We’ve been having trouble with Askimet, a WordPress plugin that intercepts comment spam. Any links included in the comment and the comment gets treated like spam, even though I’ve set it to allow up to 10 links in a comment. It even happens to me if I’m not logged into my WordPress account.
So I’ve turned off Askimet for now and installed Defensio, another WordPress plugin/service for intercepting comment spam. Help me test it out by attaching worthless comments with links in them.
testing
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/arianna-huffington/obamas-first-100-days-the_b_191831.html
Here are some links:
Wigley and Associates
Northfield photo albums
how spammy is this one????
prts spammy lol
http://twitter.com/home
Two post(s) that I just attempted on the atheist thread were both rejected.
Okay, Patrick, I found them and approved them. Try a comment here with a couple of links. This spam filter is supposed to ‘learn’ more quickly.
Apologies for the hassle and thanks for your help!
Thanks. What is it supposed to ‘learn’? I’m not likely to link to that site (or anywhere else on vatican.va) any time soon.
Patrick, no, it ‘learns’ that you are not a spammer, even though you include links in your comments.
So just copy/paste these into a new comment here:
http://northfield.org/
http://kymnradio.net/
http://northfieldguide.com/
Griff,
It hasn’t learned yet. Lost another post in the Atheism thread.
So this is supposed to help?:
I’m learning, too, Patrick. 😉
When it intercepts a comment, it puts them in 3 categories:
Somewhat spammy
Moderately spammy
Quite spammy
I think you’re working your way from ‘quite’ to ‘somewhat’
Next time you have a post with links, put a comment here with the links first and then wait for me to approve it here…. then post the comment in the intended thread.
This one was rejected:
http://www.startribune.com/newsgraphics/44095072.html?elr=KArks8c7PaP3E77K_3c::D3aDhUoaEaD_ec7PaP3iUiacyKUUr
http://www.startribune.com/politics/state/44100537.html?elr=KArksLckD8EQDUoaEyqyP4O:DW3ckUiD3aPc:_Yyc:aUUr
Rejected:
http://www.startribune.com/newsgraphics/44095072.html?elr=KArks8c7PaP3E77K_3c::D3aDhUoaEaD_ec7PaP3iUiacyKUUr
http://www.startribune.com/politics/state/44100537.html?elr=KArksLckD8EQDUoaEyqyP4O:DW3ckUiD3aPc:_Yyc:aUUr
Griff,
I’ve been rejected again.
Dang.
Patrick, can you drop another comment here with a long URL or two in it?
How’s this:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spam_filter#Methods
Or this:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/05/07/AR2009050703055.html?hpid=opinionsbox1
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/05/07/AR2009050704275.html?hpid=topnews
http://www.startribune.com/sports/vikings/44568107.html?elr=KArksLckD8EQDUoaEyqyP4O:DW3ckUiD3aPc:_Yyc:aUnciaec8O7EyUsl
Batting 50% on those four.
http://www.startribune.com/sports/vikings/44565407.html?elr=KArksi8cyaiU9PmP:QiUiacyKUnciaec8O7EyUr
http://www.startribune.com/nation/44551347.html?elr=KArksi8cyaiU9PmP:QiUiacyKU7DYaGEP7vDEh7P:DiUX
http://movies.nytimes.com/2009/05/08/movies/08trek.html?8dpc
http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2009/05/obama-fires-a-military-linguist.html
75% on those four.
http://www.theonion.com/content/news/area_girlfriend_boyfriend_achieve?utm_source=a-section
http://www.theonion.com/content/news_briefs/new_book_alleges_there_was?utm_source=a-section
http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2009/05/the-case-of-the-disappearing-tapes.html
http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2009/05/07/cheney-mistake-for-gop-to-%E2%80%98moderate%E2%80%99/
.250 on the last four.
Is it learning?
Griff,
Another post of mine was just rejected on the “Enforcing Community Expectations” thread.
We’re still getting too many ‘false positives’ so I’m testing a new comment spam plugin today:
WP-SpamFree
http://www.hybrid6.com/webgeek/plugins/wp-spamfree
Let me know if you experience problems with comments.
Griff,
I seem to have a post stuck in “awaiting moderation” again. Any idea why?
Actually, my guess (since post 31 above went in just fine) is that it didn’t like some of the words I used.
Bad words. Words like… well, I guess I shouldn’t dare repeat them here.
Perhaps you could try to find out which words this program doesn’t like, and then I could refrain from using them?
aarrrgggh. More problems with commenting, and I suspect the WP-Spamfree plugin that we’ve been using. People are sometimes seeing this error message and losing the text of their comments:
“Sorry, there was an error. JavaScript and Cookies are required in order to post a comment”
I’ve disabled it for now and reactivated Askimet. [sigh]
Griff,
FYI: Your “comments” box automatically rejects/fails-to-post any message which contains a link with a “_” in it.
Griff,
Your “comments” box automatically rejects/fails-to-post any message which contains a [underline character] in it.
It seems to be the biggest impediment to posting links.
_
test_test
…except, apparently for a message that contains nothing but an [underline character].
In any other message, immediately after clicking “submit comment”, the [underline character] is immediately replaced by the text “_” before the message disappears into the ether.
…except, apparently for a message that contains nothing but an [underline character].
In any other message, immediately after clicking “submit comment”, the [underline character] is immediately replaced by the text [PRESENCE OF THE TEXT, CONTAINING THE NUMBER 95, AND AN & AND A # ALSO PREVENTS POSTING] before the message disappears into the ether.
Patrick,
I’ve deleted all the words from the WordPress list of words and phrases that automatically mark a comment as spam. Many of those words contained hyphens and underscores.
Can you submit another test comment?
Apologies for the hassle. I know it’s frustrating for you and others. It’s a big pain in the butt for me!
How’s This_This?
Test comment with underline rejected.
Griff,
I suggest the following; it might help with the ‘underline character’ glitch:
Try typing “Word[underline character]Word” (no spaces) into the ‘Leave a Reply’ comment window. Watch how the website instantly changes the underline character to a string of other characters, before going on to the next page.
I suspect there is a clue in that moment.
… it will also reject any message that contains that forbidden string of characters.
Here’s comment submitted while not logged into WordPress and using a different email address.
word_word
Thanks, Dr. Enders, for that great diagnosis! I saw the underscore in my ‘word underscore word’ change to
word & # 95 ; wordI’ll investigate more.
Here’s another test, this time with the WMD editor plugin disabled.
words_words
Patrick,
Disabling the WMD editor plugin seems to have solved the underscore problem for me.
Try it now.
Help_Me_Please.
Test link:
http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2009_09/020072.php
Griff,
Thanks! The glitch appears to be fixed!
Yay! Thank YOU, Patrick. Now I just have to hunt for another WYSIWYG comment editor.
Griff- Was the “WYSIWYG comment editor” the program that added the little tool bar across the top of the comment box? I miss that feature. I never did figure out the old block-quote process. More PEBKAC on my part.
Yep, that was it, John. But take heart, my son! I’m on the trail of a new WYSIWYG comment editor.