February 8, 2010

Yesterday’s Spam Attack.

Filed under: Uncategorized — Jim @ 5:37 pm

Holy cannoli! I must have received in excess of 2,000 spam comments in the space of two hours yesterday. As soon as I would zap them from the moderation queue, there would be just as many new ones. I thought that I could simply shut down the comment feature for the entire blog until things calmed down. Accordingly, I scoured my WordPress homepage and did not find any way to disable the comment feature for the blog. There is a feature that requires people to register and another one to disable comments on posts older than X days, but nothing to simply shut comments (all comments) off.

A regular reader, Bill, noodled around and found this site with instructions for disabling the comments, but, the “fix” would require me to rummage around in codey places I dare not go. Besides, turning the comments back on would require again diving into the world of scary code.

Seeing as how I don’t pay anything for WordPress, I don’t feel very righteous about complaining, but a simple “Comments On,” “Comments Off” feature would be handy.

I’m happy to report that things are back to normal today, with the usual number of spam comments making it through the spam blocker but being caught in the moderation queue.

8 Comments »

  1. Hmmm – well you could use the “X number of days” feature and make it either zero or one… that would have turned off all the comments and maybe left only one post you had to close manually if zero was not accepted. Just a thought for next time.

    I HATE spammers with a passion. If I ever find any, I’ll be quite happy to string them up by their nether regions and throw rotten fruit at them.

    Comment by Teresa — February 8, 2010 @ 7:40 pm

  2. Jimbo,
    Spammers suck. Glad you’re back to normal. And I’m back to Indiana (not normal).

    Comment by Jerry in Indiana — February 8, 2010 @ 11:22 pm

  3. Maybe we can convince the jihadists that comment spammers are the biggest infidels…

    Comment by Dave Merriman — February 9, 2010 @ 12:14 am

  4. Stab the spammers.

    Comment by Laura — February 9, 2010 @ 7:41 am

  5. Did you get any good deals on Viarrrgra or Russian Beauties Who Want To Meet You?

    Comment by Mr. Bingley — February 9, 2010 @ 7:48 am

  6. Spammers …….

    Obama has several on his staff whose job it is to send him thousands of E-mails all day long saying….”Great job you are doing” “, “You are right, Bush did it” or “Keep up the good work”.His computer is right next to his mirror alongside the teleprompter.

    Comment by dudley1 — February 9, 2010 @ 10:46 am

  7. I’m with Laura. Stab ’em.

    (My record for one day is about 540, in December ’08.)

    Comment by CGHill — February 10, 2010 @ 12:21 am

  8. God’s sake, man, next time Tweet at me or something. Be happy to screw up your WP guts for ya. Srsly.

    Comment by dogette — February 10, 2010 @ 8:37 pm

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