Why Post Useless Blog Comments

[Malarowski]

Yup it's spambots like xrumer or w/e there is. Blackhatters tend to blast out like 10k links at once of which most won't get approved. It's quite annoying. Every WP blog I started  so far was getting buried in these. Thank god for anti-spam widgets.

[USHoleInOne]

I have a few blogs and bots seem to be leaving most of my comments. Leaving some comments do offer some nice juicy links. I do like to read through the comments making sure my human friends are engaged with my site.

[smokin_ace]

I would recommend you to install captcha. Of course a lot of bots know can pass through it. But at least you will reduce the qty of spam links.

[waynekolenchuk]

I thought about it but can't do it since I hate captchas myself

[jeffreytrull1]

If it's a WP site, there are several plugins to deal with this. Akismet, which comes installed with WP, is one of them.

I also use WPSpamFree and spam comments never get past it.

I've also seen this where you have to check a box to say you are human (which bots can't do) - http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/growmap-anti-spambot-plugin/

[waynekolenchuk]

Using Akismet myself. I'm just reluctant to use make it so hard to participate that people won't bother, if you know what I mean.

[jeffreytrull1]

I may be wrong, but I think these plugins are designed to detect bots and that they only implement their security features if they do think it's a bot.

I post comment on blogs that use Akismet all the time and I'm never prompted to fill out a captcha or do anything more than check one box, so I wouldn't worry about scaring people away.

[waynekolenchuk]

Yes, you're right. I didn't mean Akismet specifically. I think my comment was more generally aimed at treading the line between wanting to encourage participation and making it so tough that people won't.

[JustDucky]

Wayne : I share your concern for allowing users to post comments without hastles and approve every comment.  There ought to be a widget that compares the commenter's IP Address and cross references it against a list of known Bots or spammers.   If you find something off-list, please PM me.

[jeffreytrull1]

I'm pretty sure Akismet does blacklist people based on IP. I've heard several people complain that they got accidentally blacklisted and couldn't comment on any Akismet blogs.

See here for a little info: http://www.growmap.com/akismet-test/