Friday
Jan132012
How Do You Identify Comment Spam and What Do You Do About It?
Friday, January 13, 2012
I've been having an interesting conversation on Twitter with @phdinparenting, @jmatlin, @rebeccakeenan, and @therealneeroc about what constitutes a spam comment these days.
It used to be easy. If a comment showed up after a post that said "I like the way you louis vuitton purses bags leather goods", you knew it was spam and deleted it. Lately, though, it can be difficult to tell if a comment is spam or not, because spammers are leaving much more highly personalized comments than they used to, and there is some disagreement about what constitutes actual spam when the content of a comment is clearly in response to the content of the weblog entry.
The grey areas arise when someone leaves a comment that appears to be legitimately related to your content but the commenter signs with their business link and/or name. Is a comment spam if they sign with the name and url for XYZCarDealership.com? What if they sign with an individual person's name such as "Jeff" but with the url for XYZCarDealership.com? What if they sign with both an individual person's name and an individual person's blog or profile page but leave a sales link within an otherwise legitimate-seeming comment?
I tend to be pretty strict about it. I sell ad space to cover the costs of running this website, and I see this type of commenting as an underhanded way to advertise for free in my home space on the internet. They are using space that I pay for to advertise their products for free. They are using my money to pay for their ad space.
It has been argued that any individual with a blog linked to their name in the comments is doing the same thing, but I don't believe that they are. They are an individual commenting as an individual who leaves a link that leads either to their personal home on the internet or a profile that describes them. They are a person taking part in a conversation. XYZCarDealership.com, on the other hand, can't have an opinion or comment on a website, because a car dealership doesn't a will of its own. You guys, a car dealership doesn't even have fingers to type.
I pay for this space, and I don't pay for it so that other businesses can use it to advertise their cars or purses or whathaveyou for free, so, if either the name or the url attached to a name in a comment is that of a larger business that employs multiple individuals, and if the url does not point to a personal website or a profile that describes an individual, that comment will be considered spam here, and it will deleted. I'd kick a person out of my house if they plastered my walls with commercial advertising without asking, and I'll kick them out here.
Our weblogs' comment sections are not beholden to hosting free advertising space for people, no matter how well-meaning their comments may seem. Don't be fooled. Sometimes that is the ploy to try to make you leave the comment stand. Who knew that free ad space could be bought with guilt?
I also think that there are a number of spammers who honestly don't know that they're spammers these days, because there are these grey areas with regard to how we represent ourselves on the internet and the lines between personal and commercial interests are sometimes blurry. I think unwitting spammers sometimes see a weblog, take a personal interest in the topic at hand, comment, and, without really thinking about it, throw in links to sell stuff without realizing that they come off like that Herb Tarlek character in a cheap suit who's inappropriately treating your space like a sales floor. They've crossed over from being a guest taking part in the conversation to the goon who doesn't know the difference between the car sales lot and your living room.
Have you run into comments on your website that fall into grey areas like this? How do you decide what's spam and what isn't? Do you delete these comments, or do you let them stand?
It used to be easy. If a comment showed up after a post that said "I like the way you louis vuitton purses bags leather goods", you knew it was spam and deleted it. Lately, though, it can be difficult to tell if a comment is spam or not, because spammers are leaving much more highly personalized comments than they used to, and there is some disagreement about what constitutes actual spam when the content of a comment is clearly in response to the content of the weblog entry.
The grey areas arise when someone leaves a comment that appears to be legitimately related to your content but the commenter signs with their business link and/or name. Is a comment spam if they sign with the name and url for XYZCarDealership.com? What if they sign with an individual person's name such as "Jeff" but with the url for XYZCarDealership.com? What if they sign with both an individual person's name and an individual person's blog or profile page but leave a sales link within an otherwise legitimate-seeming comment?
