Comment Spam, Do Follow, Keyword Names, and You
September 3, 2008 by Lillie
I’m pleased with the number of insightful comments this blog gets, and I appreciate comments from diverse readers from around the world.
As my comment policy specifies, first-time comments are moderated; after the first comment is approved, future comments from that person are not subject to moderation. In theory, at least. Recently Akismet, which generally does an excellent job of catching spam and not blocking legitimate comments, has blocked comments from regular commenters. I usually delete spam comments without looking at them, so it’s possible that some valuable comments have slipped through and been deleted. If you have commented before and your comment doesn’t appear immediately, e-mail me.
If you haven’t commented before, your comment won’t appear until I have approved it. If your comment hasn’t appeared within 24 hours, you can contact me.
However, if you leave a comment that says “great post,” “now there are more reasons than ever to comment,” or any other comment that doesn’t even indicate you’ve read the post, expect it to be deleted. The first time, I’ll give you the benefit of the doubt and delete the comment; if it happens again, the comment will be marked spam and any other comments you leave will go into spam.
This blog is a Do Follow blog, which encourages comments. It also attracts spammers. If you come here to comment because you want a link that search engines will follow, I’m happy to have you … IF you read the post before you comment and leave a comment that says something. If the comment is so generic it doesn’t relate to the post … that’s a different story.
The most egregious case of inappropriate commenting started with a comment I approved. The comment related to the post, and I didn’t see anything out of the ordinary so I approved it. The next day that person left about 15 comments—all of which posted immediately because the previous comment had been approved. The first comment I read sounded familiar so I read through all the comments on that post, only to discover that a comment left by another person had been copied. I checked all the comments, and all were duplicates of other comments. The comments were made on older posts with a lot of comments to make it more difficult to catch. Since they were copied from relevant comments, they were appropriate for the post and seemed like legitimate comments. In fact, they were legitimate comments from the original commenter—but plagiarized by the spammer. I marked all the comments, including the first one (which had also been copied though I didn’t recognize at first), as spam. So now we have spam and plagairism in the same comment!
Commenters we bloggers love. Spammers are not welcome.
I do appreciate all legitimate comments, and I reply to every comment. I like to address the commenter by name, but I won’t address someone as California Liposuction or Timbuktu Real Estate. I will approve and reply to the comment, but I’d much rather respond to Susie of California Liposuction or John @ Timbuktu Real Estate. Note: This policy has been changed. Now I automatically send comments with keywords only in the name field to spam. Including keywords with your name is fine—you get a keyword link, and I know I’m replying to a real person. I have a hard time relating to Fat-Burning Miracle.
If you are a blogger, what is your comment policy? If you comment on blogs, what do you think of my comment policy? How do you feel about using keywords rather than names?
This is the problem about becoming dofollow – spammers – a real pain!
I use keywordluv on a couple of my blogs which encourages real names but gives the benefit of a purely keyword link- it works great and perhaps it would compliment your blog nicely.
I also use Spam Karma 2 which seems to do a pretty good job of catching these types of spammers – you might want to check out that plug-in!
Keep up the great work!
My comments on one blog have been being filtered by Askimet, so I now check Askimet on a regular basis, daily if I remember.
My comment policy:
Constructive criticism is welcome. Even if I don’t like it, I probably won’t edit it or delete it.
I’ve got some simple rules that most people won’t have problem meeting. Comments not meeting the rules will either be edited, if possible, or deleted.
* No rude, mean or obstructive comments.
* No obscene or otherwise offensive language
* No spam
* Comments should generally be on topic and should seldom be longer than the post being commented on.
Off topic comments are allowed, unless it gets out of hand.
A blog isn’t a democracy — but even democracies have rules.
Your comment policy is reasonable.
I don’t particularly care for keywords instead of names. To me, they are a flag that this might be spam.
Mike Goads last blog post..Fruit of the Dogwood
Hi Lillie
Thanks for sharing your policy. I don’t have dofollow and I guess that makes my experience different to yours, and easier to handle.
I delete very obvious key word only commenters but leave some which are on the margin (maybe a name of a blog, or someone who wants to remain anonymous) – especially if the comment is written with a human voice and isn’t just a cut and paste from somewhere else (or as you said and I’ve noticed recently) a copied version of someone else’s comment.
