Check your comment spam folder often
By AndrewBoyd • Dec 8th, 2007 • Category: Aussie Blogger, Blogging tipsI normally pride myself on answering reader comments promptly - it is good etiquette to acknowledge someone when they talk to you.
I was a bit horrified to find three comments from Cerebralmum in Facibus On Blogging’s spam folder. What had happened was that the auto-approved address (http://cerebralmum.com) was replaced with an Alexa redirect URL - people use these to build their Alexa rank - and Akismet saw the new URL as a threat and directed the posts to the spam folder. While I’ve written about the hazards of Alexa redirects in the past (it is something I used to do myself internally), there is no excuse for me to have not checked the spam folder more often. My apologies, Cerebralmum.
Checking the spam folder can be a tedious and unpleasant job - I’m not interested in kiddie porn, or penis enlargement, or getting my credit rating repaired, or acknowedging a pingback from a dodgy .info site that is selling real estate in the USA. It is something that I do every so often - probably once a week on average, to check for false positives - that is, those legitimate reader comments that Akismet has decided look a little dodgy and send straight to the Spam folder. It doesn’t happen very often - Akismet is pretty good at separating the sheep from the goats - but it does happen, and this is reason enough to keep an eye on it.
If you run a WordPress blog, how often do you check your spam folder?
AndrewBoyd is a consultant by day and blogger by night. He loves good food, good wine, and discussing faceted classification schemes with friends.
Email this author | All posts by AndrewBoyd
Well I don’t think I’ve had any spam - YET! But I did wonder why no one was leaving me comments on my new blog until I remembered I have to approve them the first time. LOL. There is a LOT to learn when you switch from one blogging platform (is that the right term?) to another.
Actually, it would seem there is a LOT to learn full stop. I’ve never heard of Alexa redirects (actually I’ve only just figured out what Alexa is full stop). Well, I guess you have to start somewhere in terms of knowledge and build up from there. 
Hi Lightening,
thank you for your comment.
Trust me, the spam will come
For me, prompt and thoughtful responses to reader comments are one of the best ways of building a sense of community on a blog - one of those “Web 2.0 is all about building interaction not just content” things (and I mention social computing in a professional context at least once a week and say exactly the same thing - that it is more about the social than the computing - and hear others say the same).
There truly is much to know about commenting and Alexa and the rest of it. If you have any questions, ask them, for there are a lot of people around (like Snos, and Meg, and even myself) who delight in answering them.
Best regards, Andrew
Hi Andrew
I still manually approve ALL comments, though have been thinking about maybe looking at something else. Generally it’s not too much of an issue because I’m usually not far away from the pc around 14 hrs a day.
So because I’m in the comments section with reasonable regularity, I tend to check Akismet a few times a day and just give it a glance over & hit delete. If there’s only a few to do each time it’s easier to fish the legit ones out (not that I’m finding very many).
But you’ve got to love Akismet - 25,000 messages trapped in 7 months!
@ Lightening - as Andrew says, the spam will catch up with you soon! And also reiterating Andrew’s offer of help…
Yup. It will come. I didn’t turn it on when I first installed WordPress and then I got my first “weird” comment and switched it on quick smart.
Normally, I check it every time I check comments, but now I have a plugin to edit/delete/spam inline, I don’t go to the comment admin section. This is good note to self because it’s not that long since I had a false positive.
Hi Meg,
thank you for your comment. I watch for the emails coming through with comments whenever I am online, but I’ve never seen Akismet let a proper spam message through to approved status. I will remember to check my spam folder every day from now on though
Akismet is wonderful
Best regards, Andrew
Andrew
Out of interest, do you just use the stock standard WP issue commenting management or do you have a plugin? With the options I’m thinking about enabling the “Comment author must have a previously approved comment”, is that what you use?
Thank you Andrew and Meg for your offers of help. You make the blogworld such a nice place to be!!! Sometimes I don’t even know enough to ask a question BUT I keep reading and learning in the meantime.
As for comments, well I do live for my comments.
And I do love a good chat so leaving comments and responding to those who comment on my blog seems to come easily (when I find them lol). 
Interesting point though, I seem to have been getting more comments on my latest post than I have on any earlier posts in the same series I have been writing. Do you think this would have anything to do with my switching from blogger to wordpress? Or maybe it’s more to do with my new blog looking new and exciting? (compared to my old one that is).
I use the “Comment author must have a previously approved comment” and it works pretty well, I must come up with a better policy for keyword comment names etc though!
Hi Meg,
I use Lucia’s LinkyLove for comment management - I have it set to turn off nofollow after three comments by the same person. I’m not sure that it gets in the way of the normal WP “if I don’t know this person then it goes into the moderation folder” behaviour. I do have “comment author must have previously approved comment” under Dashboard > Options > Discussion.
Best regards, Andrew
Yep, I use that plugin too. I was referring more to spam karma or bad behavior. I might try that option & see how I go. Thanks
Hi Lightening,
it is my pleasure to be of service, and I know that Meg feels the same way - she is very good at it
I do love comments too. Comments help me feel wanted and they help me justify the time investment to myself when the world is so busy. I know that I don’t have to justify the time investment to anyone else (so long as I have time for my loved ones and I get my work done) but the comments do help a lot.
I think that the number of comments after you made the switch to WP is a reflection of the good wishes that are generated by (a) making the move that so many others have, and so many others are considering , and (b) the encouragement from Meg and other people have shown by talking about the move - it is a celebration, like a 21st birthday party - Happy Got WordPress Standalone Day
Best regards, Andrew
Hi Keiron,
thank you for your comment. Lucia’s LinkyLove does have an option to limit commenter names to a set number of characters, such that you can keep the “makemoneyfast.com Make Easy Money Online O Yeah” types at bay (it basically keeps the nofollow on commenter names with more than the number of characters - I have mine set to the default 25).
Best regards, Andrew
Hi Cerebralmum,
thank you for your comment. It really doesn’t take long for the spam spiders to reach out and touch all of us - if they put as much effort into making money ethically as they do being pests I am sure that they would have all retired by now
A question: which comment spam plugin do you use? This is something that we all face and it is well worth discussing options (and there is a blog article or two in it, I am sure)
Best regards, Andrew
Previously I just used Akismet, which was 99% accurate. Now that I’ve moved to Snoskred’s hosting I have TanTanNoodles Simple Spam Filter as well, but it hasn’t caught anything yet, so I’m not really sure what it does.
There’s a lot more I need to learn about protecting my blog. I know a few people who been hacked recently but the security issues are all Greek to me.
Hi Meg,
if they work out, please blog about it
Making a manual call around the “makemoneyfast.com” types all the time is a little wearying - especially when they post a genuine (if brief) comment.
Best regards, Andrew
Hi Cerebralmum,
you will soon get thousands of spam comments - and the comment filters will get a chance for a good workout
I had a look at the tan tan noodles spam filter - on the face of it, it looks like Akismet improved - Snoskred gives it a good writeup, and that is good enough for me
Security is a whole ball of wax - I find it fascinating but it is easy to become overinvolved in looking for exploitable holes and plugging them
Best regards, Andrew
I do have some wordpress blogs and find it really annoying when legit comments are in the spam folder. However one of the problems might be that some social bloggers spam comments from people just because they happen to not like their site. Maybe it looks like an MFA or maybe it’s an e-commerce site or something. To me it doesn’t matter what the site is as long as they leave a legit comment and their website isn’t part of a bad neighbourhood.