Comment spam
UPDATE: Thanks to trackbacks, Jay has suggested in the comments that I wait for the MT-Blacklist plugin to be completed instead of fooling around with macros. I can take orders when it's to my benefit.
Today Michael at Move The Crowd linked to a plugin to stop comment spam that displays a graphic with a confirmation code that must be entered. I was thinking about whether or not to install it.
Nope.
Dana Blankenhorn at Moore's Lore just posted a pointer to Jay Allen's plug-in:
- Doesn?t rely on easily circumventable form or javascript hacks
- Targets the core content of comment spam (i.e. the URL) and not the IP address or other easily changeable information
- No MT source code hacking required
- Blacklist is trivial to maintain
- Comments with blacklisted content never show up on the site
- Retroactive blacklisting removes existing comment spam
- Potential for collaborative filtering
And now the drawbacks:
- Doesn?t prevent the submission of comment spam, only the display
- Requires three plugins (which you really should have anyway)
- Slight slowdown in comment popups or rebuilds for pages with static comments
The required plugins are Brad Choate's MT-Macros, MT-Regex and PerlScript. I don't have the Perlscript plugin yet, but I will.
It requires you maintain a list of offenders, but gives you a starting point if, like me, you'll be taking prophylactic measures.
