Have Captcha, Getting Spammed Anyway

[OKFarmgirl]

I have captcha on my blogs for both of my sites, and yet this week, suddenly my farm site is getting up to 10 spam comments per day. It's not a big deal since I moderate my comments, but they're "nofollow" and they never make it to the site, so it's a waste of time for me and for them (though for them it's probably automated). So does my captcha just suck and is bypass-able, or are there programs that have just gotten good at managing to read them?

BTW, I'd just like to say that the most wonderful thing about this forum is how people ask the same questions over and over, and no one seems to mind. It's a great way for a noob like me to hone in on a specific question and it's great to see what different feedback people get. I had a horrible experience on another support forum where a "volunteer supporter" was a complete jerk to me - condescending, snarky, etc. I just want you all to know that I appreciate all of you!

[paulgl]

Anything can be bypassed.

I have comments turned off. I have never seen the need for comments.
They are all spam. My blogs don't exist for comments.

However, I use a free program, intensedebate.com on one site.
For some reason, it has never been spammed. Might be the nature
of the site.

Paul

[OKFarmgirl]

I read online that perhaps by changing my comments header to something that didn't contain the word "comment", perhaps that will stymie bots. We'll see, I'm giving it a try.

[OKFarmgirl]

One other thing - I have a spam comment that I can't seem to get rid of. I try and mark it as spam. I try to mark it as trash. And yet it persists to be "pending". That makes me nervous.

[KirkMcD]

Originally Posted by OKFarmgirl

I read online that perhaps by changing my comments header to something that didn't contain the word "comment", perhaps that will stymie bots.

That doesn't stop the bots from posting. It prevents URL harvesters from finding your blog in the first place, but you've already been found.

Some captchas are more easily defeated or skipped than others and it doesn't prevent any of the manual entry services at all. Which captcha are you using?

[OKFarmgirl]

I'm using SI Captcha - the captcha isn't awesome, as far as being complicated. I'm wondering if I should use on that asks you a question rather than just giving random (readable) letters and numbers.

[OKFarmgirl]

I also just raised the captcha level to "hard" - it's got a bunch of little background letters besides the main captcha "word", so maybe that will help. I finally got those spam to go away by using a bulk action and they actually went to spam. My wordpress has been acting up a LOT lately...wish there was an update to try and fix this junk.

[Diane S]

Originally Posted by OKFarmgirl

So does my captcha just suck and is bypass-able, or are there programs that have just gotten good at managing to read them?

The captcha breaking services are actually human powered. Imagine a call center situation in a developing nation. Instead of answering the phone, the workers are typing in letters and numbers in snippets all day. Makes me sick to my stomach just thinking about it!

On the few sites I have where I actually want comments, I don't bother with spam filters. I set all comments to moderation only, and about once a week I take a look. I select a few spammy comments at random, strip out the URL link, change any keywords to common first name, then put in the comment I would like to see at my site. Then I approve it. Then I answer my own comment as the admin. Spammers are my friends - they help me keep the conversation going. I love how they add to the IP variety plus add just the content I want at my site. This doesn't take long, and is quite useful for any site.

Originally Posted by OKFarmgirl

BTW, I'd just like to say that the most wonderful thing about this forum is how people ask the same questions over and over, and no one seems to mind. It's a great way for a noob like me to hone in on a specific question and it's great to see what different feedback people get. I had a horrible experience on another support forum where a "volunteer supporter" was a complete jerk to me - condescending, snarky, etc. I just want you all to know that I appreciate all of you!

Warrior Forum has had its share of snarky replies to repeated questions. I have seen fewer of them recently, though. I think the 'snarks' are just tired of telling the newbies to go search for it, or are tired of posting the previous threads on the topic. So the 'snarks' are just ignoring the repeated questions.

