How to Protect Against Spammy Blog Comment Bots

If you've been reading NWN blog comments over the last couple days, you might have noticed the absence of a certain adorable comment bot that's been regularly targeting New World Notes for unknown reasons. So far so good, but I think we're in the clear -- thanks to advice from Ms. Pussycat Catnap, who recently passed along some extremely valuable tips on blocking comment bots and other random comment spammers:

"I recommend IP bans of progressively higher up the chain: If the IP is: WWW.XXX.YYY.ZZZ Ban at: WWW.XXX.YYY.* and at: WWW.XXX.*.* Odds are fairly good you only have one person coming in from that level on the same IP. This is how I did back when I had to ban forum spammers on a commercial forum I ran a few years back. Also ban any known accounts of the 'individual(s)'. And if you have the ability to do it, add in some word filters - that include common phrases this person uses that tend to only be used by this person."

Thanks, Pussycat!

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Comments

[UCMO]

...the end of "use case" this, and "use case" that... YIPPPEEEE!

[EI Consulting]

Assess Hamlet on the Un-Quality Scale of Capability Immaturity Model, his repeat dysfunctional ex-Linden behavior is predicable meanwhile.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capability_Immaturity_Model

It's no wonder that Linden Lab never achieved Appraisal ratingss at Software Engineering Institute SEI if a Corporate Culture of denial of 2-way communication prevails.

[EI Consulting]

Hamlet really insists on thriving on dysfunctional behavior instead of trying Continuous improvement.

Hamlet needs basic training in Quality Management, then it would become evident like Manna-from-Heaven that Unwarranted Disappraisal - which he perpetually denies - is a treasure chest for Continuous Improvements, thus allowing two-fold, reduction of Un-Quality Costs, and an Increase in Quality.

After years of denial of this quality process, what else can you expect other than demise. Hamlet's corporate culture is the cause for detriment in virtual worlds.

[EI Consulting]

Easter is over then you get the real McCoy again, there is no Bot, thats a fake invention of Hamlet when he runs out of arguments.

Hamlet hates the Truth, and tries every trick in the book to Kill the Messenger like in Old Rome. The only Bot here is Truth-hater Hamlet.

James Au Wagner Journalism Sucks again >

Au censors again and violates Journalist Code of Ethics
http://www.spj.org/ethicscode.asp

@slhamlet lacks in Seeking Truth and Reporting It.

We don't need the Un-Quality & the Dis-Service of Rogue & Scam Immersive World Journalists, and their Consumer Detriment for Immersive Worlds.

[EI Consulting]

Warranted Disappraisal* of course...

[Wagner James Au]

https://youtu.be/7BaXPg_2FJ4?t=1m17s

[Pussycat Catnap]

It looks like that advice didn't quite work. :)

I'm guessing in the dark here as to what tools typepad gives you. But some more things I tried in the past...

If you control the ability to delete accounts here, don't delete a bad one, just 'suspend it' so that the name cannot be retaken.

If you can see something like a filtered or sorted list of users by IP address, go through it - and look for patterns in the bad accounts. That will tell you at what level to ban them.

For example, in a given AAA.BBB.CCC.DDD
I had a forum that let me search for any pattern in that, so I did searches for things like:

AAA.*.*.*
AAA.BBB.*.*
and even
AAA.BB*.*.*
- And if I saw multiple bad accounts at some level, and nobody in there that seemed valid, that was the level I'd ban at.

I think only once did I ban at the AAA.*.*.* level, but it wiped out a few tens of thousands of spam account. We had a problem that was that bad...

I don't think you have the same issue we mostly had. Most of our problem was automated spam accounts created for 'use at a future date' - so they would remain inactive for months and then suddenly spam ads for men's sports shoes and identity documents... And similar weirdness. Including the usual garbled word posts.

I think, as others have noted - you have a persistent real human user with a personality disorder who has an obsession with your blog that crosses the line into... cyber stalker territory.

The proper response in moments like this is to doxx the person to mental health authorities...
- Though that is highly unfavorable in 'internet social norms' circles in the same way that people in 'the ghetto' refuse to snitch even on the person who assaulted them.

Many years ago I did once have an online stalker... And I finally stopped them by doing a semi-doxxing. They were, to my luck, hired by the owners of a forum I was already on... So I forwarded some of the stalking info on to their new employer... And then never heard from them again... It was semi-doxxing because all I really outed was 'all of their alts' in a forum / usenet sense. But it was enough.

Barring that, you need to really kick in the word filtering.

If this blog's service lets you suspend an account that uses certain words... then above my post I see many posts with some of the same words as I've seen in earlier posts.

I'm a little surprised that the username that is troubling, is still in use. I suppose typepad doesn't let you auto-block comments from certain usernames?

Or perhaps filtering is just temporarily off for this one blog post in order to see if the specific user would respond / explain their conduct...

To that user: set standards for your own conduct, don't chase after someone who's standards / worldview is not yours. This has gone way past the point of simply disagreeing with specifics and hit into the point of a strange repeating pattern. Time to just move on.

[EI Consulting]

This Botty Bot Rubbish from @slhamlet

The evidence paints a completely different picture...

Brace Coral of NCI (New Citizens Incorporated), Toady Nakamura, Flea Bussey and Leslea of Raglan U, and Sen Maximus of Builders’ Brewery report on March 15, 2015:

Linden Lab fakes Education Support for In-World Schools, check the video at 01:00:00 https://www.facebook.com/groups/quality.immersiveworld.journalism/permalink/835817459822154/

https://designingworlds.wordpress.com/2015/03/16/designing-worlds-look-at-inworld-education-now-on-the-web/

NCI, Raglan U, and Builders' Brewery fact predict the poor presentation performance of Linden Lab CEO Ebbe Altberg at VWBPE Conference three days later on March 18, April 2015... Those predicted un-quality gaps did indeed again materialize at the VWBPE Conference, and more

NCI, Raglan U, and Builder's Brewery report of even further-going and graver un-quality gaps in Education domain support.

Linden Lab does not possess the Tangible Willingness and Clout to implement sustainable Quality Action Plans for increasing the Capability Maturity Levels of Quality Education Support

[EI Consulting]

@slhamlet Next to yourself...

You can call Brace Coral of NCI (New Citizens Incorporated), Toady Nakamura, Flea Bussey and Leslea of Raglan U, and Sen Maximus of Builders’ Brewery report the bottiest of Bots now...

I only pointed to the lack of a NextGen presentation slide and lack of NextGen Opportunities (Bells & Whistles was Ebbe's focus) at the VWBPE Conference. No mention was given to the new benchmark bar Windows 10 & 3D Holographics.

[games]

Thanks for this blog is very useful i want to read again and again...