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12/7/05
Porn Comment Spammer Is Back
12/7/05
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Wednesday, December 7, 2005
9:22:00 PM EST
Hearing Vangelis, Blade Runner Blues
Hi folks -- a few folks have written me to let me know that our
porn comment spammer is back.
This one is the same one we've seen before, except he/she is being extra annoying, as he/she is throwing in a lot of additional whitespace around the text, which is:
Why does the spammer do this? It's probably because he/she thinks that doing this will help increase the search engine ranking of their silly affiliate porn site, not knowing or caring that
comments in AOL Journals use the NOFOLLOW tag, which means that your major search engines (like Google) that rely on links to determine relevance will skip those links and therefore won't help your search engine ranking, you big spamming dummy.
The tech team is looking at different rostering methods and other measures against comment spam. (I will talk more about that in a minute.)
In the meantime, Journalers can use the "Block This Screen Name" button to block the screen name and delete all comments by that screen name.
By the way, if you accidentally block someone from commenting, here's how you manage your block list:
* When signed in to your Journal, click the blue "Edit Journal" button.
* In the section marked "Manage Your Journal Settings", click "Manage Permissions."
* This will show you a list of screen names which are blocked from commenting to your Journal. You can add screen names, and also unblock them.
Now, getting back to the problem of comment spam: It's a problem all over the blogosphere, not just AOL Journals. In fact, to date, we've been pretty "lucky" that we've only had a few of these clowns.
Different blog providers use different methods to try to block comment spam -- for example, Blogger and others use image verification (also known as a CAPTCHA) -- it's a basically squiggly letters and numbers that machines can't read, but people can, to try to block automated spamming robots.
Image verification works, but it's not a silver bullet -- there are ways around it, including offshoring low-wage humans to defeat it.
Also, it can be pretty hostile to visually-impaired humans (especially with the squiggly lines -- if you've ever asked yourself, "is that a 6 or a G?" while looking at one of these, you know what I mean.)
Like I said, all sorts of different folks are working on ways to beat spam commenters (though if that isn't bad enough, there is also a problem with spam blogs, or splogs, which are blogs created specifically as link farms, to try to do the same thing as spam comments. This has also been a problem for Blogger/BlogSpot, which is kind of ironic, since the spammers are trying to raise their Google pagerank, and Google owns Blogger/BlogSpot); I've seen some instances of it on AOL Journals/AIM Blogs, but not too many as yet.
Thanks -- Joe
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9:22:00 PM EST
Hearing Vangelis, Blade Runner Blues
Porn Comment Spammer Is Back
This one is the same one we've seen before, except he/she is being extra annoying, as he/she is throwing in a lot of additional whitespace around the text, which is:
Looking for HOT Guys and Sexy BI Females in my AREA!I haven't included the screen name because the spammer can create a new one pretty easily.
I am a 20/F/Pics. View my ADULT Pics profile below![URL Removed]
Why does the spammer do this? It's probably because he/she thinks that doing this will help increase the search engine ranking of their silly affiliate porn site, not knowing or caring that
comments in AOL Journals use the NOFOLLOW tag, which means that your major search engines (like Google) that rely on links to determine relevance will skip those links and therefore won't help your search engine ranking, you big spamming dummy.
The tech team is looking at different rostering methods and other measures against comment spam. (I will talk more about that in a minute.)
In the meantime, Journalers can use the "Block This Screen Name" button to block the screen name and delete all comments by that screen name.
By the way, if you accidentally block someone from commenting, here's how you manage your block list:
* When signed in to your Journal, click the blue "Edit Journal" button.
* In the section marked "Manage Your Journal Settings", click "Manage Permissions."
* This will show you a list of screen names which are blocked from commenting to your Journal. You can add screen names, and also unblock them.
Now, getting back to the problem of comment spam: It's a problem all over the blogosphere, not just AOL Journals. In fact, to date, we've been pretty "lucky" that we've only had a few of these clowns.
Different blog providers use different methods to try to block comment spam -- for example, Blogger and others use image verification (also known as a CAPTCHA) -- it's a basically squiggly letters and numbers that machines can't read, but people can, to try to block automated spamming robots.
Image verification works, but it's not a silver bullet -- there are ways around it, including offshoring low-wage humans to defeat it.
Also, it can be pretty hostile to visually-impaired humans (especially with the squiggly lines -- if you've ever asked yourself, "is that a 6 or a G?" while looking at one of these, you know what I mean.)
Like I said, all sorts of different folks are working on ways to beat spam commenters (though if that isn't bad enough, there is also a problem with spam blogs, or splogs, which are blogs created specifically as link farms, to try to do the same thing as spam comments. This has also been a problem for Blogger/BlogSpot, which is kind of ironic, since the spammers are trying to raise their Google pagerank, and Google owns Blogger/BlogSpot); I've seen some instances of it on AOL Journals/AIM Blogs, but not too many as yet.
Thanks -- Joe
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This entry has 19 comments: (Add your own)
-
I think if you look for other men online that is fine.... i l am ucky to work int he gaming world
fred@sportsgamer.com -
I think it's really good, that your block porn comment. I hate spammerss
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Way to go ,Joe [or screen name?]. Option To be considered/ wild card: Sounds like another way for this person to test where you're at in your mindset, & to see what you might do in the reactionary/predispositional craft of science fanfare. Spam could translate to: Spy Patrol Accessing [Macho] Men: [lol]Two-way streets have more than one view. Does anyone really know for sure?--MO w/out assumptions 4 consumptive ears?
After all, a geode isn't what it appears. Tin'k about possibilities: nothing is mentioned about personally asking the person about why they are persistent. Sounds like subtle allowance for a composting your 'i' can't wait to talk about what you've done that I don't like. -
Thanks Joe. You are doing a great job. Uh...Joe? Remember the two of each comment thingy I was having trouble with? Well....today I have been getting FOUR of the same comment! Good thing they were nice comments or my therapy bill would kill me. I don't need Prozac in my life Joe! I am getting...scared!
7/15/08 2:47 AM