Comment rejected

[Zirbelholz]

Can anyone tell me why a particular comment might have been rejected?

This comment by Victor Dewsbery has now been added by me, but he tried four times to add it himself without success.

http://www.transblawg.eu/index.php?/arc ... l#comments

He tells me he is using Firefox 3.0.1 (the latest release). Same site cookies are enabled, but not third party cookies.

He also sees this message: "To prevent automated Bots from commentspamming, please enter the string you see
in the image below in the appropriate input box."

I don't see that message myself. I am not too sure what other differences there are between what I see and what a visitor sees.

MTIA

[garvinhicking]

Hi!

If you check your spamblock plugin, you can enable logging of rejected comments to either the database or a logfile. Then you can see what happened. If you had not enabled this, there is no way to find out what happened, you can now only try to reproduce it.

What was the actual message that your visitor got? Usually this at least shows if its a cookie issue, a session issue or a wordfilter or other antispam means.

If you are logged in to your blog, you might not see captcha images, because thos can be configured not to be displayed for logged-in authors.

Regards,
Garvin

[Zirbelholz]

Thanks, Garvin.

The commenter wrote: "Your blogbot tells me:

Spam Prevention: Invalid message.
Your comment could not be added because comments for this entry have either been disabled, you entered invalid data, or your comment was caught by anti-spam measurements."

I didn't quote it because it seems rather vague.

Btw, this is not the first time I've been made fun of because it should be 'measures', not 'measurements'!

Margaret

[Zirbelholz]

I have a Spam Protector plugin, but I can't see how to make it log rejected comments.

Margaret

[garvinhicking]

Hi!

Oh, okay. I just fixed that measurements mistake, I wasn't aware of this.

About the return message: This is the generic message when any wordfilter or akismet service blocked a comment. So you should check all your filters if it could apply. If you are using Akismet, it might be that akismet blocked the comment. You can only be sure if you enable logging and ask the user to try to comment again?

Regards,
Garvin

[Zirbelholz]

Thanks for the change (measurements might be a model's bust, waist and hip measurements).

I will check everything then. Am not using akismet.

Please ignore other query - I had not scrolled down to 'logging method'.

I have checked 'Database', but that doesn't mean I can find the log, does it?

Some words I have blocked I will unblock. But 1) the commenter has commented before and 2) when I posted the comment myself, there were no problems. Could you tell me, if I block a word like 'codeine' (obviously from a health sales spammer), am I then allowed to post it myself? I had been assuming that since I myself was able to post the comment for Victor, its content was OK - this would make it a Firefox problem.

Margaret

[garvinhicking]

Hi!

I have checked 'Database', but that doesn't mean I can find the log, does it?

If that was checked, you should have a (supposedly large) database table serendipity_spamblocklog. You can order that by timestamp, using a tool like phpMyAdmin and browse the table, also filter it by the name of your commenting user. You should there see a "reason" why exactly the comment was REJECTED.

When you posted the comment, you were a registered author, and thus anti-spam measurements will not apply to you. You have configured that in the spamblock plugin, check the option for where you choose which author groups shall not be pestered by anti-spam controls. In that case, you are allowed to post "codeine" in a comment. For a usual visitor, this would still not be allowed.

Regards,
Garvin

[Zirbelholz]

Thanks. I am trying to find out how to get hold of the log. How to use phpMyAdmin is beyond me. But it must be some word I've banned. I will have to work it out when I've got more time.

>>When you posted the comment, you were a registered author, and thus anti-spam measurements will not apply to you.<<

Nor measures...

may thanks,

Margaret

[garvinhicking]

Hi!

anti-spam measurements will not apply to you.<<

Hehe. It might take me some while to fix this error in my grammar.

Regards,
Garvin

[judebert]

To be honest, it's only a minor grammatical problem. The anti-spam tool actually does take measurements of each comment: number of links, number of forbidden words, and akismet score.

So you could consider a comment rejected because its anti-spam measurements were outside the acceptable boundaries.

And of course, those measurements aren't gathered for comments from an excluded user.

I wouldn't sweat over it. Anybody who makes fun of this particular grammatical anomaly would probably get confused over obscure meanings of "effect" and "affect".

[Zirbelholz]

Hi Judebert,

You're entitled to your opinion, but it's the wrong word. I don't like people seeing an incorrect word every time they click on my website, and I've corrected some other things too!

I hope you aren't offended, Garvin. If the German said Maße instead of Maßnahmen, it would be the same thing. I don't see what's so wrong about pointing it out!

Margaret

[judebert]

Nothing wrong with pointing it out. In fact, we thank you for it and we'll update the language files for our next release (I'll bet Garvin's done it already).

[Zirbelholz]

Ok, thanks. I admit I notice these things because we are translators and perhaps notice them before most people do.

I'm sure Garvin has altered it. He always helps immediately.

Margaret

[garvinhicking]

Hi!

I'm sure Garvin has altered it. He always helps immediately.

I did that instantly, yes. And I don't think anyone feels (or should feel) offended here. I'm no native english speaker, so I'm happy about anyone pointing out mistakes in any of the language files. This only improves things.

Best regards,
Garvin