I don’t mark them as spam – and I don’t address them by their keywords.
Your policy sounds clear, reasonable and fair
Joanna
Joanna Youngs last blog post..Introducing the Theme for September: Writing with Respect
I have always thought that the more a site gets comments, whether spam or real ones are the more popular sites and authors appreciate this. Now, I know the reason why sometimes I do not get to see my comment posted when I think they are legit and reasonable ones.
Akismet did the same thing over at my blog a couple of months ago — started filing legitimate comments (from repeat/regular commentators) as spam. I scan Akismet every day, so luckily I caught the error.
I wish those spammers would stop with the automated comments. Whenever I clear out my spam, I’m thinking “How disrespecful!” Ah well, I’m just grateful for Akismet.
i use blogger so i don’t have access to the plugins other users have. and my blog’s still a no follow blog, though i’m thinking about changing that.
i think it’s just reasonable to expect a name or nickname, instead of keywords. after all, comments are about conversation, and it’s distracting to have to address someone solely with keywords.
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A comment policy is a great idea for nofollow blogs. I have just passed 1000 comments on my do follow blog, and in that time I have had over 48,000 spam comments. Crazy business?
One time I accidently deleted a TON of comments including some really valuable ones. I really kicked myself. Since I don’t receive a lot of comments, I now just have them all on manual approve. Then again, I don’t have a do-follow blog, but I plan on it in the future. I just have no idea how to set that up with blogger.
Lillie, I am so glad you wrote this post. I have been having the same issue with “creative” spam lately. The first comment appears to be legitimate but then is followed by 5 generic comments on older posts. There is never a comment on the current post. I agree with your policy. I also use Akismet and I have never checked those messages – whoops! Thanks for the tip on that, I never even thought of reading them but I certainly would not want to lose real comments. It’s really sad that in addition to writing and managing our blogs we have to become members of the Spam Crime Fighting Team too!
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I’ve been doing quite a lot of looking at blogs that use do-follow. Some just to get more visitors to boost their Alexa rank I’m assuming. 500 comments on a post and 2% of them make sense.
It gets a bit irritating, and in my opinion it really lowers the quality.
Please continue to check your spam filter though, they are good for some things but can catch what we’re really looking for, quality comments!
FreshUp Website Maintenance
I agree with your point about not using keywords in your name it just encourages spammers. Overall I think Dofollow is a great idea but it is ruined and sometimes cheapens and lowers the quality of a website.
There’s my 10 pence anyway.
Nice blog by the way
x
Oliver Cardings last blog post..Flight of the Conchords to play The 02 arena ??
Lillie, Do Follow is always a hot topic. What I don’t understand is if people are trying to create links to their site, why are they posting crap comments on the blogs that are only going to get deleted? Seriously, are you ready to be part of the online business world if you are going about your marketing so poorly?
Several of my favorite blogs have gone No Follow, which bums me out. I have to bypass them for the sake of time. Because I have to say that I have truly come to appreciate bloggers and have really become fond of several of them, to the point that if I was no longer seeking out Do Follow blogs, I’d still visit. (Present company included, of course!)
The flip side is that I see so many No Follow blogs that just don’t get the traffic and comments, and they seem so boring. For me, part of blogging is the exchange with visitors and the community it creates. I think that Do Follow blogs can really bring in some stellar visitors, even though sadly, yes, it does involve wading thru the “Good post glad you wrote it!” posts.
To be honest, I didn’t even understand why people need to use the keyword names when they’re commenting on a blog…?
I only will make the comments, when I have something to talk or abbreviate, thus I won’t force myself to comment if I have nothing to say…!
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Hi Lillie!
Great elaboration on your spam policy!
I definitely dislike spam, but I faithfully check the askismet filter before I hit the delete all button. Often there is nothing in there but spam. Several times, however, I have rescued a comment.
Obscenity would also get deleted by me, but I don’t have much of a problem with getting obscene comments (other than from spammers). I seem to have nice readers.
Of course, I reserve the right to use my best judgment about comments. Typically, however, all that gets deleted are obvious spam messages.
