Spam is no longer constrained to e-mail; it’s now an ongoing problem within the blog communities, through anonymously posted comments that direct you to the usual array of porn, penis pills, and Prozac. MovableType in particular has been a favourite target due to the simple comment system and it is now essential to run the MT-Blacklist plugin to automatically catch most of it. It’s not a perfect solution though as some spam still leaks through, and you have to be vigilant and keep the blacklist up-to-date.
The MT authors have a new authentication system planned for the next major release though, called TypeKey, which is supposed to solve the spam problem completely. That introduces a few new wrinkles, though…
– It introduces a dependency between my site and another site that didn’t exist before. If their site is down, then you won’t be able to fully use my site. Six Apart seem to know what they’re doing (they already run the fairly large TypePad) and it’ll *probably* be fairly reliable, but it’s still another point of failure.
– Movable Type may be relatively popular, but there will still be a large number of people who won’t already have a TypeKey registration, so having to go and obtain one will be extra work to them.
– And the usual array of privacy concerns, information tracking, etc. for the ultra-paranoid out there. :-)
The net result of all of these is to reduce the odds that someone will comment due to the ‘annoyance’ factor. A first-time visitor that might have left a quick greeting might not bother if it looks like it’s going to be a hassle.
Fortunately, it looks like there will be a middle ground: the comment policy can also be set as ‘moderated,’ where they have to be approved before they will appear, and this can be combined with the TypeKey service so that fully authenticated comments will appear right away and people who don’t want to use it can still leave comments that just won’t show up immediately. What remains to be seen is just what the annoyance factor on having to actually use and choose between these modes will be… And spam will still be able to be submitted in moderated comments, but at least it won’t actually reach the front page.
One wonders why I would even care for a site this small, but hey, I’m a control freak with nothing better to write about at the moment… :-)
I’ve always said commerciality doesn’t belong online… But, since I’m starting to think I’m the only one, there’s nothing else you can do but be reasonably paranoid. :-)
It’s not the span of the site, or the question of what mental state the admin is in (I already know you’re insane — sane people wouldn’t have hung around me for more than a decade like you have [grin]), but the resultant quality of the end product.
Fact is, all that spam ruins the contiguous personalized nature of sites like this (or any, to be honest), and the fact that you put effort forth in controlling it shows that you actually give a shit about your final product; whether it is seen by 2 visitors, or 2 million.
Maybe (again) it’s just me, but I’m more likely to return to a site that is properly cared for than one that is left open to the elements, so to speak.