Akismet caught 100k spam on This ‘N That
Yes, since installed a few months ago akismet caught 102,564 spam comments on this blog. I understand that the spammers send so many, hoping that a few will find their way to the blog, and it probably happens on other blogs. I hold all first time comments in moderation, just because I’m too sick and tired of comment spam.
But my question is, and I’d be glad for an answer, is why do they even bother spamming WordPress blogs? My understanding is that they use comment spam to create higher search engine ratings for sites. The problem is that WordPress automatically inserts rel="nofollow" to all links in comments, telling search engines not to follow any links in comments. So why are they still spamming us?
paul | June 23, 2007,
the ref=”nofollow” was a reaction to spam comments. Not every wordpress blog has enabled this option. A Spammer who sends out millions of request per hour wont bother about these details…
Not all Searchengines ignore links with ref=”nofollow”. See http://www.einfach-persoenlich.de/2007-05-13/google-harte-fakten-zu-nofollow-bei-google-yahoo-ask.html
for some details.
Beside the SEO-Effect there are still many people who click on the links and maybe on some of the adds waiting there. Or they buy one of the Products.
There are even more answers to this
Nice to have things like Kismet, Captcha and “silly Questions” to separate between Spam and Users.
Cheers,
Paul
paul | June 23, 2007,
Oh damn, i forgot to thank for the nice Photo plugin. Thanks and keep up the nice work!
Robbie | June 24, 2007,
I don’t have any kind of protection on my blog for spam comments, only the first time comment approval.
But I probably don’t get nearly much visits as you do. Also, they’re just probably happy with someone clicking on their links.