I deleted a good 60 "anonymous" comments that were either just a long list of dodgy links, or were those weird, enigmatic, vaguely positive things with one link hidden at the end.
I'm kind of fed up. So I've tried turning word verification back on. I know this will probably cut the already-small number of comments I receive, but it's really a pain to delete all the junk comments from my e-mail, and it's disheartening to get a big whack of comments and realize not one of them is from someone who is NOT a 'bot.
I'll leave word verification on for a while, until the 'bots go away. Then I might take it back off. I know sometimes I have a hard time reading the words on some blogs' word verifications, and it's a pain....but I'm really sick of all the comment spam, and Blogger has apparently eliminated the option of having comments automatically turn off on posts older than 30 days - nearly all the spam I get is aimed at older posts, I suspect it's an attempt to surreptitiously spam blogs that DON'T do comment moderation.
But here's what I wonder: what do the spammers get out of it? Are the 'bot-farmers paid per successful placement of ad? I mean, looking at my stats, I average 20 readers a DAY. It's not like the fake-watch or fake-Coach-bag sellers will receive ANY additional looks at their sites from my blog. I suppose the 'bot-farmers don't know that, and just go for the low-hanging fruit of blogs they think they can get comments on.
But it's one of those modern world annoyances: it is a thing that I think should not be, and yet, is.
3 comments:
You note that bot-linking won't get them any extra looks at their site from old posts. You're right, it won't. BUT one of the things that significantly boosts your search engine rankings is when other people link to your sit in comments on other blogs. So those extra links will boost their search engine rankings, even if no one ever follows them.
Google has been pretty good at figuring out how people are trying the "game" the search engine system, but this is a tactic that's harder to prevent than most.
enh, the word verification is annoying but loads of bot spam is more annoying.
I'm sorry I don't comment a whole lot; I often feel like what I have to say is boring and mundane. And sometimes I'm just not online much after work. I will try to be better.
well, the spambots (which at least go to my spam folder) don't bug me. altho I have to scan them quickly; just today, I found a legitimate comment (from someone who had commented before) in my spam folder. Odd.
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