Tags
Akismet, Blog, Comment Spam, Facebook, SnoringDogStudio, Spam, Twitter, Wordpress
Checking my WordPress Akismet stats, I find that my ratio of spam to ham is 84 to 16%.
Akismet’s yummy pie
What, you may ask, is ham? Why, ham is the good stuff. the comments made by real human fingers with real human brains, who have actually read (I hope) the posts on which they are commenting. Spam, on the other hand, I’m sure you all know, comes from bots and underpaid third-world minions plopped in front of monitors, whose mission is to lure unsuspecting Internet users to some nefarious site that’s selling or mining something. Snoring Dog Studio has a fascinating discussion of this weirdness which she calls Spamffirmations.
Thanks to the magic manipulations of Akismet’s army of spam bloggers, I’m not bothered much by my spam. Most of it automatically lands in the cyberspace trash heap, wherever that is. Occasionally a few spam comments land in my spam filter where I feel empowered to thump the delete key. But really, why are so many idiots chasing after my little blog?
The dramatic increase in spam on my site (from 12 in August 2011 to a whopping 1048 in June 2013) correlates to first, plugging my site on Facebook; then, to plugging myself to the weirdness that is Twitter. That’s what you get for unabashed self-promotion. Thank you WordPress and Akismet for keeping these idiots out of my hair.
I marvel at Akismet’s power. It captures almost 99% of stuff I don’t want to read. There is some magical formulas used by these programs and I thank the IT geeks who develop this stuff. I like to think of Akismet as a real person and a friend who is working on my behalf, sheltering me from the unpleasant aspects of blogging. I wish I had an Akismet to shelter me from the stupid things our politicians say and do. Anyway, thanks for the plug – may you continue to be spam-free for the life of your wonderful blog.
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It begs the question when a platform like WP can afford to hire these IT whizkids to make our lives so much better, yet our politicians and federal government can’t seem to get a grip on what is private and what is public and what lack of privacy really means.
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You said it!
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Glad you reminded me of the difference. BUT, in defense of SPAM, it sometimes made for a good meal when we had nothing else during WW II and in Korea when the cooks ran out of fish heads and rice.
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I figured you’d appreciated Spam at some critical point in time. The Hawaiians love it. But probably not this version of spam….;-)
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It’s sad that my blog is so unknown I don’t even attract SPAM … 😉
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I found your blog! Maybe your spam is also being blocked w/o your knowledge? But, seriously, you are on Blogger, right? So I doubt that. 😉
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Interesting you should come up with your spam & ham pie, Rangewriter. I just got notice of someone following me who’s site is a sell site. He’s certainly welcome to follow the greatwahoo, of course.
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The more the merrier…? Have him bring the wine.
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Linda, I’m not on Facebook or Twitter, yet I get about ten spam comments a day. Lately, a few have been slipping through the filter and landing on some of my very old posts. That has me more confused than ever — what are the chances that anyone but me is ever going to see them?
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That’s because they want YOU and they hope you are as stupid as a post and as gullible as a sponge so they can sell you something you don’t need. ;=)
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Stupid as a post? My initial reaction was that Charles’ posts are anything but. And then I realised that my German brain got the better of me. Again 😉
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Funny, I can see how that sentence would catch you off guard! Charles’ posts are brilliant, but I don’t think Spambots know how to read. They just skim a few key words and string them together in some weird, rambling comment. It is amusing to read the gibberish, if you’re in the mood for a good chuckle.
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I’ve been seeing the same thing on my blog…spam showing up as valid comments on old posts. I wonder if the spammers have developed some nefarious new algorithm capable of dodging Akismet and these are just the first few fish that have managed to swim this far upstream. A sobering thought, eh?
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I’ve had a few, too. Swimming upstream? Hopefully non of them will attach.
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Or spawn!!
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You’re doing FAR better than I am. After reading your post I dug in to look for my Yummy Pie and discovered I’m 2% ham and 98% spam!!! With no Facebook or Twitter linkage…at least from my side. I agree with you wholeheartedly…thank you Akismet!!
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We may need to build a shrine to the Akismet dudes.
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I’m full of yummy pie and spam bits which WP sort and like you, these increased when I started promoting my work on Facebook and Twitter.
Love your comment re government being unable to get a grip on what is private and what is public … absolutely!
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Yes, I’ve pretty much resigned myself that it is only a matter of time before I get hacked and someone makes off with my identity. That’s a dreadful thing to go through, but, so’s chicken pox, eh?
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All scary stuff though … let’s hope it never happens!
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Hey, I just wandered over from Dink’s place. And, I swear I’m not selling anything. 😉 I got a sudden rash of “followers” in June. You know, the kind who have no blog and no info available except an IP address in Whois. I searched the first few and then deleted the other notifications. Glad you noticed this. Thanks.
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Now I am glad I don’t have the time anymore to care about my stats. At least that way I am not disappointed by how many of my followers are actually spam bots.
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So true! I am very happy that WP keeps most of those buried and out of my way. That way, I only see them when I need a good chuckle.
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I agree with you, it’s amazing how much time spammers are wasting, but I guess they must see something in it. Like you, I am very glad for the Akismet, which means on an average I get less than one spam a week I have to take care of myself.
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I wish I had Akismet on my email program! I hardly get any spam at all on WP. I think maybe 2 have slipped through the filter in all the time I’ve been posting here.
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Yeah it’s funny how issues like this one begin looking ridiculously insignificant when compared to the world events. Another part of the cold war, the actual real war that erupts, Russia-China fuel deal axis… Nonetheless here we are with this social media difficulties, – will we notice the earth has altered? I’m not saying everything you write about is unimportant, Iam stating a certain level of detachment is healthful. Thanks, Sarah @ http://phyto-renew350e.com/
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