Eve is conducting a comic-reading study and is looking for participants. If you participate by March 31, you could win some yarn! You don’t have to be a knitter to participate – presumably no non-knitters would be forced to take yarn.
I can’t possibly be the only WordPress blogger getting crushed by comment spam, can I?! I swear, I must’ve had 3,000 spam comments in the past week. I have added the Worst Offenders plugin for Akismet to see if that helps make things more manageable – so far, so good. I know a lot of people use Bad Behavior, but when I tried it for a day or two, it blocked many legitimate commenters, so it has been banished. Other than Spam Karma or adding a verification word, do any of you have good tips for fighting comment spam?
Reading Update
Revenge of the Wrought-Iron Flamingos, We’ll Always Have Parrots, and Owls Well That Ends Well by Donna Andrews. Three more Meg Lanslow mysteries, as our brave blacksmith takes on a Revolutionary War reenactment, a sci-fi convention, and a 30-family yard sale. These are fun, goofy, and well-written; I’m enjoying them!
Don’t Look Down by Jennifer Crusie and Bob Mayer. Think chicklit meets 24. Can a stoic Green Beret and a woman who makes dog food commercials find true love?
Here are a few pictures of our parking lot from inside my car when I finally ventured out into the snowy world on Saturday. Our plowing company is so in trouble.
I have a cold again. Blech. Alas, I can’t take stuff like Airborne, which is not recommended for people who have autoimmune disorders, so I’m toughing it out. Chaos is very unhappy about my cold.
“Mom, you keep sneezing and coughing and you scare me and I have to run away and hide and then it looks like I’m a ‘fraidy cat! Hmph. You’re bad for my image.” -C
“Face it, big kitty, you are a ‘fraidy cat! It’s just coughing and sneezing. What’s the big deal?” -M
Look at all that snow! And blue sky!
Bummer about the cold!! That’s so funny, Gandalf jumps sky high whenever I blow my nose.
Atticus will “meow” ever so quietly whenever I sneeze – even if he’s dozing. It’s his way of saying “bless you”, I suppose.
Wow, you sure got alot of snow. Hope you are feeling better soon.
Ugh. We’ve been trading around an ugly head cold here too.. sorry you got hit by the bug.
WOW ~ did you get snow or what??
Get well!
I could not live with snow. No No No. I could not bear the snow.
Thank you, and thus endeth the Dr. Seuss-like commentary for today. Feel better soon!!
Between Akismet and Bad Behavior (without the extreme options turned on), my comment spam has gone away. Thank god! But I get fewer comments in general than you do, so that probably has something to do with it.
Good luck shaking the cold. This is the time of year for them!
I didn’t know Airborne was a no-no for auto-immune disorders. My best friend has lupus and is the one who recommended it for me. I wonder if she knows!!
feel better — stay in, drink tea, and knit!!
Feel better soon!
Chris- Too bad about the cold.
Doesn’t look like you’ll get much sympathy from the feline contingent.
Poor dear, I hope you start to feel better soon! And that you didn’t have to dig your car out of too much snow.
Ugh, I’m sorry you’ve got a cold. Dave is just getting over a really nasty one…there seems to be a lot of crappy bugs going around!
I get *ridiculous* amounts of spam. Hardcore porno spam. I have Akismet and it’s caught almost 10,000 spams since we installed it late last year.
That’s a lot of snow. Hope you feel better soon.
Feel better. Stay warm. Drink hot stuff and knit as much as you can.
Well obviously, Chaos is just more sensitive.
My Mom always used to make me take Echinacea and Garlic Pills when I got sick. Makes you have the most horrendous breath, but it always seemed to help me. Get well soon!
Sorry you are feeling bad. Do you take emergen-c?
http://www.alacer.com/
Comment verification worked for me but as you know our verification will block you if you mistype the code so I don’t know how many legit commenters it has blocked.
Since I’ve been using it I haven’t gotten any spam comments at all. Though I still get tons of random spam hit from pages of people looking for pron. They must be so disappointed when they hit the link for whatever gross act and get my site!
Poor Chaos! Oops & you too, of course
Hope you get better soon!
