Aaron Toponce

At least I find it very humorous.

I am using WordPress 2.0 as my blog CMS, and lately, I have been getting a fair amound of comment spam. Luckily, I have the strongest spam filter out there, Spam Karma 2. I won't go into details about how it works, but it does a fantastic job. Best comment spam implementation I have ever seen on any CMS. I should know, I have used a lot.

However, the purpose of this post to highlight some of the comments that I have received, just to show how ridiculous they are. Before I delve into them, I am curious how it shifted directions. 2-3 years ago, as bloggers who have been blogging for that length of time will know, comment spam was just in infancy, and as such, focused on enlarging certain things, prescription drugs, and lottery tickets. Now the spam is less intrusive. It's a lot more laid back, and "friendly". The comment spam seems almost like it is trying to trick you that it is your friend or someone you know who left the comment, and as such you trust them, so you'll click on the links provided. Are they really that stupid?

Anyway, let me give you some examples of what I have received as comment spam.

From: car insurance ny
Post: The Ultimate Firefox Extension List For Junkies
Comment: Excellent point. I must say I agree. I found this site doing doing some research on increasing car insurance rates since the Bush Administration took over. I love this site. 🙂 Great job! Mike.

From: PHP mysql
Post: Welcome
Comment: Hey, I have to say that this really is a great blog. Found your blog while searching for more information at yahoo about php mysql. I was reading your blog and I realized it had quite a lot of interesting thoughts, that's why I stopped by and gave it a look. Keep up the good work.

And my personal favorite:

From: Omron proximity sensor
Post: Welcome
Comment: Hi, my name is Kari and I want to say thank you! Your article here helped me with my College project and wanted you to know it. I was searching for info about Omron proximity sensors and I somehow ended up on your blog. Tomorrow my teacher is going to get a very good job done! I wish we can keep in touch, thank you again.

I don't even know what an Omron proximity sensor is! But hey, I'm glad I could help you out with your college project. Hope you get an 'A' with all the information I provided.

Seriously though. Were do these come from? Do they honestly think I am fooled? Do the comment spammers, automated or not, think that because you praise a blogger for his content, you'll get traffic to your site? (All of the links were taken out, BTW, as I can't pose a risk to where they point, or what content will be delivered to your computer.)

Here's the thing. Spammers, I hope you are paying attention. If you want your comments to appear on a blog, and get actual revenue for the links you send out, try to be a little more human. Saying things like "Hey! Great site! Love the content and layout. You have a lot of comments. Good job!" isn't exactly what I would call "normal" comments. Having links to casinos and online games when you're talking about the content of my post isn't exactly "intuitive". In fact, you wnat to know what? Nevermind. Just bag it. Just fold for crying out loud. You couldn't get it right with email, what is to say you will get it right with blog comments?

At any event, if you are a WordPress blogger, I would recommend getting Spam Karma 2. It automatically updates via the web, includes blacklists and whitelists and overall is just the most configurable and powerful comment spam protection I have ever seen. It's a plugin that installs easily, and is fully compatible with WordPress 1.5 and 2.0.