Comment (and trackback) Spam

[zezima]

I am having a serious problem with comment spam. Here is an example:

Comment #3360, In reply to UK Revisits decryption law, on Oct 31 2006, 01:59
Author: ... Email: Ruphus7584@yahoo.com
IP: 195.225.177.12 URL: N/A
Referer: N/A
http://www.nudismo.sessodrom.org http://www.dizionario.starci.org http://www.playboy.grafiare.org http://www.serie-a.starci.org [URL]http://www.unic ...

I get anything between 10 to 100 a day. Any suggestions on how to deal with it? I have recently upgraded to Serendipity 1.1 from 0.7 (I think it was) but that hasnt made a difference. Is there a spam function in serendipity?

I am having a similar problem with trackbacks. Here is an example:
Trackback #10713, In reply to Free beer scam circulates, on Jan 19 2007, 13:54
Author: Italy Email: N/A
IP: 124.53.186.38 URL: http://italy-host.infinitehosting.net/italy_000/
Referer: N/A
Italy

Such trackbacks occur almost 5 times as often as comment spam.

All my comments and trackbacks require moderation.

Please help.

[garvinhicking]

Hi!

Did you install the "spamblock" plugin? With that you can auto-moderate some comments, block filters. And you can use Akismet.com (if you get an account) which mostly blocks spam in a good way.

For comments I suggest you to enable CAPTCHAs, this blocks virtually 100% of all comment spam.

For trackbacks this method cannot be used, so I suggest to either deactivate them if you get too many, or try to see if Akismet does help you.

Best regards,
Garvin

[yellowled]

And you can use Akismet.com (if you get an account) which mostly blocks spam in a good way.

Personally, I love Askimet, actually it does all spamblocking in my blog.

However, some people have reported difficulties with it, i.e. valid comments have been blocked by it in some blogs. I've never experienced that to my knowledge, but I know somebody who has (in a WP powered blog which didn't accept comments made by twoday.net users anymore).

Also, robert has reported trouble (in his s9y powered blog) with Askimet, but I'm not sure whether that thread was in the German forum. However, those problems don't seem to be s9y-specific, it seems to be an Askimet problem.

YL