Click-Farm Spam Forces Commenting Change — UPDATED
Deleted 500 spam comments yesterday going back 6 days. Site is targeted by Pakistani click-farm spammers rather than bots so few things work. The WordPress terms filter should still stop them but for some reason it doesn’t.
I disabled guest commenting to see if the extra step of having to register an account will make it unprofitable for them to continue.
Unfortunately that means you also have to register with WordPress to comment, but you only need to do it once.
— UPDATE —
Made the change to registered only, but it didn’t take. A techie told me it may be because of wpDiscuz so I’ll uninstall it to see if that changes things.
It means we’ll be without the wpDiscuz interface and goodies, but if it stops Pakistani spam it will be worth it.
Good move.
FWIW, Anti Empire isn’t the only site that’s been invaded by click-baiters.
Like a locust plague.
Well, so much for that experiment!
Seriously–and with all due deference–none of these spam filters and registration techniques will stop a determined spammer. The only thing that works in my experience is to go in and physically delete the spam as soon as you see it. Yes it’s a major pain, but it’s the only sure-fire anti-spam technique that actually works.
That picture above is priceless… presumably that’s what artificial intelligence actually looks like…
Pakistan… a blight on the face of humanity.
You did much work, you cleaned up the site nicely.
For a while no one could comment. And why not cut off comments for good ? Comments are not essential. The site is just fine without commenters.