Wordpress & comment spam questions

[heySkippy]

A couple weeks ago I installed Wordpress on my Hostgator server using a domain I had bought a couple years ago but never used for anything until now. I used the import tool to import my Blogger blog and twiddled with the options for a bit then didn't go back.

Almost immediately I started getting a handful of comments per day. They're obviously some kind of comment spam, only 1 or 2 of them even related to the page they were made on.

Okay, it's spam, but how did anyone find this blog to begin with? The domain has existed for over a year but if you went there all you would see is the Hostgator default page. I did use CPanel to install Wordpress on it rather than doing it myself.

If I switch to Wordpress, will I be battling spam all the time?

[swood]

Hello heySkippy!

What is the domain?
What is your blog about?

What do you mean by "If I switch to Wordpress, will I be battling spam all the time?". So you're not using WordPress at the moment?

If you haven't already, i'd strongly recommend you installing this plugin:
WordPress › Akismet WordPress Plugins
It's a fantastic spam blocker!

I myself get a lot of spam on my video blog, but with Akismet all of it is blocked if it looks suspicious and then i can approve it if i wish. All the spam comments i get don't relate to the post they are commenting on. More than likely the spammer has either used a form recovery tool, or has set up an automated script to post the comment for them.

Hope that helps, and please reply if you have any questions or queries

[heySkippy]

Originally Posted by swood

What is the domain?
What is your blog about?

What do you mean by "If I switch to Wordpress, will I be battling spam all the time?". So you're not using WordPress at the moment?

The Wordpress blog is at heySkippy! - It's not really about anything and in fact it is a jumbled mess because I never tried to fix the formatting that disappeared during the import. I didn't intend for anyone to see it, was just experimenting with the software. If I do make the switch, I'll need to re-import.

I've got the Blogspot blog that I started with at ~ Shallow Leisure ~ - I haven't made a decision to switch, but I probably will so that I have complete control rather than depend on Google for the layout.

I haven't tried any plugins for WP yet, haven't enabled their features that tie back to the mothership either. I'll look more closely at the spam options. As I said earlier, I was mainly curious how the spammers found heyskippy.com was live and what kind of hassle they are day to day.

[swood]

Originally Posted by heySkippy

The Wordpress blog is at heySkippy! - It's not really about anything and in fact it is a jumbled mess because I never tried to fix the formatting that disappeared during the import. I didn't intend for anyone to see it, was just experimenting with the software. If I do make the switch, I'll need to re-import.

I've got the Blogspot blog that I started with at ~ Shallow Leisure ~ - I haven't made a decision to switch, but I probably will so that I have complete control rather than depend on Google for the layout.

I haven't tried any plugins for WP yet, haven't enabled their features that tie back to the mothership either. I'll look more closely at the spam options. As I said earlier, I was mainly curious how the spammers found heyskippy.com was live and what kind of hassle they are day to day.

As you're already considering changing from Blogspot to WordPress i'd definitely recommend it. Getting a feel for the platform before switching is an excellent idea.

On your heyskippy.com blog, have you advertised it anywhere? All it takes is for your blog to be mentioned on one forum, linked on one blog and spammers will take advantage. You can have a blog running for years and not receive spam and you could gave a blog runnning for days and receive hundreds. It's not so much what you've done wrong, its more about how unlucky (so to speak) you are to be caught by a spammer[s] at that time.

Hope that helps
swood

[AgentHomes]

Agree that the Akismet anti-spam plugin works wonders for a wordpress blog.

You just need to hit delete everytime you access your blog and your spam problem is handled.

As to how they found your blog, I believe that in WP everytime you post it pings google and tries to get your content indexed quickly. Spammers are probably always checking google for new blog posts.

[ajwalsh]

I also agree with the recommendation of Akismet. I use it on all my WP blogs and it does wonders.

Spam comments are almost always completely automated. Someone basically writes a script that scans the web for comment forms they can submit and it sends out the text and their website link. The idea is to build backlinks to their spammy sites, and they often even try to avoid duplicate content penalties by spinning the text of comments. That's why they are usually so unintelligible by the time they make it to your blog.

[heySkippy]

I'm just going to delete it until I'm ready to try Wordpress again.

I wonder why I get no spam comments at my blogger blog? It gets ~100 visits a day and is at a domain that's been around for quite a while.