I tend to be pretty strict about it. I sell ad space to cover the costs of running this website, and I see this type of commenting as an underhanded way to advertise for free in my home space on the internet. They are using space that I pay for to advertise their products for free. They are using my money to pay for their ad space.
It has been argued that any individual with a blog linked to their name in the comments is doing the same thing, but I don't believe that they are. They are an individual commenting as an individual who leaves a link that leads either to their personal home on the internet or a profile that describes them. They are a person taking part in a conversation. XYZCarDealership.com, on the other hand, can't have an opinion or comment on a website, because a car dealership doesn't a will of its own. You guys, a car dealership doesn't even have fingers to type.
Three Unofficial Rules About What Constitutes Comment Spam On Schmutzie.com
- Comments signed with names that are not used to refer to one specific individual but instead to larger businesses are spam. For example, names like "Susan" or "CrazyMommyDoodlePants" refer to individual people, but "XYX Car Dealership" does not.
- Comments signed with a link for an individual's name that does not lead to an individual's website or profile page but instead leads to a larger business page is spam. For example, CrazyMommyDoodlePants.com or even XYZCarDealership.com/profile/CrazyMommyDoodlePants do stand to represent an individual, but XYZCarDealership.com alone is not a website or profile page on a website that stands for an individual.
- Comments that include obvious sales links to advertise products unrelated to the weblog entry, no matter how well the rest of the comment applies to the weblog entry in question, are spam.
I pay for this space, and I don't pay for it so that other businesses can use it to advertise their cars or purses or whathaveyou for free, so, if either the name or the url attached to a name in a comment is that of a larger business that employs multiple individuals, and if the url does not point to a personal website or a profile that describes an individual, that comment will be considered spam here, and it will deleted. I'd kick a person out of my house if they plastered my walls with commercial advertising without asking, and I'll kick them out here.
Our weblogs' comment sections are not beholden to hosting free advertising space for people, no matter how well-meaning their comments may seem. Don't be fooled. Sometimes that is the ploy to try to make you leave the comment stand. Who knew that free ad space could be bought with guilt?
I also think that there are a number of spammers who honestly don't know that they're spammers these days, because there are these grey areas with regard to how we represent ourselves on the internet and the lines between personal and commercial interests are sometimes blurry. I think unwitting spammers sometimes see a weblog, take a personal interest in the topic at hand, comment, and, without really thinking about it, throw in links to sell stuff without realizing that they come off like that Herb Tarlek character in a cheap suit who's inappropriately treating your space like a sales floor. They've crossed over from being a guest taking part in the conversation to the goon who doesn't know the difference between the car sales lot and your living room.
Have you run into comments on your website that fall into grey areas like this? How do you decide what's spam and what isn't? Do you delete these comments, or do you let them stand?
categorized in writing and blogging and tagged in blogging, blogs, metablogging, spam, spammers, weblogs
writing and blogging and tagged in blogging, blogs, metablogging, spam, spammers, weblogs 
Reader Comments (23)
For me, there is a lot of grey. Many of the people who comment on my blog are both parents and small business owners. Some of them advertise on my blog all the time, some of them have in the past but do not currently. Some of them are personal friends in addition to being a blog reader and small business owner. A lot of small business owners do not necessarily have a personal blog outside of their own website. A lot of them write the blog for their website and incorporate their personal thoughts into that.
When Julie from Mabel's Labels (who is a friend, a business owner, and a former advertiser on my blog) leaves a comment, she signs it "Julie Cole" and in the URL field she puts mabel.ca (which is her business URL and also the place that she blogs). Her co-owner Tricia Mumby signs her comments "mumby" or "tricia" or "tricia mumby" and also puts mabel.ca as the URL.
That's one example, but there are many others too. These are people who are part of my community. They are friends, stakeholders, businesses that I frequent, and clients. Their home on the Internet is the URL of their small business and I'm okay with them linking to it in the URL field (but not through links in the text of the comment itself).
Mostly though, I decide on a case by case basis and just use my best judgment rather than having hard and fast rules.
