verification some time ago as I was getting quite a lot of spam. Personally I don't have any issues with people who have verification. It certainly doesn't stop me wanting to comment.

    ReplyDelete
  14. Legatus Hedlius,

    When I set up my blog I had comment verification, but at the request of several regular readers, I eventually removed it. If the individual 'spamming' incident turns out to be the first of many, then I will reinstate comment verification.

    All the best,

    Bob

    ReplyDelete
  15. I noticed a similar (identical?) 'comment' on another blog so clearly quite a few have been targeted. I no longer pre-vet comments on my own blog and have only ever had to delete a few.

    ReplyDelete
  16. Sounds like lots of us were hit by that one. To be fair it's the first bit of spam I've had since starting the blog. Like you I don't have any pre - moderation... yet....

    ReplyDelete
  17. Tim Gow,

    The perpetrator of this particular 'spam' seems to have taken a shotgun approach to his 'spamming'!

    I don't want to add comment verification just yet; I want to see if it happens again before I do.

    All the best,

    Bob

    ReplyDelete
  18. Alastair,

    So you got 'hit' as well? Let's hope this was just a 'one-off' and won't happen again.

    All the best,

    Bob

    ReplyDelete
  19. I have never used verification, and had less than 1 spam comment per 1,000 real ones. With those odds I am happy to just trash the rare offender.

    ReplyDelete
  20. Gonsalvo,

    Odds of one in one thousand sounds pretty good to me!

    I have decided to leave things as they are for the time being ... but if I get lots of 'spam' comments, I will have to reconsider.

    All the best,

    Bob

    ReplyDelete
  21. Since I am married to an American lady, I applaud your actio.

    ReplyDelete
  22. Stephen Briddon,

    I just did what I thought was right. It was a misogynist ‘rant’ that was intended to entrap the unwary … and in my opinion it was so wrong on so many different levels.

    All the best,

    Bob

    ReplyDelete
  23. I got it and marked it as spam/junk. I verify posts before they go live. I don't get that many.
    There was something spammy about it - basically that it had nothing to do with my blog. I didn't even give t a second thought because it wasn't a "real" person saying something of true conviction.

    ReplyDelete
  24. Itinerant,

    The comment was very 'spammy' ... and nothing to do with the normal content of my blog.

    Deleting it seemed to be the best course of action to take.

    All the best,

    Bob

    ReplyDelete

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