One of the perks of wrenching Techie Musings over to wordpress was that the spammers suddenly found themselves firing blanks. I watch the access_log as they fruitlessly POST to the old MovableType installation, which I’ve replaced in all the key places with a simple file which returns a 200 success status and little else.
Unfortunately though a few of them have clocked on to the fact that things have changed - probably by the change of URL for the two weblogs meaning they’ve picked up a “new” weblog. This week has seen hundreds of spam postings, but thankfully the basic Wordpress installation, combined with a good list of spam words means it’s easy to identify the spam. All posts to the weblog from unknown posters are held for moderation: Once you’ve posted a comment and I’ve approved it, your posts appear immediately.
Still, it’s frustrating and arduous work. I’ve installed a spam nuker to help remove the flotsam that hangs about by merit of the wordpress treatment of spam. Next week, assuming I have time, I’ll probably go about installing something altogether more clever to tackle the problem - probably Bad Behavior as it addresses the identifiable behaviour of spammers rather than the spam itself. I’m still adverse to a captcha, although I know that has a quick win, mainly because I don’t like to discourage posters and I’m finding captcha’s are getting increasingly difficult to identify.
Update - I’ve today (July 18th) installed bad-behavior on my diary weblog, which receives 90% of the spam to this site (presumably) because it’s currently updated more frequently, and more visible on the weblog ping sites). Fingers crossed it’ll help matters, as it’s escalating daily. Needless to say, please e-mail me if you experience problems commenting.
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