Not amused

[shewhomust]

I have just deleted 29 pieces of comment spam - that's not the total for the day, it's just the overnight accumulation. This is getting silly.

I don't want to ban anonymous comments: every now and then I get a response - sometimes on a very old post - which tells me something, or makes a connection. I like the idea that my posts are messages in bottles, bobbing about on the internet, and sometimes one comes to land.

And I don't want to close comments on the half-dozen posts which are the main targets. For the same reason, and also because they have genuine comments, which are now, in my mind, part of the original post. I don't want to lose those.

But I'd cheerfully set criteria to mark comments for automatic deletion: more than three links, say, or any mention of Ugg boots.

If anyone from LJ's technical side reads this, could you take a break from tinkering with my friends' page, please, and fix something which IS broke, instead?

Comments

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I deleted 48 pieces of spam this morning. Someone out there thinks I'm in the market for NFL jerseys.

[shewhomust.livejournal.com]

Yes, I get those, too. And software downloads. Specific products cluster to specific posts, although I can't see what the connection is.

[gillpolack.livejournal.com]

I hardly get any spam at all right now. How odd. I expect, though, that having said I don't get it, I will suddenly be inundated.

[shewhomust.livejournal.com]

Oh, I hope not - I would hate to have provoked you into tempting fate!

[sartorias.livejournal.com]

Yeah--always certain posts, and tons of crap to clear out. Hate it.

[shewhomust.livejournal.com]

Your LJ must be much higher profile than mine, so I'm sure you have it worse!

[valydiarosada.livejournal.com]

I get the occasional spam on a particular post I made about four years ago. Most of it's gibberish, so I've always assumed they're checking to see whether the account is active.

I also occasionally get a complete stranger friending me, which I tend to ignore.

[shewhomust.livejournal.com]

In fact two of this morning's spam comments came from a signed-in LJ user who had friended me..., but I didn't spot the friending until after I had deleted the comments (where is the 'delete with extreme prejudice' option when I need it?).

Most of the spam friends are very obviously fake accounts, ie they don't have any posts: apparently there are people out there who, if you friend them, will friend you right back, no questions asked. I am not one of them...

[weegoddess.livejournal.com]

I was actually going to mention UGG boots in an upcoming post in something pertinent and valid. I hope that doesn't mess with your preferences?

[shewhomust.livejournal.com]

Heh. If you find yourself barred for life, you can't say you weren't warned!

[cellio]

I've been getting a lot too, mostly targeting a few particular old posts. I don't know what makes them juicier than others. Some of it is concentrations of unusual vocabulary (they seem to like tht), but it's not just that. I used to get a couple pieces of LJ spam a week; now I'm getting 5-10 a day.

I screen anonymous comments (so nobody else sees the spam) because I, too, want to keep the door open for legitimate commenters who don't happen to have LJ accounts.

[shewhomust.livejournal.com]

I screen anonymous comments...

I don't, but LJ seems to screen out the spam - without, as far as I know, ever screening an anonymous but genuine comment. They are so accurate at this that I'd cheerfully tell them to delete suspect comments, if I could see a way to do so!