| u ever experience being flooded with anonymous | | | | take too much of your time. However, banning |
| comments? If yes, then chances are you have been a | | | | usernames might take some time. |
| victim of comment spam. As with everything on the | | | | As for the disadvantages, there are some. Again since |
| Internet, spam had also evolved. They are no longer | | | | it requires users to perform numerous extra steps |
| limited to email. Today they can infiltrate and cause | | | | they might be turned off the idea of posting |
| havoc in your blogs and Web sites, on which you allow | | | | comments. This means bad news, because user |
| user to leave comments. Comment spam is becoming | | | | comments are quite vital in improving your sites and |
| a serious problem nowadays, which needed to be | | | | not to mention the rankings. |
| resolved immediate. | | | | One way to get around the hassle is to use cookies to |
| Just what are the reasons behind comment spam? | | | | automatically sign in repeat users every time they visit |
| Well, it is to increase their, or in the case of those | | | | your site. Doing this will save them from filling out login |
| so-called professional spammer their clients', ranking in | | | | form and can simply start to post. However, this |
| search engines. You see today, in ranking pages most | | | | alternative will not ease the initial signup process. |
| search engines consider how many other Websites | | | | The second approach available is to catch comment |
| have linked to it. Thus, by leaving comments on your | | | | spam after it has been added. Catching comment |
| site the spammers' sites can achieve a slightly higher | | | | spam will be necessary if you decide not to bother |
| search engine ranking. | | | | with determining whether or not the one posting a |
| So what do you do? Well, first things first — do | | | | comment is a spammer or a human user. It may also |
| not take it personally. There are two approaches that | | | | be necessary if you have taken the steps above |
| you can use in order to stop comment spam. The first | | | | — some comment spam is almost inevitable. |
| one is to learn how to tell the difference between | | | | This approach entails the creation of a check that |
| spammers and regular users. | | | | occurs after the comment is submitted to identify it is |
| Now this would involve require your posters to identify | | | | spam or a legitimate post. Of course, you can go |
| themselves. This would be an extra step included in | | | | through posts manually before they're made live. This |
| the commenting process. This is the most popular | | | | way you can check and make sure that they are not |
| approach in avoiding comment spam, and has two | | | | spam. |
| options. | | | | You also have the option to automate the process. All |
| The first is called the Turing Test. The most | | | | you need to do is create a list of keywords that are |
| commonly used is called the Completely Automated | | | | common to spam. Then check each post against this |
| Public Turing Test to Tell Computers and Humans | | | | list. With this you can then weed out any comments |
| Apart or simply CAPTCHA. | | | | that contain the offending words, such as gambling, |
| It entails adding to your site's comments area an image | | | | poker, meds and so on. |
| that contains a random piece of text. The text must | | | | This comparison can be done in numerous ways and |
| be somewhat mottled or blurred so that a human can | | | | at a number of points during comment processing. |
| read it and is not discernible by a computer. The | | | | Most programming languages usually makes it easy to |
| commenter is asked to copy this text exactly into a | | | | check a string for given keywords. Just make sure |
| form field prior to submitting the form. | | | | that the string's case is also compared. How do you |
| This process makes it easy to determine that the | | | | do this? Easy, just convert the string to lowercase or |
| commenter is indeed a person, and not a bot. | | | | uppercase before you run the comparison. If you |
| However, you still face the problem of a human being | | | | discover that the comment indeed contain the key |
| spamming your comments section manually. | | | | words, then you can warn the spammer and |
| Another drawback in this kind of approach is that | | | | immediately delete their comment. |
| users are forced to perform an extra step in order to | | | | What’s great about this approach is that it does |
| submit comments, which might deter some people. | | | | not require the person who is posting a comment to |
| This can be a serious problem, particularly if your | | | | take any extra steps. Thus, your comments section |
| website is relatively new and are trying to encourage | | | | remains simple and easy to use that human users will |
| people to comment. | | | | feel encourage to post comments. |
| The second option is to employ User Authentication. | | | | However, since some spammer changes the words |
| Here you will be requiring all users to set up a | | | | used by the spam bot your keyword list must also be |
| username and password before they can comment | | | | updated. Another downside here is that this technique |
| on the site. Once the administrator finds a user | | | | will also be difficult to implement if the spammer |
| spamming the site, then he or she can ban that | | | | advertises products that are relevant to your Website. |
| username or email address. | | | | Also, your list of banned words might stop legitimate |
| This approach works in two ways; one is that | | | | comments from being posted. |
| spammers do not want to be identified and therefore | | | | But the good news is that well-designed sites will be |
| will avoid signing up. Second is that even if they do sign | | | | able to avoid most spam, since they have taken into |
| up, they would have to take the time to sign up in | | | | consideration the common spamming techniques. |
| order to spam and then be banned immediately. | | | | Spam will remain to be a persisting problem and it is |
| Although it might sound complicated since it is | | | | the site owner’s responsibility to discover more |
| code-driven, this solution involves a database of users | | | | ways to fight them. |
| and simplified user management, therefore it will not | | | | |