Nov 14, 2013 | blog
It was overdue really. Over 7 years on this blog and I hadn’t done a thorough review and cleanup of my comment section ever.
There were nearly 4,000 comments and, unfortunately, a very large chunk of them were duplicates and a more than I want to admit were some kind of spam comments. The duplicates undoubtedly came from the time that I imported my comments into Disqus and then exported them back out to my blog to stand alone. I should have caught the duplicates then, but I must not have been paying attention.
The spam comments are a frustration. They weren’t rampant, but there were a lot more than I thought there were. Some were the passive kind of spam where they didn’t leave a link in the comment, but the name and URL they used to “log in” were certainly links to follow. Luckily, only a handful were “lightly” inappropriate, counting them on one hand easily.
In the end, it turns out that there are just under 2,000 comments left, but they are at least valuable conversations that I had regarding posts with a number of readers and a good many friends online. These I will treasure.
Apr 14, 2008 | blog
I suppose I should be upset by the current wave of tools & services like shyftr that aggregate blog content and also host commenting features for that content. In essence, these services could be accused (and are) of stealing content.
I guess the short of it for me is that I hope people read my feed, visit my blog and comment because I’m providing some piece of information that has value for them. Like many bloggers, I may have had ideas of being a professional blogger and deriving my living simply by blogging – I’ve long since dropped that assumption. I blog because I want to participate, or want to voice my opinions or ideas. If what I have to say is important, people will show up at my blog.
There are legal aspects to these arguments, but I’ll need to think about it a bit longer.
UPDATE: What I really think this trend means, is that its time to change. When the playing field is altered, the players need to adapt. As such, new perspectives on blogging and conversations need to be adopted.
Dec 14, 2006 | blog
So far, Akismet has caught 10,196 spam comments on this blog. More than I had thought would be targeted in the first place. I have to give a tip of the hat to Automattic – the company that created Akismet, the WordPress plugin that combats comment spam. Its simply a top-notch tool for any WordPress blogger.
Aug 28, 2006 | blog
Well, I’ve updated my comment spam monitor to filter a few more spammers that seem to have slipped through.
Its though enough as it is without idiots like these spammers hitting a personal blog. What is there to gain from targeting personal blogs?
Ugh, I guess I should really focus my disappointment towards the real idiots that actually are stupid enough to click on this type of advertising, emails, and blog posts. These people are the real problem because they create an environment where the spammers can make money.
F***ers!
Apr 9, 2006 | blog
Well, OK it may not be “new” news, but it had been awhile since I checked out the updates that coComment has been working on for their wonderful comment tracking service. Among the enhancements to already supported blogging software, they have added a Promotion page and an Integration page.
Both these pages have additional information on promoting their service and coComment functionality to additional blogging software. Go have a look when you get a chance.
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