How do you know if you are getting accurate information from the answers you do receive? I have seen plenty of posts where a new person's question is answered by people who have also joined in the same month. They leave a one sentence comment that doesn't really answer the question in enough detail to be useful. These folks are in a hurry to get their post count increased so they can PM or post a WSO as soon as possible. When you read an answer, take a look over to the left to see who is answering. Is it someone with lots of posts in a very short period of recent time? It is best to pay attention to the answers from people who have been here for a while, who have a solid history here, and/or who give answers with specific details - exhibiting that they have the knowledge about your question. (Note - some new accounts belong to folks who passed the 'newbie stage' in terms of IM knowledge a long time ago, but have not been at WF long.)

[azmanar]

Hi,

If you're using WP, have you activated Akismet? It is a very good spam filter.

If you still need comments in your blog, get another WP plugin called FB Comments.

Every spam comment, if any, tracks right to the FB owner who sent the spams. They can't hide. Even if they can, it will only be a very short time. FLAG them and they get banned. Easier to manage.

If the comment is a real one, then it goes viral.

Finally, deactivate the built-in WP Comments.

[yukon]

I always remove the WP-comment code from my themes. I don't have time to moderate that crap.

If I was going to have comments on my blogs, I would no doubt use the Facebook comments code which is an iframe. That way I wouldn't have a bunch of crappy links on my sites.

[tommytx]

Dianne,
Love your idea of modifiying the spam and replacing their links with yours... I had that idea and am a programmer and wanted to write a program to grab the spam the instant it comes in use their IP but replace thier links and mod the comments to work for us and approve automatically.... Even send them a Thank YOu note for the nice spam that you just modded for your own use... If you wanta team up and I program and you give the the ideas on the best content... let me know... I think a program could do a good job converting spam to useful content... especially if we use the best spinner to spin a ton of content for us to use in the new spam that makes sense to our site.. Let me know...

Oh by the way to foil the human capture teams in japan/china/phillippines change your image from an image to something like... "What is the sum of 5+4? If you send that to the third world like decapture.com it comes back with a ? meaning they have no idea what 5+4 is (they cannot add) but send them the most complicated image and they return it to you right 99% of the time... what is even wilder if they miss they give you credit for that one.... hee...hee...
Let me know if you want to team up Diane... I have a lot of ideas and I am a great programmer.

[OKFarmgirl]

I didn't know about the FB comments. I assume that means the commenter has to have a FB account? I don't mind deleting a few a day - mine are also moderated. I don't know if changing the content of the spam is super ethical (forgive me). Isn't that a bit like shilling your site? It's clever though, that's for sure.

As far as knowing whether advice is good or not, if I get an answer that sounds interesting or viable - I follow up with more questions or go look up that info myself to verify.

[azmanar]

Originally Posted by OKFarmgirl

I didn't know about the FB comments. I assume that means the commenter has to have a FB account? I don't mind deleting a few a day - mine are also moderated. I don't know if changing the content of the spam is super ethical (forgive me). Isn't that a bit like shilling your site? It's clever though, that's for sure.

Hi,

I'm assuming you're blogging using WordPress.

FB Comments Plugin = FaceBook Comments Plugin. It is downloadable at WordPress › Blog Tool and Publishing Platform

The person who wants to comment has to login to FaceBook, thus he has to own a FaceBook account.

I have tested this plugin in some web sites that I managed recently and every time gives me 2 main benefits:
> Spam Control ( after you disabled the WP comment function )
> Increases Traffic

I know I'm off topic but let me share more about FB Comments Plugin. It might be useful.

If a visitor who commented at your site has 500 FB friends, all of his friends will see his comments. If 100 of his friends decided to take a peek at your site after reading his comments, then you have 100 new visitors. And if 10 of his friends decided to comment or to LIKE, then each of them are letting their own friends to see it. And this continues.

This exposure is what I called as VIRAL TRAFFIC STREAM.

There is 1 site which is receiving only 3 or 4 visitors a day. When I started to use this plugin, the traffic raised to more than 100 a day. After a while, traffic hovers at 30 to 40 unique visitors a day. Of course, you need to subscribe with Google Analytics ( free ) to monitor traffic efficiently.

As long as your blog articles are interesting, you will continue to attract visitors ( & spammers ).

On top of this plugin, there are 2 other methods which are viral and all 3 supports each other well to maintain a certain level of quality traffic. This would be completely off-topic if I explain it here.

