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Anyone Else Seeing a Sudden Comment Spam Surge?

A graphic reading, 'Warning Spam' on a tablet123RF

As of a couple of weeks ago, I spotted something unusual: more comments. Unfortunately, it was the result of a comment spam surge.

In the early days of this blog, I received a good bit of comments with every post. Some posts received as many as 20 comments or more. Most these days — in the world of social media — are lucky to receive more than one. But all of a sudden, I noticed more than 10 comments in the moderation queue. Once, I saw more than 25 waiting to be approved. But I trashed each one of them. That’s because a comment spam surge was at work.

For a long time, I didn’t like the idea of moderating comments at all. Years ago, I used a wonderful comment moderation tool called Livefyre. It did a great job of identifying comment spam and not letting it get through. For everyone else, their comments went up right away.

I believed that the faster legit comments went up, the better the chance an organic discussion would take place. I still think I’m right about that notion. Livefyre eventually went fully commercial and, the last time I checked on it, which was years ago, the cost was prohibitive for smaller bloggers like me. It’s been a while since I’ve even looked it up, so it may not even exist anymore.

A couple of years ago, operating without Livefyre and seeing an uptick in comment spam prompted me to reconsider.

For years, however, I had not seen a comment spam surge like this one. I almost never had spam for a while. But all of a sudden, there were more than a dozen new comments, almost all of them spam. Many contained URLs that led to adult content. I’m sure others probably pointed to sites that contained various forms of malware. (I was smart enough not to actually click those links.)

The point was, since all comments face moderation, you didn’t see any of those spam comments!

I’ve checked on spam-fighting plugins like Akismet and Bad Behavior — two I recommend — but there are no updates waiting.

I don’t know what’s causing the sudden influx. But if you’re seeing it, too, it may be time to turn on comment moderation for your site as well.

It’s a shame such things are necessary, but you certainly don’t want your readers to see that kind of content on your site, right?

the authorPatrick
Patrick is a Christian with more than 30 years experience in professional writing, producing and marketing. His professional background also includes social media, reporting for broadcast television and the web, directing, videography and photography. He enjoys getting to know people over coffee and spending time with his dog.