Some of you, when you hear me complain about spam, might have asked "WHAT spam, Pete?" Well, if you have to ask that, then that's a good thing. It means I'm doing my job.
But you do catch a glimpse of them before I delete them, if you click the 'last comments' link. This shows all last comments from all posts, and since I typically leave comments open on all posts indefinitely, much of the comment spam is in posts that are months or years old.
Here's a little gallery of screenshots I've saved of some typical examples. If you see these on your site, you know them now for what they are!
Chinese, I gather?
Never trust anybody with two first names.
But are they geeks?
Some kind of graphics site, posts only in the graphics tutorials.
This one always posts "thanx".
Apparently W0rld-of-W4rcraft g0ld is big business. And yes, I'm deliberately munging the name to ward off search-guided bots.
A bunch of them in the gaming articles.
NOTE: If you're a legitimate person who has posted any of these, you're welcome to explain yourself here. I could have made a mistake deleting posts sometimes. Some people might have poor English skills or just be unclear on the concept.
I'd also like to say that I'm not against leaving a link to promote your own site along with your comment, if you're an actual commenter. That's why I leave the URL field in the comment box. It's common Internet practice.
But there's a right way and wrong way to do it. To paraphrase a Supreme Court Justice when asked about porn, "I can't define a spambot posting, but I know it when I see it."
Send feedback