Good discussion.
Laura Spencers last blog post..Is Your Freelance Writing Timeless?
Really spammy posts create lots of headache and pain. I like your way to tell people not to submit spams.
I’ve recently read about “keywordluv”. Great way to not be speaking to “Spandex Manufacturing” but to speak to “Kosie from Spandex Manufacturing”. Feels better.
Maybe an idea.
I’m impressed that you respond to every comment. I am appreciative of the comments I get, but I respond by going to that blog, reading, and commenting on a post that interests me. While some bloggers feel they are having conversations, I feel like I’m writing articles and receiving letters to the editor.
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I think WordPress does offer a lot more plugins to make blogs comment friendly that Blogger does.
Do you think Akismet is something useful to use? I am not in the favor. Rather than catching only spam comments, it is catching all of them which i have on my blog. I have just get rid of it.
I agree with you on you cannot always contribute to every single topic on every blog. There are something you don’t know about or not enough to contribute with quality comments/feedbacks. But still checking out other blogs is a good way to learn new things, things that are outside YOUR box.
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I have to say that you are one of the friendliest “do follow” blogs around. Some blog owners are do follow but they don’t allow for keywords… which seems sort of uppity. I mean, why bother?
I view it as a two way street, blog owners get NEW content for the bots to revisit and a livelier and more interactive blog. Some savvier commentators will also give stumbles and social bookmark the page in hopes the PR of the page will rise, hence giving more PR juice to the link.
I just wish that blog owners would less tyrannical and that commentators would stop spamming.
So thanks for putting up with the spammers and know that we aren’t all bad
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Your comment policy sounds fair to me. I also have a dofollow blog and I know that many people take advantage of the dofollow to get a linkback without a relevant comment. As I understand that’s why nofollow became the standard.
All of us in the dofollow movement are providing a valuable service to other bloggers, just as relevant comments benefit our sites.
It’s too bad that there are always people who want to benefit from something without giving anything back – spammers. I believe the first rule of any business is you have to give before you receive. Spammers want to get, but don’t want to give. They are not a legitimate part of the blogging community.
Do people think that bloggers are stupid or they are not smart enough? Let’s say If i shall report a comments to akismet as spam, what will happen? I think this is beyond the commentators imagination. All of his/her further comments will go in Akismet trap so who check Akismet’s cached comments? Perhaps only Lillie do this.
I see a few people here have mentioned KeywordLuv. That is a great way to allow people to use their real name and their keyword phrase. Since this blog doesn’t use KeywordLuv, well, you can see how I worked that in right there. As long as people contribute the conversation and do not submit a generic comment, I think those comments should be accepted, as you do.
Justin, Going Greens last blog post..10 Great Gas Saving Tips
I have several do follow blogs and it amazes me how much crap that has to be waded through in approving the comments because of spammers. If you want the link… work for it. Read the article and post something worthwhile. I have yet to see a do follow blog that is not well moderated.
I found your blog because of this conversation about nofollow vs dofollow links. I am debating how to handle them on my blog so I do appreciate the tips. Thanks all!
I wanted to follow up on this topic to point out that having a No Follow blog still doesn’t absolve you of spam and the work surrounding it. I have a No Follow blog (not by choice, I keep it for my employer and would most likely change to Do Follow if I could) and I am still amazed at how much spam I get.
I’m not entirely sure of the point. I can understand a large portion of it being spambot originated, but I do have what seems to be visitors stopping by to leave nonsensical comments. Do they think I am going to accidentally let one slip by? Is it really worth the effort they are taking to find my blog and comment?
So yes, even No Follow blogs have to deal with spam. At least with Do Follow you stand the chance of bringing in some interesting conversationalists!
Your comment policy is justified, on my wordpress blog i have to use Askimet & Spam Karma 2 just to keep the blog spam at bay.
They work great together, but the comment spam only seems to get worse.
As for the people that just leave 2-3 words well you know there just fishing for a back link and nothing more.
Unless you have an actual opinion to contribute to the post, move on.
Now im thinking i need my own comment policy, well more work to add to the list..
