spam control: anonymous commenting no longer allowed

[dbskyler]

I've allowed anonymous comments (with initial screening) on my journal since the beginning. I think it's kind of nice, it goes with an open journal (which this mostly is), and a few anonymous commenters have dropped in and said interesting and/or relevant things, which I've appreciated.

Unfortunately, there's been a huge uptick in anonymous spam lately, to the point where I am getting very tired of continuously deleting it. So until further notice, I have disabled anonymous commenting in this journal.

Sorry to the anonymous commenters who are actually commenting. Hopefully this won't be a permanent situation, but it will depend on whether LJ gets a handle on this problem or not.

Comments

[ghost2.livejournal.com]

I've been receiving more anonymous spam comments than usual lately too, especially on the post where I talk about the general quality of Twilight fanfic. Hmmm. Anyway, I don't know how much LJ can do about it. I rarely get legit anonymous comments anyway, so it would make very little difference if I banned anon posting. I haven't yet, though. Interestingly, I did receive two valid anonymous comments today from someone who went to Chicago TARDIS and read one of my posts about it.

[dbskyler.livejournal.com]

Every single spam comment I've received has been on an old entry (from several weeks to several months ago). So I think the spam is pretty clearly being made by bots, and while I don't know anything about how bots operate, I do expect LJ to know. Even if bots are difficult to separate from real people, I could almost write code myself to block the spam I've received so far (old entries plus links in the comment), so I don't think it's too much to be expecting LJ to do something about it.

I don't often get anonymous comments either, but it's like a special little gift when I do. However, the spam has been really driving me crazy, and I had to take the action I could.

[persiflage-1.livejournal.com]

I stopped anon commenting a long, long time ago because I got attacked by a bunch of anti-Martha people. (And, very memorably, I got attacked by a mom who was sickened that I was writing DW pr0ns that her kids might read. As if that's MY responsibility!!!)

Anyone who's not on my FList (but is an LJ member) gets screened...

[dbskyler.livejournal.com]

I can't believe Martha-haters went to all the trouble to come troll your journal. Well, I can believe it, unfortunately, but people like that should be banned from LJ. As for the mom complaining about finding porn on the internet, LOL. (Well, LOL because I wasn't the one who had to deal with her . . . )

[persiflage-1.livejournal.com]

Well, some of the longer-term LJ users actually suggested that the 'mom' was a rabid Rosefen. I don't know if that's true or not, but I did have some actual Martha-haters trolling my LJ.

And yes, I laugh about that mom now, but at the time I was pretty upset because I was very new to LJ and fandom in general.

[thisbluespirit]

I've had a couple, but it still tends to be fake LJ accounts more than anonymous things, although it's definitely been on the rise lately - anonymous posters seem more likely to be genuine. Although I've noted that they turn up on my 'Carry On loving' icon post, so evidently there is a keyword thing going on. Ah me for making dodgy posts...

[dbskyler.livejournal.com]

I haven't noticed a pattern in what they're spamming, but the entries have all been pretty old, so it must be automatic. I wouldn't be at all surprised if there were keywords involved. Still, if someone wants to spam you, they must assume other people are reading, so I would call that the opposite of dodgy. Is "undodgy" a word?

[thisbluespirit]

Heh, I think they assume a post entitled 'Carry on Loving' may be dodgy in itself... :-)

[clocketpatch]

I've had anonymous posting turned off for ages after getting some lovely troll comments early in my lj career. Though... I've noticed a definite up-swing in the number of spam bots attacking communities lately, especially older communities.

There used to be a community fully devoted to Eleven's Eyebrows which amused me by its existence, but it was deleted after being spammed by porn bots. Porn bots were very quickly deleted once lj was informed (I think the fact they were posting their graphic and disturbing images to homework help comms probably helped with the speedy removal of ARGH! ARGH! NOOO!!!).

I don't think they're quite so quick on the designer bags and shoes though...

[dbskyler.livejournal.com]

I guess I'm fortunate in that I've never had anyone come troll me on my journal. If I had, I'd probably have stopped anonymous comments a long time ago -- and perhaps locked the whole thing up, too.

And wow, porn spam with images? On homework help comms?? Suddenly the designer bag spam doesn't seem so bad.