Annie, see, I agree with you. Julie blogs at Mabel.ca, so that is her space, so I wouldn't call it spam, either.
I'm still on Blogger but their recently updated spam comments feature is perfect for this. It catches many of the comments that you mention and I only periodically have to double check for them. They don't publish unless I reverse the process and let them through.
But in direct response to your question, No, I don't allow the comments that you mention, in any form, if I'm aware of them. It's my space and I don't allow it, period.
This topic is in the air lately; I've seen a couple of posts dedicated to it in the past week. And just a few hours ago, I deleted a particular comment that was one of those super-personalized ones. I hated doing it, because the comment was praise for a photo my blogging partner shot, and the pic deserved praise. How do I know that a comment praising Heather's image with a link from cheap-calendar-printing is spam but a comment link for, say, phdinparenting.com isn't? I guess it's a cop-out for me to say I just know. I might click on a link if it sounds like it might possibly be legitimate, or double-check to see if the hit came from certain parts of the world known for spam, but ordinarily I delete within ten seconds of seeing the comment. If I inadvertently delete a real comment, then the comment-leaver's welcome to leave me a tirade of hatespew in my contact form.
This then is probably a spam post by your definition.
I'm a mixed media artist and (one of my) blog(s) highlights my work in the hope that someone will like it, buy it, and support me. I talk about my artistic process on all of my blogs, and there are links on where to buy scattered throughout. My online life is an extension of my artistic process, and that life includes interacting with my online community.
What it doesn't involve however, is an overt "buy my carp" message ... but it's there if you click through the links.
Is an artist interacting with the community, spam?
pomomama, your comment doesn't even qualify as spam a little bit by my stated standards. Your link is to a site that is yours and is about you. It establishes who you are individually as a commenter.
... but if i comment with my business url, and the post/comment doesn't even relate to the arts business?
of course, i'm hoping readers will click through to my business and like what they see by including the link - that's what networking is, and as such could potentially be categorised as spam by someone applying a stricter definition of your standards where interaction equates to unsolicited marketing.
pomomama, if your business url is yours alone and not some larger business like "GeneralMotors.com" or "ManoloBlahnikshoes.com", I don't see a problem. It's still a url that defines who YOU are as a commenter and not some larger business that is not you. I would only call it spam if the url didn't define you individually as a commenter.
I don't think I've had any grey areas of spam comments - mine seem pretty clear cut and they're mostly caught by whatever spam catcher thingy is in Wordpress. I guess it would have be dealt with on a one-off basis depending on the relationship (or lack thereof) I had with a person.
I haven't had to deal with much grey area either. Blogger isn't even coming close to catching all of the knockoff purse links that have been sent my way lately, but the content is pretty black and white.
The only thing that bothers me a bit now (and I'm sure I was guilty of it when starting out) is the "Great blog! Please check out mine at www... and you can follow me on Twitter and Facebook too..." etc. I'd rather have someone leave a thoughtful message and sneak in a company link than just a random, meaningless comment.
I haven't had to deal with much grey area either. Blogger isn't even coming close to catching all of the knockoff purse links that have been sent my way lately, but the content is pretty black and white.
The only thing that bothers me a bit now (and I'm sure I was guilty of it when starting out) is the "Great blog! Please check out mine at www... and you can follow me on Twitter and Facebook too..." etc. I'd rather have someone leave a thoughtful message and sneak in a company link than just a random, meaningless comment.
Why you gotta hate?
Very funny :)
I'm getting a lot more of these comments where they specifically address something I post about in the comment and then they put the little bit of self promotion for something in the post-script.
It's quite hard to mistake spam for genuine comments these days because:
1/ software usually flags spam comments
2/ bots don't really have a way with words
3/ if a comment written in an alphabet you don't normally use, chances are it is also completely unrelated to your blog post
4/ plentiful linkage is a bit of a giveaway.
