Spammers on My Blog
After two years of blogger bliss, the spammers have found me. At first, most of them hit old posts. My settings require moderation for comments that old. But now the creeps are popping up on more current posts, blatantly offering links that are probably dangerous, trying to lure my visitors to their website or blog or monster virus. Most are posted as Anonymous which I’ve always allowed, but some actually use Names (most likely fictitious) to comment.
It’s a sad state of affairs and an inconvenience to my visitors, but if it gets any worse and takes up any more time than it already does, I’ll need to require word verification. My apologies in advance.
Facebook Chat Sidebar Thingie
To add to my list of minor social media annoyances, Facebook has plunked this shaded sidebar on their site that demands I sign up for the new and improved way to Chat with my Facebook friends. I’m telling you, Facebook, if that darned sidebar doesn’t stay hidden and if you continue to show me as available when I already chose the offline and hide sidebar options twice, you and me will no longer have a thing going on. I don’t Chat. I don’t want to be interrupted by demands to Chat. And I hate a shaded sidebar that I can see out of the corner of my eye demanding I do something I don’t want to do.
The Grouch has left the building.
Feel free to add your own social media complaints in the comment section. And if you’ve checked out Google + as an alternative to Facebook, let us know what you learned.
Hi Patricia .. I stopped anonymous comments earlier .. and use the 2nd box down – worked so far .. odd comments slip in – but I won’t publish unless I know where they’re from ..
By the way another problem .. is your followers .. you need to delete those you don’t know or trust .. I had an eagle & eliminated him .. he was a Russian .. can’t see it on yours ..
… but every time someone joins make sure you know them.
Cheers hope this helps .. Google + is still in beta .. so I’m watching .. Hilary
I hate making my readers jump through hoops, so some time back I quit requiring word verification. I get spam, BUT, Blogger’s automatic spam filter seems to catch all of it. I have yet to see one of those messages actually make it to my comments section.
Totally agree with the dang chat sidebar. You have to scroll way down to the bottom of your chat list and then click the little (barely visible) icon and you can remove yourself from being available to chat and you can hide the window. Trouble is, it doesn’t stick if you close the browser. You can also limit who can chat with you, and I think you can disable things that way as well.
As for Google+, my son got me to try it. So far, not impressed. I’m not actively using it, but if it picks up, I do have an account.
Terry
Terry’s Place
Romance with a Twist–of Mystery
In the 16 months I’ve been blogging, I’ve only had a few spammers on Blogger. I can count “Anonymous” comments on one hand. On WordPress, I’ve had a few spammers recently, but Akismet (as Marian, above, says) catches them. Spam doesn’t bother me. It’s like junk mail I get through snail mail. I just toss it. Fortunately, I’ve never had any crude comments. Maybe I’ve just been lucky. I once tried Google Reader. It confused me, as most of this does! Haven’t tried Google +. Maybe I’ll look at it. As for Facebook, I use it mostly to keep up with friends and family. I’ve never been annoyed by anything on it. Maybe that’s because I don’t go where I get annoyed.
Ann Best, Memoir Author
Ugh, sorry about the spam. I also hate the new chat sidebar on FB with a passion. I was able to permanently be offline for chat, but now I can’t! I *think* I was able to fix it by setting a restriction to only be available to one group (it was an old photo group I’d used where none of the others like chat, either). So far, I have not been contacted again and it always shows 0, but who knows. I’m trying to learn the ropes at Google+.
I get several spam comments a day on my WordPress blog (I call them Spomments) but Akismet catches almost all of them.
That chat bar makes me nuts, too, but I’m learning to ignore it. 🙂
I’m just starting on Google+. Don’t know if I’d leave Facebook for it. Now I’m on Facebook, Twitter AND G+.
Marian Allen
Fantasies, mysteries, comedies, recipes
I agree 100%.
I had a run of spammers six months ago. I deleted the comments and they haven’t come back. Hope it stays that way. My FB chat bar stayed hidden.
Have a relaxing weekend writing 🙂
I have had comments on post I did three years ago, I delete them but it’s not nice, most of the people who do it don’t have a blog of their own so you can’t comment back.
I agree with you about facebook, it’s ridiculous and stupid.
This grouch too has left the building.
Hope your week-end is better.
Yvonne.
Sorry to hear about the spammers.
