Chad Everett has released a plugin called MT-Approval that presents an effective way to combat the comment spam brought on by spam bots that make up 99% of the comment spam most Movable Type users experience.

MT-Approval requires MT version 3.1 or higher.

MT Approval works by requiring that a comment contain an "approval hash" - a list of data that is generated in the comment form by a new template tag called <$MTApprovalHash$> on the comment preview template. Spam bots don't use the form on the preview template; therefore they are missing the hash when they try to post the comment directly to the comment.cgi and thus their comments never post.

MT Approval requires that you force a preview...

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This plugin is for blocking feedback[ct(=comment) and tb(=trackback)] spams by adding an additional CCode(hidden ct input field) or adding TCode to original tb ID in tb URL, and then obfuscating that Code for the purpose of not easily guessing it.

MT 3.2's enforced anti-spam system is performed mainly after getting feedbacks. So if many spams are arrived, then it also uses system/MT user resourses when filtering, junking, unpublishing, and deleting spams although it becomes comparatively easy than pre 3.2.

CCode and TCode works in before saving spam feedbacks to MT system. CCode/TCode make it very difficult for spam-bots to guess tb URL and required ct input...

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Updated August 29, 2005. Originally posted in 2004.

Spammers have discovered bloggers and sooner or later if you allow comments or trackback pings on your weblog you will get spammed.

Blog spam appears in many flavors:

1) Basic comment spam. The spammer leaves a short uneventful message in a comment field in one of your entries. The spam comes from the URL placed in the comments URL field. These URLs link back to every conceivable scam. The spammers leave URLs here to create a link from your site to theirs, thus increasing their Google ranking. Spammers are also now linking to legitimate sites that have not cleared their pages of comment spam, thus increasing the Google rank...

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I've been watching my MT-Blacklist log for the past few months, and I've noticed something interesting: I haven't received a single piece of comment spam. It's all been TrackBack ping spam. Are others seeing the same trend?

The really interesting thing is that - according to server logs - the renamed mt-comments.cgi script has been getting hit, hard as ever.

If you found this article useful, please consider supporting this site through a donation.

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Hi everyone, my name is Jay Allen and I am the Product Manager for Movable Type. I'm writing today to address - what else? - comment spam.

This is an issue that, as many of you know, I have spent several thousand waking hours working on since its first appearance back in the fall of 2003, both as the author of MT-Blacklist and as the maintainer of the Comment Spam Clearinghouse. This is an issue which Six Apart takes very seriously, as evidenced not only in the improvements in Movable Type v3.x but also, in some part, by my hiring to this position.

Over the last month, we have been devoting a great deal of resources to solving the comment spam problem once and for...

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I was reading through MT Plus Comment Spam Equals Dead Site again (an interesting read), which prompted me to consider many of the points within. For those who don't know, this post, along with the activity that generated it, was a big part of the reason behind the development of MT-Approval. I was doing it anyway, but that forced the issue to happen a bit faster.

Much of the problem that happened at the time was the sheer load that was generated by Movable Type, even with MT-Blacklist installed, and even in instances where the comment was moderated. These issues were addressed with an update to Movable Type and also through a later release of the MT-Blacklist software, but the general...

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So let's say you run a reasonably popular weblog that's open to comments from anyone and everyone. Let's also say in the same breath that you don't necessarily believe that turning off comments on older entries is a good way of squashing the comment spam problem, though it is terribly effective. For the sake of completeness, let's also say that you've bought into the idea that blacklists are inherently flawed, a losing proposition, and so you haven't bothered using them.

But let's also say that you have received a proportionately infinitesimal volume of spam despite it all, given how attractive a target your weblog must be.

What...

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Question

How can I deal with comment spam on my weblog?

Answer

In January of 2005, we released our Guide for Fighting Comment Spam.

The guide covers many of the concepts and tools available to fight comment spam and explains the strengths and weaknesses that we've seen of each. We also included our "best practices" recommendations for not only keeping spam off of your site, but making sure that you and your readers have the best possible experience. The document is intended to be a fairly comprehensive, living document which will change and grow...

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We've just published the Six Apart Guide to Combatting Comment Spam. It's a fairly comprehensive document (also available in PDF format) that lists a lot of the techniques and tactics available for fighting spam, along with specific information on using those techniques with Movable Type. There's also a comparison of each technique's strengths and weaknesses, along with links to plugins which implement each strategy.

We've collected all of our recommendations in a single section within the document for easy reference, and we plan to keep updating the document as needed. We're eager to get the Professional Network community's feedback on these suggestions as well, so feel free to link...

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Over the past month or two, comment and Trackback spam has become a bigger issue for everybody. Six Apart even released the Guide to Comment Spam to help Movable Type users combat the problem.

danandsherree.com hasn't been left out of the spam attacks. Today alone, MT-Blacklist has denied over 200 spams! A number of those, unfortunately, have gotten through - and not just today. For the past two weeks this site has gotten hammered daily. I'm getting tired of clicking "De-Spam" buttons.

So I added several Blacklist strings that have really helped. Strings like "poker," "porn," and "xxx," to name just a few. (Many of...

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Three times in the last week I received comment spam. If you happened across it while reading one of my entries, I apologize for not getting to it quickly enough. All traces of those comments should be gone, but if you notice more, please let me know about it. Ads for penis enlargement simply aren't wanted here.

