Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with blog and comments

Best blog platform for easy commenting but little spam

bystander — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 05:12:42 -0800

Best blogging software to allow easy commenting by strangers but avoiding comment spam. I want to start a new non-commercial blog that encourages comments from readers, but avoids as much comment spam as possible. I realise this is tough, but what is the best current solution? I am not up to date on this area, but I want a middle ground that perhaps avoids a registration stage or moderating every comment. Is there possibly a comment option that allows a comment to be written, but it only goes live after a link delivered to a valid email is clicked? Is there a better solution? I feel captchas are not as effective as they have been, yet I want to avoid robot spam, but also make drive by valid comments be possible. Is this a pipe dream?
I can probably install any suitable software, but my preference is a *nix based solution or hosted. Free is better but not essential.

More Conversation, Less Marketing

DarlingBri — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 14:44:12 -0800

[DoMyHomeworkFilter] When commercial businesses post comments on a blog, what does "best practice" look like to you? And what companies have this conversational part of "conversational marketing" down to an exemplary science? I need to produce a short guide for PR people and marketers - traditionally aka Satan's Hounds - who are preparing to dip their toes into posting comments on blogs in their niches, whatever they may be.

I have an exhaustive list of Do Nots - no astroturfing, don't try to sell products in comments, don't write or post in boilerplate marketingspeak - but I am so traumatised by seeing this done so badly so often that I'm having a hard time coming up with any Do items.

These people are wading in regardless of what I say, so I'd just like to help them not crap on people's lawns. I'm interested in how people see comments from commercial entities, what makes some comments OK or even positive to you while others are unacceptable - where that line is, and what it looks like to you. And if there's some company or organisation out there doing this really well, I'd love to know who they are so I can study what they're doing right.

Thanks!

How can I disable comments on specific posts in my wordpress blog?

chinese_fashion — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 09:02:29 -0800

Can any of you recommend a Wordpress plugin that will enable me to turn comments on/off for particular blog posts? I'm trying to disable commenting on specific blog posts, but only seem to be able to turn them off on all posts. Is there a plugin that will allow me to turn comments on and off as necessary?

And, do you recommend any other comment plugins?

Thanks!

How can I remember to read followups to my comments?

jacquilynne — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 08:18:48 -0800

Is there a website or firefox extension that will help me keep track of my blog comments? By blog comments, I mean comments I've left on other people's blogs. Obviously the software for my own blog lets me know when there are new comments on it, but I read a fair few other blogs and often like to leave comments. I'd like to follow the discussion after that, but there often isn't a good way to do it. Some blogs offer email notification, but that's annoying and spammy if it's a very active blog. Some blogs offer per thread RSS feeds which is better, but not all of them do.

Is there some kind of tool / site that I can use to push a button and say 'track the comments on this post forever more'?

Best way to deal fairly with non-spam, malicious comments on a personal blog?

gemmy — Fri, 09 May 2008 15:09:05 -0800

Best way to deal fairly with non-spam, malicious comments on a personal blog? Deleting them straight away, or allowing such comments but following up with an answer/reply? I have a pretty boring personal blog (website in profile), where I post occasionally. One old blog post (with my thoughts on the Obama assassination fears) has seen consistent traffic and a few comments over the last few months - some comments to date have been on the "internet crazy" side, but fairly benign. Then today, someone added a comment stating their intention to commit a murder/suicide, should Obama become president. This comment is currently in my moderation queue.

Now, my first instinct was to just delete it. But if I delete this comment, I should probably go back and delete some of the others too - even though they were not quite as bad. I originally decided to post them since it's always fun to get comments, and because I think some of the crazies out there are interesting. Also, what's the point of allowing comments at all if I'm going to uber-moderate them?

The other option would be to allow this comment, and then make a very strong statement against it. A friend suggested that I should say that I have forwarded the commenter's IP address to the appropriate authorities, then address the inappropriate nature of the comment. I don't know, though, maybe that's overkill.

The only substantive discussions I've seen online on allowing/not allowing negative/malicious blog comments have been about business-related blogs. I am very interested to hear about how others deal fairly with this sort of thing. Thanks!

My blog has become a playground for filthy pornmongers!

Drohan — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 12:54:37 -0800

How can I restore my totally disgustingly porn-hacked Wordpress blog to its former pristine state? Ugh. My Wordpress blog, hosted by phpwebhosting, has been invaded by the grossest spammer on earth.

Every individual post has been altered, with hundreds of lines unspeakably filthy links, enclosed in div tags.

In addition, comments are continuously being posted to every post, which appear to be coming from me (the blog name as the commenter).

I am locked out Wordpress, insofar as I cannot edit posts, post new ones, or make any security changes (I tried turning off comments, putting my spam blockers at their highest security levels, etc.

I have been using MarsEdit (as once recommended to me by AskMe users--thank you!) to make new posts and go in to each post and delete the horrifying spam. But there are hundreds if not thousands of posts.

1. Help!
2. Is there a way to batch edit all the affected posts? It seems that there are a handful every 10 or 12 or so that have not been touched.
3. How do I get back into Wordpress and regain control of my blog?
4. Has this happened before? What is going on?

I am using Wordpress 2.04 but cannot update. I emailed the abuse line of the spammer's IP address but that won't help me with the situation on my end, but might get the spammer(s) to stop the madness.

Thank you so much.

Is there anything I can do? I contacted Wordpress & phpwebhosting and posted on the Wordpress support forums.

Comments with or without a blog

dance — Sat, 28 Jul 2007 13:53:02 -0800

Does anyone have any thoughts on the best way (and the best script?) to implement a commenting system for normal web pages? I am currently torn between setting up WordPress as a CMS which would provide that functionality or trying to find a script I can add to a page (and there are to be 40 or so separate pages each needing separate comment fields). My thoughts thus far: WP as a CMS

Never done it before
Could be difficult to modify a theme to be none 'bloglike'
Would integrate with Akismet to stop the spam

Comment script added to existing page

Might not integrate that well with look and feel of rest of page
Need only be a more professional 'Shoutbox' type script, no real need for commenters' location, email etc though I guess it cuts down on nonsense posts simply because it takes longer!

MoveableType Comment Spam

scarabic — Wed, 03 Nov 2004 09:36:33 -0800

I have put my Moveable Type weblog to sleep, although I am keeping its archives up. Not surprisingly, comment spam continues to come in. It looks like there is no way to globally turn commenting off in MT. Rats. But I do have MT Blacklist installed, and I'm wondering if there's a good way to add some kind of regex wildcard to my blacklist that will deny all comments. Any ideas on how to stop all comments?