Disclaimer: I am a bit of a pedant.
Hannah Joy Curious, we're not talking about the same kind of spam. You're talking about bot spam, which is easy to spot.
I'm talking about actual people, not bots, who come to your blog and leave actual comments that relate to your entry with their primary objective being to leave sales links either in the comment or to sneak them in as their name links. Software often doesn't flag those.
Some people don't seem to get much of this kind of spam, but some people, like myself, seem to be getting more and more of it.
Ugh, I struggle with this issue a lot lately. One of my more popular posts is called "an experienced mom's guide to birthday parties in Ottawa." I wrote it as exactly that -- advice from my perspective as a mom. With three kids, we've tried lots of local places for birthday parties, and some do better than others. It's got lots of google fu, so comes up pretty close to the top when you google anything about Ottawa, kids and parties.
Like you, I accept some paid ads, and so when Debbie's Cupcakes posts something to promote her mom-run cupcake business, I'm at a bit of a loss. I want to be nice and promote local businesses, but I want to choose when to do it. And I feel like something in the comments is something I've personally endorsed. And then once I started deleting the more blatant ones, I felt like I had to delete the grey-area ones, too, just to be fair.
The other end of the spectrum is some pretty harsh rants against local businesses I've also had to delete because I didn't think it was fair of the commenter to use my google fu to slam a business for an occasion or event I have no knowledge of.
If someone leaves an e-mail address, I'll write them a quick note telling them why I deleted their comment. If not, oh well.
It's a minefield, I tell you!
@schmutzie: quite. Therefore #4 applies: plentiful linkage. Because that rarely is about other interesting things related to the post. Also, I may be old school but rather than cram tons of links into a blog post comment, I'd rather carry on the conversation directly with the blogger by sending an email. That way, I don't add background noise that might detract from the post itself. I think it is only a matter of time until spam detection software can pick up those opportunistic, salesy and marketingy commenters though. Meanwhile, happy sifting! ;-)
Some people don't seem to get much of this kind of spam, but some people, like myself, seem to be getting more and more of it.
Do you know what made a difference for me--and I mean, a huge difference? I went into the custom CSS and used display: none to hide the Squarespace headings in the comment section, the ones that say "reader comments", "post a new comment," and "enter your information..." I noticed from stats that a lot of my human-generated spam was a result of google searches on "post a new comment" and etc., and that doesn't happen now. I went from an average of 4-6 spam a night, four or so nights per week, to maybe one every month or so. The headings/instructions don't need to be there. People know what to do when they encounter the comment form at the end of a blog post. I think it took around a week to make a real difference. It's worth a try!
Kim, that is a fantastic tip. I will keep it in mind, and I just might use it!
God knows I don't have to worry about this. But at times I do read a comment with some dismay!
I don't get a lot of comments, but when I do get one that actually relates to my post, but also appears to be from a free-loader, I just remove the URL from their comment. In general though, if a comment adds value to my post, I will leave it alone. I figure if the poster has put some time and energy into their comment, then I don't mind rewarding them with a link.
As a small business owner, I do include my URL on the rare occasion that I do comment. Not because it helps me advertise directly (my business is highly localized), but because I am given the option of including it, and it does help my search engine rankings when someone local is searching for my product, so I might as well take advantage. If the host doesn't feel that my comment adds anything of value, I don't feel bad if they delete it.
I've had a lot of these lately. They sting even more because I get so few valid comments. (However, I seem to be highly popular with the bot spammers. *sigh*)
I'll read a comment and it will seem that the commenter actually read my post. It may even be somewhat insightful. And then I see that "John" left the link for BuyThisJunk.com or some other commercial site in the URL field. Now I'm left with deleting the only comment on my post or leaving what might be considered spam on my blog. Either way, I lose.
Sometimes I'll remove the comment, sometimes I'll keep it and sometimes I do what Brian does and leave the comment, but remove the URL.