If you have to go word verif, you can make it tolerable by inviting people to make up definitions for the words that pop up. It makes word verifs so much more enjoyable. I just got sussee for the last blog I commented on. I’m thinking it is some kind of cheese made only by goats who live in the Swiss Alps. Or it might be the noise that one makes when getting a really good massage.
I have to admit that a few of the word verifs have made it into my writing. For example horksher–a really annoying person who always has to have a better story than anyone else.
Li, I think we tend to overdo it when we’re not sure what works and what doesn’t. The thing is, I’ve been doing most of this stuff for a couple of years and I’m still not sure.
Jeez, I’m sorry to hear that! It seems like once they find you, it just gets worse. I go on FB maybe once a month; don’t like it. Have never had any spam on my blog, but by typing that I’ve prob jinxed myself. I did just join Google+ but haven’t done a thing with it, as I find new stuff overwhelming at first. Right now I’m content to exchange comments via blogs, the occasional email, and Twitter. I suppose if I ever publish anything I’ll have to jump on the social networking bandwagon, but that looks to be a long way off.
Alex, I took away the Anonymous privilege first, so we’ll see what happens.
Dean, may I call if I’m tempted to buy a scone so you can talk me down?
Jemi, you were one of the wise ones if you avoided Facebook.
Dorte, I’ve been counting my blessings, but I knew it couldn’t last forever.
Murees, yes, blogger bliss is good.
Hi Elizabeth. I’ve only had that happen once so far, but I’ll keep an eye on it.
I seem to be having the opposite problem…and genuine comments are getting caught in my blog’s spam filter! Sigh.
I don’t do FB chat, either. FB keeps wanting me to, though.
Spam is awful. You should do what ever you feel you need to to bring your blog back to the state of bliss you had before.
I personally didn’t like facebook so I closed my account. I hope you find a solution for your social media problems soon.
Two years? My, you have been lucky!
I began using comment moderation long time ago on my Blogger blog as I didn´t want my readers to find sex & porn links crawling all over my blog 🙁
I switched to WordPress in May, though, and I must say they are good at catching spam.
Dorte H.
I eliminated Anonymous comments earlier this year for the same reason. I wasn’t getting any real visitors through the Anon part anyway. It seemed to solve the problem.
I’ve never been on FB, so I can’t compare, but I’ve tried a bit of Google+ & it seems to give the user a lot of control.
So we chase our tails to google+, having forgotten all about myspace, and grown tired of facebooks insistent knocks for attention. Twitter’s added photo options, etc., wow. just like facebook.
Something comes after google+ (if I’m smart enough, I’ll invent it.) and we follow that carrot to something else shiney and bright.
Tell ya’ what. I’ll give you one of my new writer cards. Has my phone number on it. Call me any time, day or night. I like you well enough to do that for you. ;-}
I’m sorry! Wow, I almost never get spam comments. Try blog owner approval before word verification – less stress on your reader’s eyes.
Sympathy and good ideas definitely appreciated — and yes Julie, my weekend is going to be a mini-retreat at home since my husband will be playing in a bridge tournament. I’m going to churn me out some words!
Margot, I guess I’ll check out Google + as soon as I can. I’m hearing lots of good things about it.
Diane, I’ll try blocking anonymous comments first. I hate to add word verification unless I absolutely must.
Karen, thanks. Empathy is appreciated.
Marlena, it seems like the Facebook faceless behind the scenes are manipulating users into doing things their way instead of listening to what their users want. I don’t like it.
I’m sorry you are having this problem with spammers. So annoying!
I couldn’t agree more about the Facebook sidebar. I’m not a big fan of Facebook anyway, and this just adds to my annoyance with it.
Hope you have a great weekend coming up. 🙂
And that is exactly why I don’t have a Facebook account. I always freak out when I see sidebars and try to get rid of them. iTunes and I had an argument about the very same thing when Genius and Ping came out.
I’m sorry about the spammers. It’s too bad flamethrowers don’t work on them.
Totally empathize, Patricia. Sigh!
Karen
I don’t chat either! Always hated that feature because just as I am about to click away from Facebook, someone pops in with a hello.
I stopped anon comments earlier this year and that has caught most of the spammers.
Pat – A pox – a terrible pox – on all spammers! I’m sorry this has happened to you. And I’m just as annoyed at that FB chatbox problem as you are. I’ve just joined Google + and already I like it very, very much. Still learning the ropes, but I really like it.