We all want comments on our blogs.  It’s the interaction that makes for even better reading (most of the time).  But we don’t want comment spam.  Sometimes you get a comment that doesn’t quite fit — like a compliment out of the blue on an old post.  Yes, we are awesome. But why are you telling me on a story from 2 years ago???

It’s probably spam.  Here’s a perfect example of comment spam from a couple of days ago:

1. His name is “damaging search engine optimization.” If that’s true, his parents should be charged with something.
2. Not a domain name someone types into a form. In fact the site has probably been hacked.
3. An email address that doesn’t match the name (see point #1). Probably a hacked AOL email address too.
4. Poor english. Google translate has come a long way — but as you can see, not quite far enough.  “all your base are belong to us” Buddy.
5. Trust your instincts. If you think it’s spam, it probably is.

It’s not always  this obvious. But if you see any of the first 4 examples, you are more than likely dealing with a spammer and should mark it as spam. 

How to stop it

• Make sure you have the WordPress plugin, Akismet running and that you have the key installed. It won’t work without it.
• For  even better comment control install the Disqus plug-in.  This will make it a little more difficult for some of your people to leave a first time comment, so think carefully. I don’t use it everywhere.  There are some pluses and minuses I’ll cover in a future blog post if you’d like.