Changes, Because People Suck

By Cyrris

It’s hard to write this without using expletives. But Taco must have had the same problem, because he’s already said what I wanted to say. Recently, Aelon was hit by it’s first barrage of spam comments. Holliday was able to erase all but one of them (why he couldn’t delete the last one is beyond me, and obviously beyond WordPress), but thankfully it’s all clean now. In light of this, I’ve had to make some changes to minimise the chances of it happening again.

To prevent anonymous spam posts, which made up the majority (so far), all users are now required to enter their nickname (which wasn’t an issue before), but are now also required to enter in their e-mail as well. I would have been happy with just entering the nickname, but WordPress only has the option for both or nothing. Your e-mail is not publicly displayed at all, so spam bots will never find it.

Also, any comments made which have 3 or more links in them will not be displayed until they have been authorised by me, or (WordPress-willing) one of the other staff. Also, some common words associated with spam posts have been recorded, and posts which contain any of these words will likewise need to be moderated before they’re put up. To make things easier for yourself, don’t put the word “Viagra” in any of your comments.

So, that’s what it’s come down to. I don’t know exactly how effective it will be. Moreso, I hope that this doesn’t really affect the commenting styles of anyone here, but I’m not going to sit around and let spam take over the place. Continue as you were, and if you see any spam comments, please contact one of the staff.