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Saturday, June 15, 2013

Comments That Look Like Spam - What to Do?

I hate the idea that I keep getting spammed with 'Anonymous' comments.  It bugs me and not sure what to do.  I figured out the easiest way for me to 'clean it up' is going to my Google Blog dashboard where 'Comments' are listed on the left column.
Next, I can readily see the legitimate comments and those that are 'Anonymous'.

Then I can just check the box of the offenders

And then go back to the top of the page and click on'Delete' .  That removes them pretty quickly.  
I tried using the Spam button, but it seems I got even more 'Anonymous' comments.  

If it keeps up I may have to go back to having each person who leaves a comment verify that they are not a robot.  But I was wondering:

How many of you were going to leave a comment, but did not because you had to go through the hassle of that?

Not sure what I am going to do about it but would be interested in how you handle it?  Or what do you suggest?

Thanks for joining us today on the Roadrunner Chronicles!  Until next time...

31 comments:

  1. I am not very technical and might not be able to leave a comment, but my comments are not the high quality of others anyway.
    I do not get comments except from about 4 people I follow. Each post shows it has been viewed 30 to 150 times, but no comments. I guess it is better to have none, rather than spam. I do enjoy your blog and wish you more safe happy travels.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I appreciate all the comments - its the spam stuff the bugs me...

      Delete
  2. All comments show up in my mailbox. I preview the anonymous ones and mark the spam ones as SPAM and they are deleted. I dont know of an easier way;o(( But I don't find that too much trouble vs making everyone sign in to comment!!! Most of the spam comments are annoying and not offensive. If they were offensive, I would probably have to do things differently.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes - another way to delete them. I agree. I appreciate the legit comments so its not a big deal to go back and delete the spam. Just took a quick look and had to delete 16 spammers so far today...

      Delete
  3. You can go into your dashboard and eliminate all anonymous comments. That will eliminate about 95% of your spam. Many of us have had to do this because the spam was getting so disgusting.

    There are a number of blogs I don't comment on because of the word verification thing. I never seem to get it right the first time, and it just takes too much time to play those kind of games.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I understand -- sometimes it takes me a couple of trys too in order to get the word verification right.

      Delete
  4. I'm with Judy. I never comment if I have to go through all those hoops. I just recently disabled anonymous comments for the reason you gave. When I looked at my legitimate comments, none were anonymous so I didn't feel I was hurting anything to disable them. Good luck with whatever you decide.

    ReplyDelete
  5. I'm a big WordPress fan and pay for the webhosting of my blog. I have two domains (desertdiva.net and cjcox.net) and pay a total of approximately $80.00/year.

    You have so much more control over the design of your blog, and there are helpful plug-ins (I LOVE Askimet) to capture spam. I'm with Judy - I hate the word verification on Blogger. I can hardly read it and it often takes me several tries to "get it right."

    I did see this screenshot for Blogger to help reduce spam. http://tinyurl.com/kq3s7a2 Hope it helps!

    ReplyDelete
  6. I was getting a lot of spam too, so I changed one thing on my blog. In order for someone to leave a comment, they have to have a google sign-on. They don't have to do the verification thing. If they don't have a google sign-on, they can still email me. I didn't really want to do this, but I was getting SO MUCH span, I had to do something.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. another good idea I can try when it gets to be too much. Thanks!

      Delete
  7. I keep getting those "anonymous" comments too. They only began recently but are very annoying. They are easy to delete though and I never respond to them. When I have to jump through the hoops to leave a comment I usually try it if I really want to leave one. However, sometimes I just can't make out their letters which is very frustrating.
    Candy

    ReplyDelete
  8. Forgot to mention: I have on my blog that the comment will be visible "after owner approval" so you might try that.
    Candy

    ReplyDelete
  9. I started having a number of spam comments and hate the word verification. My solution was to go into the dashboard and then:

    Design,Settings,Posts & Comments,Who Can Comment, and mark Registered Users.

    Now word verification and it has stopped 98% of the spam. I also put a note on my blog for people to get a gmail account and use that to comment. Since so many people use gmail, I still get comments.

    Readers who know me also have my email address and comments are sent there also.

    Hope this helps.

    ReplyDelete
  10. I did the same thing as Judy. I hate the word verification but I will bear with it to leave a comment because I know how much I appreciate the comments.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Randy we don't have the traffic which you have at this time, but the "anonymous" comments are annoying. All of the monitors are moderated by me first, before ever being posted. I have ever one sent to my email, so it is pretty easy to immediately zap them before they are posted.
    I, too, really don't like the word verification process that Google uses. I'm pretty computer savvy, but I've had many times when I can't make out the words and have to repeat the process. In general, I'd rather not have to use that procedure to weed out the spammers.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Sorry, I meant to say "all of the comments are..." in the reply above.

    ReplyDelete
  13. I have been getting many more spam comments, too, but not too many offensive ones. I turned moderation on for posts older than 3 days, so they don't show up unless I publish them, which helps. I just have to make a point of reviewing comments on the dashboard more frequently than I had been.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes - I have started looking at my comments more often too in order to quickly catch any bogus ones.

      Delete
  14. Yep, we are with Judy as well. Kevin stopped allowing anonymous comments and now he says we rarely get any spam comments. We also hate the word verification and tend to not leave a comment if it is there. Also don't like the having the comments monitored before appearing but that is just us.

    Ruth
    www.travelwithkevinandruth.com

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I may look into how to set that up so I don't get any anonymous ones.

      Delete
  15. I have started requiring code words and monitor comments before posting them. It has stopped all spam.

    After my experience with spam, I no longer mind the filtering code.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I don't blame you - they can be irritating. But each one has to decide how to handle it. Thanks for the comments.

      Delete
  16. For a while Blogger's spam filter worked great; not so much since the advent of "compliment" spam comments that sound like a legitimate comment, but always include a link to some website. I tried turning off anonymous, but that took away the name/URL option which several of my commenters use. I also tried the Google+ comments, but that leaves out anyone who doesn't have a Google ID ... and I am not in the business of forcing anyone to get a Google ID so they can comment. I'm moderating comments at the moment, so I just delete the anonymous comments when they show up in my email for approval ... don't even bother reading them anymore.

    ReplyDelete
  17. I ended up blocking anonymous commenters entirely..... I was getting nasty vile comments that would remain until I managed to see them.... Not on my blog and I hate the prove your not a robot thing since they went to the script that even humans can't read... So for now the anon option is just off....!

    ReplyDelete
  18. I pretty much ignore them. They have little to say and most of the time they can't spell or write correctly.

    ReplyDelete