spammers gamble on chezjoel.com
May 22, 2005 – 3:32 amYou know your blog has reached a milestone when the comment spammers overcome their onsies-twosies shyness, and flood your site with comments, each of which includes a very helpful link to the iridescent gates of Online Casino Land. And while the comments are generally warm, fuzzy and encouraging (”your page is inspirational”), I rather think upwards of 70 of them in three minutes is killing me with kindness. Some examples:
My friend told me about your web site and I really enjoyed it. Very nicely done. Very interesting!
This is, of course, a lie. Spammers don’t have friends. They have victims and cronies which they may call friends. But victims and cronies are not true friends, because either group would sooner see the spammer rot in a Venezuelan jail as win big at the best online casinos.
Nice site. You are doing a great service to the web.
A comment-spam free website might be considered a great service to the web, but my admiration is reserved for the person puts comment spammers into Venezuelan jail.
I have learned a lot from your site. Thanks!! I will return in the near future.
Oh, please don’t make a special trip. And thanks so very much for reporting to jail in Venezuela in the next 12 hours. You’ll learn a lot there, too.
Ok, I will sign your blog. I really love your site.
Ok, this is why we can’t have nice things. Alas, my dear friends (by which I mean to include my victims and my cronies) I regret to announce that I must turn off unregistered comments here at chezJoel.com. I still crave commentary from any friend or foe who isn’t written in the Perl programming language, but unfortunately you will have to have a TypeKey.com login first. As you patiently endure this added inconvenience, please think of a Venezuelan prison cell, wherein langishes a commentor who didn’t pass his physical.
9 Responses to “spammers gamble on chezjoel.com”
Fortunately, I had already registered; it pays to plan ahead! The other idea I’ve seen (and considered) is an anti-turing code - a number or word on a patterned background. A commenter can read it easily, but the background frustrates the spambots. The Dissident Frogman uses one. (Gosh, I haven’t been to his site in a good while…)
Incidentally, thank you for your kind comments. You’re one of the best writers I know, and I’m quite flattered. I hope you’re enjoying your weekend visit!
By nightfly on May 22, 2005
I knew Frank J. over at iamo.us had something like that for his comments, but I didn’t realize that frogman was using that also; this is probably because I’m always speechless with joy when I read his site.
Incidentally, having a great weekend, thanks!
By Joel Helbling on May 22, 2005
i was not aware of the problems bloggers had with spammers … dirty little critters, they
hope your weekend was a pick-me-up
keep tellin’ yur story
By uncle jim on May 22, 2005
Ok, I will sign your blog. I really love your site. And for that matter I really loved the lengthy sign-in-to-comment process involved with signing your blog. My friend told me about your site and I really enjoyed it. Very nicely done. Very interesting!
By k_sra on May 24, 2005
Well that was an invasive process. Did anyone else get strip searched?
By Worldgineer on May 25, 2005
Oh, sorry, forgot to tell you…if you say, “George Bush rox” as you sign up, you’ll be whisked through security. Sorry dude.
By Joel on May 25, 2005
Whew, I tried that GWB sign in trick. Thanks.
By El Fid on May 26, 2005
Well, I’m in. So, um, where are the slot machines?
By Saint Kansas on May 31, 2005
The 3.12 upgrade supposedly had some better anti-spam components. I also use MT-Blacklist, which catches more than you’d think. You have to empty the log on a regular basis — at least it has core dumped my server (perl prob?). I just moderate everyone who is not TypeKeyed. Of course, now that PHP seems to be a direction for MT, maybe you should consider something like Metadot.
Oddly enough, I am the only blog on my bloghost who gets spammed regularly. Interestingly, my professional blogs are on WordPress and get no spam whatsoever.
I always blamed my spammers on getting linked from your site….
By manasclerk on Jun 2, 2005