Sunday, March 23, 2008

Fighting Spam & Viruses

I have received questionable comments to two of my recent posts. The comment simply says "Click here and here". Both of the words, "here" are links and send you to a window suggesting you run a scan to protect your computer. Something similar happened to me a few months ago that involved code embedded in an ActiveX bar. After a few days of trying to delete that virus myself, I finally resorted to having Symantec take control of my computer to clean it. Because of this, comment moderation for Cultivating Paradise has now been enabled. It was either that or enabling word verification - and many garden bloggers have stated their dislike of word verification. I'd love any advise from other bloggers regarding spam, etc on your blog.

5 comments:

Aiyana said...

I've noticed that some posts have a word highlighted--with a comment like "nice plant" with the plant highlighted as a link. If you click on it, it goes to a commercial site selling plants. I've started rejecting those posts. There's always something!
Aiyana

Mary Beth said...

Aiyana - I haven't received any of those (that I've noticed) - but will watch for them too. Thanks for the heads-up.

Unknown said...

It's unfortunate, isn't it, that some morons have nothing better to do than set up traps like those comments. I have had comment moderation for as long as I've had my blog and it really helps. I've also seen the commercial site comments and they get rejected too. The comment moderation doesn't slow things down for commenters, because I live at my computer and can approve comments immediately, in most cases. People don't mind--they understand.

Mary Beth said...

Jodi - I'm glad to hear that comment moderation has worked well for you! If need be, I'll add word verification - but I'd rather not. Thanks, Mary Beth

Priscilla George said...

I believe I have gotten some of those. Most of the time they are relevant but lead to the persons site selling something or a video. I haven't been directed to some scanning. I think I just put back word verification. I should just moderate comments but I'm so used to the word verification that I forget to accept the comments.