Comment and trackback spam continue to be a problem here, accumulating at a manageable but annoying pace.
Now comes a new approach (hat tip Les) from Brad Choate, SpamLookup. And it’s being highly touted by Jay Allen of MT-Blacklist fame.
Seriously looking at this one, though I want to get a feel for what sort of burden it puts on the host system (vs a mostly-just-MT-BL approach; I am running MT-DSBL, the precursor to this, as well) before I move forward.
The one thing Choate recommends that I’ve not gone forward with is turning on user registration for comments. I’d really rather not, if I can avoid it, and I’ve been able to thus far (though I’m tempted to for Margie’s blog, since her comment count vs. spam count is relatively low). We’ll see.
I’ve noticed a distinct lack of regard from the SA people, Allen in particular, for, as you put it, “what sort of burden it puts on the host system”. It just doesn’t seem to come into play in their calculations. And they wonder why hosts ban MT outright.
Well, technically, you’ve got it turned on already as I’m currently using it, but I’m assuming you mean he’s recommending disallowing non-registered comments.
Interestingly enough I had a conversation with one of the guys who develops ExpressionEngine about Brad’s approaches to tackling spam during which he went off on a mini-rant about how he wishes folks would just require registration for comments as it cuts out almost all comment spam. This is true, I agreed, but then I went on to point out that with all the ways EE has for fighting comment spam I rarely get any of that these days. Instead most of what I get is trackback spam.
Still, I think it’s interesting to note that more than one person is advocating just requiring user registration as the best means of combating spam.
Seki: I’ve certainly gotten that impression from you before. It’s a definite concern of mine, regardless.
Les: Yes, I meant requiring registration, not just allowing it. I’ve been reluctant to do so based on (a) some folks object to doing it on principle, and (b) some folks will find it a PitA, and I’m reluctant to thereby reduce the number of comments (not a huge number even now) by that amount.
I also mistrust the easy “if you force registration, you’ll (nearly) eliminate spam” thing. It just seems *too* simple.
Hmmm.