In any case - traffic to my blog is pretty low, with the possible exception of the page on the Angler Fish, which seems to be gaining in popularity by the day. Since traffic is low, it's easy for me to police comments. While I have no illusions that traffic might pick up greatly, there's always the chance, and let's face it - I'm lazy. I don't want to spend my day making...

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We've gotten some good feedback, from both people who use Movable Type and those who don't, about our Comment Spam Guide. There's responses worth reading at sites like JD on MX, and you can find my own comments as well at Dullroar and Jotsheet.

Trackbacks:

jotsheet - Depart from Six Apart: Fight comment spam with the simplicity of the SCode CAPTCHA - January 5, 2005 09:32 PMRecommended reading: Six Apart Guide to Combatting Comment Spam. This is direct from the makers of Movable Type. Because I'm such an opinionated fellow, I'm gonna take issue with the recommendations in their guide. I suggest you use their page as an ov...

Previous Entry: Comment Spam Guide

Next Entry:...

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In the fight against comment spam, people are linking the phrase Online Poker to the relevant wikipedia page. This aims to push the spammers off the top spot.

Currently the wiki is at number 3

Whilst I'm happy to stick it to the spammers, I'm in two minds about this. Firstly it could mean that the spam increases to try and compensate (though on many blogs they're already in the filters), secondly the spammer could easily edit the wiki page itself - that's what wikis are for. Although as I understand it the wiki maintainers can take steps to monitor and prevent this 'sticking'.

Ah well, let's give it a go.

...

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It's not that new an issue, but this is a pretty good overview of the state of the battle against comment spam.

One of the key points that ought to be explored in future stories on comment spam is how much of comment spam is a problem with current versions of software, because it appears there's two key problems. There's fighting newer spam techniques with current versions of blog platforms ( TypePad's made as much progress in this regard as Movable Type and TypeKey have), and there's the separate issue of getting people to update to current versions of software so that they'll be protected.

Trackbacks:

Previous Entry: Should NewsGator change its name?

Next Entry: Search Engine Watch launches a blog...

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With the release of Movable Type 3.14, a lot of people are revisiting the topic of comment spam and offering their opinions. I talked to eWeek's Matt Hicks for their story Movable Type Fixing Bug as Spam Clogs Blogs, and eWeek also has some good discussion over on Sean Gallagher's blog about the tactics that can be used. Meanwhile, Tim Appnel posted Freedom is Slavery on his O'Reilly blog, as an overview of the fact that all comment options on the web are essentially a tradeoff between openness and accountability.

Trackbacks:

Previous Entry: Comment and Ethics policy

Next Entry: Movable Type International releases

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One measure to guard against spam is to close comments on old blog entries. This is easy enough to do.

At the bottom of your Edit Entry window is the pull-down for none, open, or closed comments. If you don't see this as pictured, click on "Customize the display of this page" link, select "Custom" and select the fields you wish displayed, including "Allow Comments".

You can also set comments to be open, closed or non-existent by default through the weblog config window, Preferences section. Under "Comment Configuration" see "Allow Comments" Default. Note that you can override this default via your selection on the individual entry.

Plugins

There are several plugins that can be...

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Call it a late holiday gift or a great way to start the new year. In either case, we are pleased to offer you the Six Apart Guide for Fighting Comment Spam (also available in PDF format).

The guide covers many of the concepts and tools available to fight comment spam and explains the strengths and weaknesses that we've seen of each. We also included our "best practices" recommendations for not only keeping spam off of your site, but making sure that you and your readers have the best possible experience. The document is intended to be a fairly comprehensive, living document which will change and grow over time to reflect the changing nature of the topic.

As I've mentioned before, Six...

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Six Apart, the makers of Movable Type and Typepad, have written a comprehensive guide to combatting comment spam. If you have been finding that spammers are increasingly able to break through whatever barriers you've put up to stop them, make sure to read this article. Have you found the tutorials at Learning Movable Type helpful? Please consider linking to LMT at http://www.learningmovabletype.com/ . Thanks!

Posted by elise on January 04, 2005 to Announcements | Email to a friend | Printer-friendly version

Email to a friend

Email this article to: Your email address: Message (optional):

Copyright © 2004, 2005 Elise...

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Update April 9, 2005: Brad Choate has released a new anti-spam plugin called SpamLookup. Jay Allen, the creator of MT-Blacklist recommends SpamLookup over MT-Blacklist.

Spammers have discovered Trackback and have recently been leaving their trail of unwelcome links all over the blogosphere. To get a sense of what we are up against, read The Register's interview with a link spammer. Listed here are some defensive measures you can take.

MT-Blacklist

As with comment spam, your first recourse is Jay Allen's MT-Blacklist. The blacklist will help you delete the trackbacks and ban the URLs the spammers leave. Note that if you are using MT2.661 and MT-Blacklist 1.65, Jay has special instructions for deleting trackback spam pings....

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This morning I saw a flurry of new information from many sources about this thing called rel="nofollow" which is supposed to help stop comment spamming. Read about it's interaction with Movable Type at Six Log, Movable Type, and the Six Apart Professional Network, and a little more generic info is at Google.

Either I don't fully understand what nofollow is supposed to do, or it really is a dumb idea. I'm confident it's the latter.

Well, ok, those who implement nofollow will definitely help in not raising a spammer's Google PageRank. But that's the only benefit. As has been pointed out, a legitimate commenter's link won't count...

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