We are developing the social individualist meta-context for the future. From the very serious to the extremely frivolous... lets see what is on the mind of the Samizdata people.

Samizdata, derived from Samizdat /n. - a system of clandestine publication of banned literature in the USSR [Russ.,= self-publishing house]

Fighting comment and trackback spams

It is possible some comments are getting nailed by our anti-spam blacklist if the entry contains words that are frequently used in spams. Our genuine condolences if your remarks get unjustly rejected but that is the price we pay for not getting our comments deluged with viagra advert and URL’s to Russian kiddie porn sites.

Not having a blacklist is simply not an option for us as administering Samizdata.net takes quite a bit of time as it is and clearning up hundreds of spams per day (which is what we got before the blacklist) is just too time consuming.

I will check to see if the blacklist be being overzealous so please e-mail me at admin-at-samizdata.net if you think the blacklist is being too obsessive about some specific word.

13 comments to Fighting comment and trackback spams

  • I’ve just started getting trackback SPAMs. Curiously my provider, Blog City, upgraded last week to version 4. As part of the upgrade, they included moderation of trackbacks. That’s when the SPAMs started.

  • Cranky Libertarian

    Comment deleted by editor: totally off-topic! Feel free to post such remarks as comments to articles about the war in Iraq or some other vaguely related subject but not to an admin post about spam! Thanks

  • I'm suffering for my art

    The Cranky Libertarian troll has been posting that kind of bile for a while. I suspect he’s Bob Dobbs – a banned blogroach – in another incarnation. Incidentally, for some reason I’ve been knocked back for using the word “et hic” (!!). If this gets through, I suppose it’s been fixed.

    (take two) Okay, it still won’t accept “eth ic”. Have to break up the word so it will pass the blacklist.

  • Matt O'Halloran

    How about ‘ethnic’? Nope.

  • Matt O'Halloran

    Correction: Yep.

    Try again: Samizdatistas are a bunch of middle class winos who fume impotently about ID cards, the EU, the inability of decent ordinary folk to store Uzis or launch ICBMs from their backyards, but never do anything about it.

    Only testing, natch.

  • Snide

    Sure they do something about it, they give us Samizdata and thousand of people read it every day. What do you do, big mouth?

  • John K

    I did wonder why I could not use the word “th!ck” the other day, and not I hasten to add in any Viagra related context. Now I know. Seems a bit precious, I must say. If we were for some reason discussing poultry farming, could we not have a valid use for the word “cock”?

  • Ted Schuerzinger

    Funny that you should comment about the word “th*ck”, but not about the more obvious spam word “Viagra”. 🙂

  • John K

    Strange I agree, but I don’t make the rules.

  • Cranky Libertarian

    Comment deleted by editor: we asked politely that you publish comments that are on-topic. You ignored. So no more polite. Kindly fuck off and do not come back

    Pointless off-topic screed deleted by Samizdata Admin.

  • Old Grouch

    Dear Samizdata Admin:

    Just curious. Have you been taking administration lessons from the esteemed Andrea Harris?

    Thought so. Good on ‘ya.
    O.G.

  • My heart bleeds

    If you’d post stories about Iraq, then maybe we’d have someplace to post ON TOPIC comments.

    Hey, the US lied to you Brits about using napalm. Gee, if our ally lies to you about using napalm against civilians, do you think they might have lied about anything else?

  • This is a check for socialism. Which contains a rather famous spam word.