Here's my question—if I were to delete the "TrackBack (0)" feature (see it there, below the post?) from my index template, would that prevent spambots from flooding me with spam? You'll notice, if you're in the comments screen (i.e., the individual entry archives), that TrackBacks can still be seen from that screen and that the TB link appears there. So would my help or no? Frankly, I'm inclined to delete the feature altogether.
Incidentally, one bot that spams me constantly gives an address that ends in blogspot.com. Like a-b.blogspot.com, c-d.blogspot.com. So is this the work of a prankster or Blogger's competition?
more seriously though, uncheck the "rebuild entries after deletion" button, then rebuilt the site through MT say, once a week. that'll clear out the old junk.
also, if it really is exactly in that format, adding a regular expression like this:
[a-z]-[a-z]\.blogspot\.com
should eliminate it (but allow other blogspot urls)
Posted by: tom at July 29, 2005 5:03 PMThx, Tom. Unfortunately, I can't rebuild the site through MT until I buy more bandwidth—something I'll have to do soon.
Posted by: Kriston at July 29, 2005 5:21 PMYour trackback woes recently drove me to figure out how email filtering works, as I still receive comment and trackback notifications from my guest blogging stint and was getting inundated. Since blocking all emails with the subject line "[grammar.police] new trackback ping," though, things have been peachy.
That aside, I've seen alot of comment spam coming through that features totally non-existent URLs. My own hunches have variously run as follows: (a) 13-year old German pranksters running spambots just for kicks, (b) spammers trying to clot up blacklists with useless crud, (c) spammers seeding spam before setting up redirects to hot hot pr0n.
But I'm probably just as uninformed as you.
At any rate, as you've discovered, spam can be a burden even if you manage to block it all out. My host recently shut off my MT-Blacklist, as it was overtaxing their network resources—and that was just from it passively blocking spam, not deleting it. (They reenabled it once I got in and changed my comment script name... go take a peek—it's now an incredibly delightful pun.)
As for trackback, I've no idea how it really works—never touch the stuff myself—but there's gotta be a way to hide your trackback link from the bots. I'd guess changing it and making sure the new link is not listed on the page in an easily machine-readable way (ie, Trackback link is...) or in any of your metadata (either in the page code or in your feed) would help. But, then, that might defeat the whole purpose (again, I don't know how the thing works).
Posted by: Dan at July 29, 2005 6:33 PMSorry, that's my fault. I just turned off the "receive notifications" option for both you and JL, and I ought to have done so before.
As for your spam theories, I guess I wouldn't be surprised if (a) and (b) were true, and I'm sure that (c) is right.
Tom: The blogspot spam usually takes the form of some adjective with a random noun, e.g., "direct-cabinet.blogspot.com." Sorry that that wasn't clearer, but yeah, I don't think there's a regex for it. Someone hates Blogger.
Posted by: Kriston at July 30, 2005 9:48 AMBlogger is also just good, free webspace that you can't simply blacklist out on your blog by way of the parent domain.
Posted by: Dan at July 30, 2005 2:12 PMLee Siegel = comment spammer?
Posted by: Tyler Green at July 30, 2005 2:18 PMI went back some time ago and deleted all trackback and comments spam to my entries, and then closed them for the same - I hope that didn't add to your bandwidth troubles.
Posted by: JL at August 1, 2005 6:32 AMKriston, have you managed to find your bookmarks. Maybe some folks here can make a few recommendations.
I'm thinking about this because I just renewed my subscription to Salon and I'm having some buyer's remorse. Slate has never managed to consistantly catch my interest - this Lee Siegel thread hasn't helped their cause any. The New Yorker is trying to do something online, finally, but their visual art/movie critcism is pretty weak.
Where on the web do people go for interesting, nuanced, well-written news, analysis and criticism?
Posted by: Ian Jehle at August 1, 2005 10:43 AMKriston, what veggies do you have other than zucchini/squash? How good are your tomatoes?
Posted by: Kanishka at August 1, 2005 1:08 PMI'm sorry about your spam and spider bite and such... but DAMN, what will you do without your zucchini!?? I know zucchini. Zucchini is a friend of mine. And squash, sir, is no zucchini.
Posted by: at August 1, 2005 1:35 PMOops, sorry that was me, not Anon.
Posted by: j.scott barnard at August 1, 2005 1:37 PMI have had good luck by following MT's Guide for Fighting Spam. Specifically, changing the name of your trackback and comment cgi scripts.
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