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April 29, 2006

When I started this blog, I made a conscious decision to not permit comments. I know it's not particularly democratic (I would be a benevolent dictator), but the alternatives were not very pleasant. I've seen blog after blog be killed with comment spam. The typical way to block it is to start a registration system. But I don't want to collect anyone's email address, nor do I have the time to act as a filter or moderator.

Not allowing comments, however, hasn't stopped comment spammers from trying to sneak their way into this site. Here's the submission from one who must have thought that my Contact Form feeds directly into a visible page somewhere:

Name:
   Alena
Question:
   <a href="http://[domain_removed].com">Hello all</a>I will continue to visit enjoyed the reading thanks

That is the quintessential comment spam—a compliment about how great the blog is, with a link to some spamvertised site. The double goal here is to get search engine crawlers to log a link to the spamvertised site, thus facilitating the spamvertised site being crawled and noted as being linked to by third-party sites.

The spamvertised site didn't even get a visit from me. A little research suggests that it's an "adult" site.

Perhaps the fact that they expended the effort with a very low probability of success means that they're getting more desperate. One can only hope.