I have never liked spam. Not the kind in a can or the kind that I battle on this blog.
It is hard for a "bot" to leave a comment on the blog, and there are spam filters for the obvious spam comments, the ones with a lot of links in them.
That doesn't stop people from leaving comment after comments like "great post thanks for sharing", and a link to a web site or direct advertisements for businesses complete with links and sometimes even prices. People in the real estate industry are some of the worst offenders. They advertise real estate in other parts of the country or in other countries right here in the comment section of my blog. I do the best I can to block them from commenting but some get through anyway.
I used to leave the comments open on this blog and when I found comment spam I would delete it quickly, often through my blackberry. It got to the point where I couldn't keep up. One night someone who's name I won't link to took the time to write ten spam type comments and I deleted each as soon as it appeared and sent him a note telling him that he was wasting his time but he kept going.
So I have had to make some changes. Comments go into moderation and unfortunately it doesn't work the way it should. Each comment is held in moderation until I approve it and there have been some problems approving them via blackberry. So if you left a comment and it did not show up on my blog for several hours it is because I had trouble approving it. I will find a solution but for right now I have to approve each one that comes through. If you left a comment and it never showed up chances are it was spam.
Fighting spam is a constant problem. The companies that sell products through the internet and use Spam style marketing are very persistent. I don't think they will ever stop.
Teresa, I fight the same thing and in one case, I’ve left the “senseless” comment after deleting the link and then wrote a short comment about the spam stupidity and the moron keeps trying to leave more of them right below where it was pointed out how dumb he was.
I don’t like spam in a can either but I can’t remember actually ever having it.
Interesting to hear of someone who actually hand-writes his spam messages, and persists after you’ve slammed him. Sounds like some sort of e-stalker. What a quality life he must lead…
What I have seen a lot lately are meaningless comments with bad grammar, punctuation and spelling. I think people are paying to have foreigners post a lot of garbage comments to get links. Moderate and delete!
That pretty much describes my blog posts too.