Let me compliment you on your impressive quote below:

Originally Posted by OKFarmgirl

As far as knowing whether advice is good or not, if I get an answer that sounds interesting or viable - I follow up with more questions or go look up that info myself to verify.

You're having the habit of highly successful people.

[Mike Grant]

Captchas are easily broken. Use akismet and change your settings so that all comments must be moderator approved.

[poolhall]

Comment spam is killer. Captcha won't work because the whole spam process is automated with human captcha services like decaptcha.

[OKFarmgirl]

I activated this app, but was frankly confused by what the heck I needed to do to get it running. I tried to "allow" permission on FB, and got an error. It has all of these "keys" you need to have and I'm not sure if I have them and how to get them.

Isn't Askimet a paid service? I'm BROKE right now, and building websites (for me and others) is how I supplement my craptacular income. So I can't afford to do paid plugins just now.

[19thws]

try using Discover your community - DISQUS or IntenseDebate comments enhance and encourage conversation on your blog or website

I don't get spam since I started using them.

[webboss]

I think the best possible way to make it over is to develop a program which can be a savior and workable just like discus its a good one.

[paulgl]

For 99.999% of us, comments serve no purpose. Except to spam.
Very few blogs for SEO purposes actually need a conversation going.

I use intensedebate.com on a political site. That's the only one I
need a conversation going.

Comments add nothing to your blog's purpose. Other than give
spammers a place to go.

Now that's on my own domain blogs. On my blogspot blogs, I have
comments turned on. Google does one helluva job getting rid
of any and all spam. I get like 2 comments a month. Yes they
are very well read.

Paul

[azmanar]

Originally Posted by OKFarmgirl

I activated this app, but was frankly confused by what the heck I needed to do to get it running. I tried to "allow" permission on FB, and got an error. It has all of these "keys" you need to have and I'm not sure if I have them and how to get them.

Isn't Askimet a paid service? I'm BROKE right now, and building websites (for me and others) is how I supplement my craptacular income. So I can't afford to do paid plugins just now.

Hi,

- AKISMET KEY
Register a free account in WordPress.com. Use the key that you're given in that account to activate your AKISMET in your blog.

- FB Comments Step-By-Step Installation Guide
Facebook Comments for WordPress | A WordPress plugin that enables visitors to comment on blog posts using their Facebook account

[BenoitT]

Originally Posted by OKFarmgirl

I have captcha on my blogs for both of my sites, and yet this week, suddenly my farm site is getting up to 10 spam comments per day. It's not a big deal since I moderate my comments, but they're "nofollow" and they never make it to the site, so it's a waste of time for me and for them (though for them it's probably automated). So does my captcha just suck and is bypass-able, or are there programs that have just gotten good at managing to read them?

BTW, I'd just like to say that the most wonderful thing about this forum is how people ask the same questions over and over, and no one seems to mind. It's a great way for a noob like me to hone in on a specific question and it's great to see what different feedback people get. I had a horrible experience on another support forum where a "volunteer supporter" was a complete jerk to me - condescending, snarky, etc. I just want you all to know that I appreciate all of you!

Look, I had the same problem and here is the PERFECT solution. Put a pluggin to have Facebook Comments instead. You'll say goodbye to spam

Spammers don't want to show their Facebook account. And by the way, no matter which service you're using, their is services that uncaptcha almost everything.

[OKFarmgirl]

Okay, I'll look back into Askimet and FB comments. I like to have comments on my site because it creates a dialog with my readers. I like to be able to have them ask questions and then to answer them so they come back and it adds value to the article. On my "niche marketing only" site, I don't have comments. I think it depends on the site. Since my ultimate goal is to create an organic gardening community, I think the comments are important. But most everyone has Facebook, so I think that's going to be the way to go.

Thanks, everyone!

[OKFarmgirl]

Just wanted to add that interestingly, I have not been spammed since I made those two minor changes. I still think I want to do FB comments because azmanar's thoughts about how it will drive traffic seem spot on. Again, thanks for your advice everyone!

[tyronne78]

Thanks for the facebook tip