Comments on: Thoughts on moderating comments?

By: Bob Sprankle

Bob Sprankle — Fri, 06 Jul 2007 22:20:29 +0000

Thanks for this post, Wes! I too have had some spam sneaking past my Spam Karma… thought it was just a problem with my blog. I’ll be trying some of the solutions mentioned here and following this conversation.

Bob

By: Brian Crosby

Brian Crosby — Fri, 06 Jul 2007 13:43:44 +0000

Wes, you might check out the new vwesion of Flock as an edit tool : http://www.flock.com/

Brian

By: Wesley Fryer

Wesley Fryer — Fri, 06 Jul 2007 11:24:02 +0000

Thanks for these comments and this input. I’ve removed the moderation setting and will continue to monitor, I think that is probably the best approach as Stephen suggests. I’m reminded of some things Clarence Fisher said last year in a podcast interview with Dean Shareski about his classroom blogging culture evolving to the point where he had to “get out of the way.” I don’t want to be in the way as a comment moderator and as long as there is just an occasional/rare comment that gets through that needs to be edited (most often because it is an advertisement for something) then that seems a small price to pay for more free-flowing discussion.

By: Dave

Dave — Fri, 06 Jul 2007 05:16:33 +0000

I have no problem with comment moderation. It is your blog and anything that has no value to the discussion is simply noise that the rest of us won’t have to deal with. One can build credibility by allowing those comments that legitimately question the assumptions and conclusions found in posts. Similarly, one will lose credibility if moderation were simply to be used as a censor for comments not liked by the poster. All the evidence I have indicates that you would act as the former example rather than the latter, so I wouldn’t have any issue with comment moderation under that circumstance.

By: Stephen Downes

Stephen Downes — Thu, 05 Jul 2007 23:22:53 +0000

I do not use moderation or captcha either on my own website or on Blogger.

I have my own spam filter on my own website that’s pretty sensitive (it checks not just for phrases but also for sense - this in response to the garbage spam that was being thrown at websites). I have the advantage that my configuration is unique, so spammers have to write code specifically for me. Sadly, they do. So I monitor my comment threads every day and remove the stuff that gets through.

Same thing with Blogger. If spam gets through, I simply remove it.

I don’t obsess over it. If it gets through, it gets through. I would certainly never start moderating or worse to prevent the possibility of a rogue comment getting through. That’s overkill. My readers are tough; they can handle the occasional bad word if they know keep the site in generally good order.

By: Mathew

Mathew — Thu, 05 Jul 2007 23:20:49 +0000

I use SpamBam (I’ve never been able to get Askimet to work) and it has worked for me.

By: Wesley Fryer

Wesley Fryer — Thu, 05 Jul 2007 22:40:04 +0000

I used Spam Karma 2 for at least 2 years also, but discontinued using it about 6 months ago because I thought it wasn’t preventing enough spam comments from coming in the door. I may go back to it. Thanks so much for sharing the link to your “colophon,” I hadn’t heard that term before. Yes, that is VERY helpful!

By: D'Arcy Norman

D'Arcy Norman — Thu, 05 Jul 2007 22:24:08 +0000

I’m using Spam Karma 2 - it takes a few days to “teach” it, but after that it’s pretty rock solid. I avoid Captcha like the evil plague that it is. Akismet is OK, but failed far too often for my liking.

I leave comment posting open, and SK2 picks up questionable ones automagically and pushes them to moderation for me.

Here’s my full plugin colophon, if it comes in handy:
http://www.darcynorman.net/about/colophon