Some Spam Comments Are Not Spam… Recover Them!
By now, you should probably already have some sort of spam filter for your blog like Askimet for Wordpress. Sure, it automatically removes spam comments from your blog without having to manually mark them as spam. But that actually adds another problem: not ALL comments marked spam are spam.
Just to give a quick tip to bloggers, make sure you check your spam filters often. Not all comments marked spam is spam! Trust me, I have to recover 3-5 comments everyday that are actually meaningful comments that have quality and not spammy at all. They can just get marked as spam for any reason, whether it’s because they dropped too many links or because they have keywords in their comments that look spammy. That means that if you have Askimet for Wordpress, for example, check the “Askimet spam” page on your admin panel and look over all the comments marked spam. Don’t just delete all of them with the “delete all” button. There could/should be at least one innocent comment sitting there when it’s not suppose to. De-spam it, and both you and your reader who left that comment are happy.
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I know exactly what you mean. I didn’t realize this until a few days ago when I got curious as to why people were asking me why I removed their comments, I then noticed that some of them where going over as spam.
Sometimes I wonder if I’m okay. It didn’t even occur to me to check all those spams for any comments that might not actually be spam.
Well I went in and the very first one was not spam and then I went through about 900 of them. 99.2% were really spam but a couple were not.
Thanks for giving me a poke in the brain.
James Mann’s last blog post..Creating Back End Offers On Affiliate Sales
Good tip. I know I check my spam filter everyday and I probably have one or two comments in there each day that shouldn’t be. Akismet isn’t perfect, but it sure does make life a lot easier.
Surveys’s last blog post..Yale School of Management eLab - Center for Customer Insights
good point! I found out exactly the same the other day, when I was about to delete the spam comments, there was an innocent (and good!) comment that had somehow found its way to the trashbin!
Mirjam’s last blog post..A “Smile a Day” keeps the Doctor Away
Wow this Is very good to find out about spam filter. I myself did not even know about having a spam filter now that I know will you please tell me how to go about checking out if I have a spam filter or not? Like I said before Im a dummie when it comes to things like this and I do not know if I have a spam filter so how do I find out? I really want to find out so I can go and check to see if I have had any comments on my blogs delted or what? Again thanks for this great information I have learned something new again today. thanks.
lilyruth’s last blog post..How can I do more with Links
I just wish I had 3-5 comments a day period. LOL
Debo Hobo’s last blog post..Aphrodisiac Destinations
DeBo you can get as 3-5 comments a day and more just ofer a contest and make the prize a nice one and you will get lots of comments. And if the prize is money for sure the comments will be coming into your blog. So start a Contest on your Blog and see.
lilyruth’s last blog post..How can I do more with Links
Surveys,
). It uses a combination of time based hash and ajax to block spam (or atleast ensure the commenter was human and not a bot). I use it myself on both my blogs and now get zero spam from an earlier 40+ per day. This doesn’t replace Akismet but does complement it very well. You can check it out at http://wordpresssupplies.com/wordpress-plugins/captcha-free/
Its all a matter of volume. I dont want to be a human spam filter and spend every minute of my day checking for spam. Akismet works okay for me but lets through couple of spam frequently (especially the ones without links). And I hate captchas, I will never put one on my blog. So I wrote a plugin to block comment spam without resorting to captchas called WP Captcha-Free (Sorry for the shameless plug, I hope you don’t take this as comment spam
If you do, let me know what you think!
iDope’s last blog post..WP Status Notifier
So where is the line between a comment and spam? I mean, most spam is obvious, just checking kismet you can see they are not related to the post at all, filled with links etc.
But what about the “great post” comments and putting keywords as a name?
Mirjam’s last blog post..Why a Good Blogger is Like a Top Restaurant
Same here, I had a couple of comments that were filtered as spam but weren’t. I have stopped using Askimet, not because of this issue but because I could not get it working.
Michael’s last blog post..Jaiku vs. Twitter
Bear in mind that it only takes one malicious, irate or incompetent blog owner to send all of your new comments on any blog to the Akismet filter with a single click. I’ve had this happen twice. Fortunately, the staff at Akismet responded quickly to clear my name.
Frank C’s last blog post..Niche Blog Ramblings
I do this too.
I think I check about 2x weekly and there are always some strays that get labeled as spam. I myself was labeled a “spammer” by Akismet about a month ago… and it was a real pain because I couldn’t post a comment anywhere.
If you are labeled a spammer by Akismet, you can just contact them (like I did) and they will help you out when they get to your support request (usually a day or two).
Jim’s last blog post..Top Five Reasons Nobody Likes Your Blog
Askimet may not be perfect but it does learn fast. If one comment goes into the spam folder where it shouldn’t be there in the first place, de-spamming it once will help to filter the comment as legit one the next time round. That’s what I like about it.