Spam! What is it good for? March 24, 2009
Posted by ourfriendben in wit and wisdom.Tags: spam, spam filters, spam on blogs, WordPress
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WordPress hosts our blog, Poor Richard’s Almanac, and it uses Akismet to filter and track spam. Our friend Ben noticed this morning that, in the just over a year we’ve been posting here, Akismet has filtered out 4,623 pieces of spam. That means that as many as 4,623 people have taken the time and effort to send a piece of trash to this blog. This really amazes our friend Ben. Don’t they have better things to do?!
Spam! (Uh-huh.) What is it good for? Absolutely nothing! (Say it again.)
I love Askimet! And they’ve only blocked 15 spams for me so far! and I love WordPress too! YAY! GO Askimet!! Go WordPress! Woohoo!!!
We love them too, lzyjo! It’s so great not to have to make readers jump through hoops typing in garbled nonsense that doesn’t even show up half the time in order to leave a comment, but still be able to monitor comments so nothing egregious gets through. Woohoo to the max!
I will be singing that line over and over again! … I rarely get spam visitors to my blog and don’t use word verification. (On the other hand, my entourage email account can’t seem to filter out the pharmacy spam!) I have a WordPress account, but haven’t transferred the rest of my posts to it…Change is hard…especially when blogger is so easy! Should I make the leap;) gail
Hi Gail! I don’t know if you should make the leap to WordPress or not. I love WordPress, but as you know, Poor Richard’s Almanac is a text-only blog, so I have no clue how it does with photos, especially if you’re trying to transfer them. Ask Frances what she thinks; I know she made the switch with Faire Garden. And good luck!
I had a brief flirtation with WordPress when there were the feed problems with Blotanical last year. I decided not to switch in the end as it didn’t offer so much flexibility with links and widgets, 2 things I use a lot of with my blog.
It’s fine with photos as you can see with blogs like Artists Garden and The Turning Year.
Sorry you find Blogger Word Verification so trying, but it’s the best we have at the moment!
Word verification is terrible VP! I try to comment on your blog—one of my all-time favorites—all the time, and it never lets me!
Me again – looking back at what you’ve said to Izyjo are you only getting WV problems when you’re in Blotanical, or is it a general problem?
I’ve seen what you describe, but only when in Blotanical and I’ve found going into the blog directly from there (read in new tab) tends to cure the problem. If you’re getting it outside of Blotanical then there could be a general problem which I can flag up to Blogger, if you let me know about it…
OK, you’ plus Gail’s comment has got me thinking. I’ll take WV off completely to see what happens…
Gulp. I hope nothing horrible happens! The beauty of Akismet is that it deals with the “bad stuff” without making readers go through the WV pain, so you don’t have to worry about appalling things turning up on your blog. I don’t want to think of you being spammed!!!
It’s off! Let’s see what happens – it’s easy to put back on again if the spammers come a calling…
As for WV pain, I find Typepad even worse than Blogger. All too often my comment gets lost during the WV process. And I find response times with them are apalling. Luckily there’s not too many Typepad blogs around.
Strangely, I find Blogger WV quite amusing as often the pseudowords are quite apt for the comment or post. That’s probably made you gnash your teeth and scream at that last remark!
Ha! Well, there is that. I can’t say that I’ve encountered a Typepad blog (not that I’d know, Luddite that I am). I’m just happy to be spared the frustration of desperately wanting to say something and being unable to. I feel like I’m being cold when I really want to be supportive!