I am so deprived for attention that I find the spam flattering and life-reaffirming.
Hope you get feeling better soon! Yes, I’ve been increasingly hit with the spammers. Seems to be the same one and they never commnet on current entries. It’s always some from the previous month.
I don’t understand comment spam but then again I don’t understand much of humanity. Ahem! I use akismet too.
Snow! I guess you have a little bit of it now
Poor poor Chaos. Such a delicate flower. How dare you have a cold to disturb him?!?!
Hope you are better soon! Poor ‘fraidy cat.
I can’t take that stuff either. Be well soon!!
Poor Chaos! Poor Mom! Get better soon…
and yeah, that’s a farce – they “cleaned the lot?” Sure…
(I’ve been there.)
(((hugs)))
hope the plows made it by now! And that you’re feeling better. I just moderate any new comments – anyone who left comments before I changed the setting is automatically approved. It seems to work ok so far.
There’s another problem with wordpress — see their blog at:
http://wordpress.org/development/
Snippet: “Long story short: If you downloaded WordPress 2.1.1 within the past 3-4 days, your files may include a security exploit that was added by a cracker, and you should upgrade all of your files to 2.1.2 immediately.”
aw, feel better! (maybe you got it from all that comment spam?)
funny, i almost did a post yesterday on my fave cold rememdies (but blogger ate it, and i was too lazy to rewrite it)
mainly losts of rest and fluids, Vicks Vapor Rub (or eucalyptus and menthol essential oils in the vaporizer), slippery elm lozenges &/or tea for sore/scratchy throat, and as much wasabi or horseradish as you can possibly bear to eat for congestion
if the wasabi doesn’t conflict with your gluten-free regimen, it’s one of the absolute best things i’ve ever used for stuffy head/congestion. the powdered stuff from whole foods or the health food store is very inexpensive–you mix it with enough water for form a paste and it’ll knock your socks off.
i spread it on granny apple slices to make it more bearable. yes, it’ll feel like your head is aflame and your eyeballs are bleeding, but i haven’t had brochitis or a sinus infection since i started using it.
Well, I must say, since my computer crash I have not had one single spam on my blog!!!! I am 100% convinced that the amount of spam you get is related to the cookies you have on your computer. I always clear out my cookies and notice that if I don’t I get lots of spam.
Sorry that you’ve got another cold… hope it will go on a vacation elsewhere soon
Cheers Eva
Another cold! You poor thing. Hope you feel better soon.
When we sneeze, Basil takes off flying!
sorry you’re not feeling well again. i swear by that grape kiddy medicine, dimetapp DM (for nighttime). it lets me sleep, which is SO difficult to do when you’ve got the hacking cough.
After you’re done yelling at your plowing company do you want to call my city and give them a little something to chew on. Monday morning & still no follow-up plow since sometime Friday. The ruts will swallow small children on their way to the bus stop.
But – the good news comes Friday when we should see 40! I see a swing from the kntting of hats to the knitting of bags…
I prescribe lots of kitty snuggling, lots of hot liquids, and plenty of mystery reading and fiber fondling!
I’m happy to report that I have absolutely zero spam comments! I guess that could probably be due to the fact that no one reads my blog…..but that’s beside the point! So I must cleverly conclude that the amount of spam one receives correlates directly to having actual readers…
Hope you’re feeling better!
But it would be so much fun if we could read some of those spam comments – PLEEEEEEASE!!!!
So sorry about your spam! (Deb’s got a point!). I don’t get any w/ livejournal, but the blog is not as widely read as yours, so not sure if this represents different host or what. Sucks you have another cold. Vaporizers! Steamy pots of water with stuff like peppermint, eucalyptis, mullein in it and you with a towel over your head! How about Dr. Rappaport’s remedy? Freshly squeezed lemon, with crushed and minced garlic clove and a pinch of cayenne. Toss it back like a big shot, with a vit c. It’s a big gaggy at first, but has a really good aftertaste!
I’m sorry you’ve got a cold. I’ve finally kicked mine (hooray!), but it took several uses of my neti pot to do so. Have you tried using one? It’s really a weird sensation but it helps, I swear!
