by Spam is getting sneakier by the day! If you run a blog — and if you care about publishing only cogent comments — you probably already know precisely the problem I am addressing today.
Over the last few weeks or so, I’ve noticed a New Trend in Spam: The comments are sneaky because the content of what they are saying actually refers to the article. hat means that Spammer actually read what you wrote, thought about it, and left some ideas in return!
The Spam-monger’s Gravatar is also personalized. That move takes some time and thought to set up and propagate.
The Spammish commenter doesn’t post a long, naked, URL in the comment window. They instead place their “website” in the proper URL window for the comment form. That is wily and smart — they only use the top level of the domain — because you wouldn’t guess they were Spamming you unless you actually took the time to click-through to their “website” to check. I always check, but how many Blogmasters take the time for that follow up?
So now the question becomes: “What Should I Do With This Comment?” You want to publish it because the actual content of the comment is pretty good; but you don’t want to promote the Spamming URL they want advertised in their form-submitted identity profile.
Do you edit the comment to remove the Spammy URL so you can keep the content and increase your comment count?
Or do you just delete the Spam comment out of hand because, “Spam is Spam and Never Shall that Meat Touch My Lips or the Eyes of My Readers?”
I vote for remove the spam link, keep the content.
That way you keep the interesting comment and lose the ick factor.
Gordon —
Would you marked the comment as “edited” or “edited to remove Spam link” or something?
I’ve just been marking the comment as Spam. It always aches a little, though, because the comment is usually pretty good.
I guess I’m trying to think how many other places that person is “Spamming Via Legitimate Commenting” and if I let that person in by publishing the edited comment — I’m raising their legitimacy profile in Akismet and Google and other anti-Spam and indexing services.
I would say mark it with the edited for spam removal — after all, the spam is what got it marked by akismet — and leave it be.
Gordon —
Akismet isn’t catching these new Spam messages though. That’s why they’re so clever. They appear as totally legitimate unless you decide to click on their blog URL.