It is true that like many of the bloggers I try to get links by commenting on other blogs. I don’t leave any comment if the blog is not interesting for me. With this need of links, I have discovered many great blogs, and I enjoyed reading them and leaving comments. As there are spammers with stupid comments, I also found there are many useless blogs with dofollow links.
Soham | debt collections last blog post..Benefits Of Oolong Weight Loss Tea
definitely a great idea, but one question: how will you protect from bots?
if this method of protecting from spam catches on, you can bet there’ll be bots that wait for one comment’s approval, and then spam the crap outta your site
panx,
I have not had the problem. Only once did I approve a comment and have lots of spam follow, and that was because I should not have approved the first comment. It was on an old post, and I didn’t realize that it was a copy of an earlier comment. I approved it, and the next day, I got tons of copy-cat comments. I recognized ones on newer posts as being copies of comments already left, so I deleted the comments and put the commenter on the blacklist.
That may get to be a problem eventually but so far, the first comment is almost always detectable as spam. If I’m in doubt of the legitimacy of a comment, I will just delete it. The next comment will still be moderated but won’t automatically go into spam. I can tell by the second comment for sure whether it’s spam or not.
One mistake out of tens of thousands of spam isn’t a problem.
Indeed, the keyword luv plug in do entice commenter into writing more relevant comments on do follow blogs if only because they are assured of high quality link because of this plug in.
sabby,
I appreciate it when commenters use KeywordLuv correctly as you did. Many commenters still don’t include their names, and I find it very frustrating to try to carry on a conversation with keywords.
I agree with your policy, it rewards genuine commentors, but doesn’t allow spam. I do the same myself – I’m happy to allow keywords if the comment is saying something. I don’t see why people have problems following simple rules, they only ruin it for themselves (and everyone else).
One problem I have found with Keyword Luv is that some bloggers hyperlink the whole name, including the name at the start and the “from”. I see you don’t do this.
Anders,
If you read my current comment policy, you will see that I no longer allow comments without a name. With KeywordLuv, there is no excuse for not leaving a name along with the keyword. I was getting tired of getting comments from Cheap Toilet Seats, Acne Cure, Philadelphia Lawyer, and Bargain Hosting.
I see that your name and the word and are hyperlinked along with your keywords. I went back to see how you left the comment and you wrote “Anders from Graphic Design Agency London.” The correct protocol as described in the small print above is to write “Anders @ Graphic Design Agency London.” KeywordLuv converts the @ to from and only hyperlinks the words that follow. That is apparently why you are seeing that occur on other blogs as well.
Oh, OK. Thanks for pointing that out. I’ve always used “from” and some have hyperlinked it all and some have not. Makes more sense now. I actually thought writing “from” or “@” did the same thing.
Anders,
Glad I could help you solve the problem. I don’t know what anyone might have done to make the “from” work. I’m no techie—I just use the plugins as-is.
I really love your blog. Not only do you appreciate your readers (the awesome plugins you’ve installed) but more importantly, because you take the time to reply to each an every comment. How lucky are your readers? Thanks to you, I’m pretty darn lucky (that’s my name!)
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Lucky,
Hope your name also describes you! I was away from my computer for a couple of days, and I have been replying to comments for a long time now catching up. I usually do it several times a day so there aren’t so many at once, but when I reply to a couple dozen or so in one sitting, I realize how much time it takes. But I also realize how much I enjoy it.
Thanks for your comprehensive instructions.
Have been thinking about rolling out Keywordluv across a number of blogs but wonder whether all the moderation is just too time-consuming.
What benefits have you seen from adding KeywordLuv?
Howard@France Facts About´s last blog ..Head in the Clouds over Cloud Computing
Howard,
I don’t know if KeywordLuv is of any benefit to me, though it’s possible that in combination with DoFollow, CommentLuv, and monthly thank-you posts, it attracts comments. I do those things to reward commenters because I appreciate interacting with readers, not for any benefit for myself
I actually think there’s probably more moderation without KeywordLuv because now I have a firm policy that commenters must leave a name and not just a keyword. KeywordLuv makes it easy to do that. If I get comments with keywords instead of names, I just automatically mark them spam rather than agonizing over whether to approve them or not.
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