For the spam, I installed the Comment Timeout plugin and put in a fairly short time-out period, something like two weeks since last comment or since the post was made. That’s cut down a ton on the spam comments I get. I don’t use any of the other spam blockers, but my blog gets way less traffic than yours does. I hope you’re able to find something that works!
Poor baby! How can you get well when it’s so darn cold? Come to California! We’re back to our normal frigid winter temps – 70ish.
May! Tsk. That face! She so looks like she’s lording it over Chaos but it’s probably a completely different time pic. So cute.
Bummer about the spam!
Feel better!!
That’s a lot of snow….
Whenever I feel stuffy, ’cause I don’t like to take cold medicine unless I can’t get off the couch/bed, I do one of two things: eat some hot and sour soup or eat some jalapeno-based salsa – the soup works wonders, and the salsa is excellent at making your nose run!
Hope you feel better soon!
Hope you feel better soon. Katie does the same thing when I sneeze. It surprises her and she runs away. Take care of yourself and cuddle with the kitties.
Hope you feel better soon! No fair having two colds in one winter.
I love May’s expression! And as for Chaos… he’s a guy, they’re wimps about illness, you know. That’s a bummer about the spam. I had tons during the holiday season, then it suddenly stopped around New Year’s. I don’t know of any other options other than what you’ve mentioned. What if you used a word verification temporarily? There might be a decrease after a few days? Feel better soon!
Hope you’re better soon! Colds are just rotten.
I hope you feel better soon! My cats love it when I’m sick. It means I’ve got a lap available.
Ugh, snow and viruses. Every once in awhile I think living somewhere, like, say, Montana, would be cool. Then I think about shoveling snow. No thanks.
Hope you feel better soon.
hmmm, I use Akismet and rarely do any get through, once a month or so maybe. Is it just not working for you? I have it set up so the first post has to be approved, but so far so good. I get lots of spam, but rarely have to actually deal with it.
Sorry about the cold, drink lots of fluids and do lots of kitty snuggling and you’ll feel better in no time. =)
Stay warm, and I’m sending healthy thoughts your way now! I’m finally feeling better!
Akismet stopped most of my spam (which was crazy like yours) but a couple have come through lately. Still, I’m happy with it.
Hope your cold is better soon.
I hope you feel better soon!! Love your kitty paw photos and also the catnip series. I hope those socks are behaving themselves for you!
I hope you feel better soon!
Our neighbors have a big black cat named Satan. He is a total scaredy cat, too. In fact, we find it funny that their other cat, Spiderman, instills terror in Satan, Lord of Darkness. Maybe it’s the black coat!
oh, I just love May’s little white spot!
hmmm… anti-spam… I like that verifier thing that Sundara’s got. I’ll need to investigate it later.
Get better soon!
Hope you are feeling better soon and thanks for posting about that Daft Cat the other day. Spicy is anxiously anticipating hers hopefully coming on Friday!
so sorry that you’re feeling badly. how about astragalus? it’s an herbal extract that is added to water?? maybe that one would be good?
Willow kitty used to run and hide whenever someone sneezed too. Chaos, you’re not the only one with sneezophobia! Looks like it was a perfect day to stay inside and snuggle under a cover on the couch.
Sorry you aren’t feeling well. Arg.
I signed up for the comic reading study AND posted a share on my facebook–maybe some students will sign up (of course, that assumes students are actually reading my facebook site, which is assuming a lot, since it isn’t about them).
And spam comments? See, I think about switching from LJ, but I can have locked or selected locked comments there (the switching part is so people without LJ could see them, but I still wouldn’t want everyone to see them, so I stick with LJ) and I don’t get any spam. Some day we’ll have to chat. I feel behind the times about types of blogs and feeds; perhaps you can shed some light. (this isn’t a pressing issue–perhaps after my conference at the end of March).
That’s right May, give him some tough love.
*sigh* I’m loving your snow. WE had some snow here in Pennsylvania (laughs out loud at what is pitifully called *snow* here) and the Monkey has the day off.
Oh how I envy that snow..
Wow – that is a LOT of snow