Comments working again, again
After breaking my blogging-fast last week, I awoke to discover that my commenting system was b0rked yet again. This time, apparently what happened was spambots pounded my comment script so ferociously -- 13,000 calls in one day -- that my hosting service, Pair.com, shut down all access to the script, so that not even I had the ability to restore the permissions. The long story is that I had to update to the latest version of Movable Type and install a plugin called AutoBan that attempts to help prevent flood attacks.
When I was young, did my mother sit me on her knee and say, "Son, one day you'll spend two entire workdays revamping your blog's code so that you can thwart spambot flood attacks?" No, she did not. Yet here we are, sigh.
Anyway, comments are up and working again!
Posted by Clive Thompson at December 20, 2006 02:42 PM
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This seems to be a common trend. I spend far too much time banning accounts and deleting spammed messages on my blogs and forums. I've resorted to banning entire foreign subnets from even accessing my sites.
Posted by: Chris Rasco at December 20, 2006 4:49 PM
Yeah, I'll probably have to figure out how to do that too. I've never delved terribly far into configuring my server directly ... thus far, I haven't needed to. The problem is that while I'd like to learn enough Apache fu to do this, I really don't have the time! If it ever gets that bad, I'll either just hire a tech to help me out or migrate the blog to a blog-hosting service.
Posted by: Clive at December 20, 2006 5:41 PM
Forum/Blog spam has been absolutely out of control over the last 4 months. As I type this, I am about to log into a forum community I admin and I wonder just how many accounts I will be banning today. Is it 20? 30? Seems a fair guess. I have the unfortunate reality that banning just doesn't work anyway, because they return with unique IPs and email addresses each time. So, as I ban the accounts, I have this feeling of trying to put out a kitchen fire with my waterpick.
What drives me crazy is that, apparently, this spam must work. I can only conclude that if they are willing to keep doing it, and put much time and effort into getting around anti-spam measures, it is because there is a segment of the population just dumb enough to click the links and buy the good.
Very sad.
Posted by: digital_blue at December 20, 2006 7:33 PM
Yeah, it's totally sad -- and even quite alarming when you consider the overall future health of the Internet. There was an excellent piece in Wired a few months ago talking about spam blogs and comment spam, and pointing out that the rise of "splogs" presages ill for all Web 2.0 technologies. That's because all Web 2.0 tech, like blogging and email, succeeds by being open, and openness invites unscrupulous spam artists. So the author theorized that all Web 2.0 tech could eventually be overrun by spam germane to their form. The prospect of spambots flooding Skype accounts with endless VOIP spam messages is one particularly chilling possibility!
I can't remember if this was addressed in the article, but I think there's an open question as to whether anyone actually is dim enough to click on a spambot link. Possibly, or even probably, some do! But I think the other goal is to seed the web with zillions of links pointing to a spam site, such that it becomes a higher search result on Google. Apparently Google plays endless cat-and-mouse games with spambot links, trying to prevent them from influencing search results. But that's why spammers try so hard to put spam links on legitimate blogs, because Google tends to give legitimate blogs high "authority."
Sigh. A sick, if brilliant way of using our own reputations against us.
Posted by: Clive at December 20, 2006 8:02 PM
Sorry, forgot to link to that Wired article -- it's here!
Posted by: Clive at December 20, 2006 8:03 PM
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This seems to be a common trend. I spend far too much time banning accounts and deleting spammed messages on my blogs and forums. I've resorted to banning entire foreign subnets from even accessing my sites.
Posted by: Chris Rasco![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.collisiondetection.net/nav-commenters.gif)
at December 20, 2006 4:49 PM
Yeah, I'll probably have to figure out how to do that too. I've never delved terribly far into configuring my server directly ... thus far, I haven't needed to. The problem is that while I'd like to learn enough Apache fu to do this, I really don't have the time! If it ever gets that bad, I'll either just hire a tech to help me out or migrate the blog to a blog-hosting service.
Posted by: Clive![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.collisiondetection.net/nav-commenters.gif)
at December 20, 2006 5:41 PM
Forum/Blog spam has been absolutely out of control over the last 4 months. As I type this, I am about to log into a forum community I admin and I wonder just how many accounts I will be banning today. Is it 20? 30? Seems a fair guess. I have the unfortunate reality that banning just doesn't work anyway, because they return with unique IPs and email addresses each time. So, as I ban the accounts, I have this feeling of trying to put out a kitchen fire with my waterpick.
What drives me crazy is that, apparently, this spam must work. I can only conclude that if they are willing to keep doing it, and put much time and effort into getting around anti-spam measures, it is because there is a segment of the population just dumb enough to click the links and buy the good.
Very sad.
Posted by: digital_blue![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.collisiondetection.net/nav-commenters.gif)
at December 20, 2006 7:33 PM
Yeah, it's totally sad -- and even quite alarming when you consider the overall future health of the Internet. There was an excellent piece in Wired a few months ago talking about spam blogs and comment spam, and pointing out that the rise of "splogs" presages ill for all Web 2.0 technologies. That's because all Web 2.0 tech, like blogging and email, succeeds by being open, and openness invites unscrupulous spam artists. So the author theorized that all Web 2.0 tech could eventually be overrun by spam germane to their form. The prospect of spambots flooding Skype accounts with endless VOIP spam messages is one particularly chilling possibility!
I can't remember if this was addressed in the article, but I think there's an open question as to whether anyone actually is dim enough to click on a spambot link. Possibly, or even probably, some do! But I think the other goal is to seed the web with zillions of links pointing to a spam site, such that it becomes a higher search result on Google. Apparently Google plays endless cat-and-mouse games with spambot links, trying to prevent them from influencing search results. But that's why spammers try so hard to put spam links on legitimate blogs, because Google tends to give legitimate blogs high "authority."
Sigh. A sick, if brilliant way of using our own reputations against us.
Posted by: Clive![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.collisiondetection.net/nav-commenters.gif)
at December 20, 2006 8:02 PM
Sorry, forgot to link to that Wired article -- it's here!
Posted by: Clive![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.collisiondetection.net/nav-commenters.gif)
at December 20, 2006 8:03 PM