Q. What does the TeleBlog comment area have in common with Oxford or Harvard?
A. The “getting in” ratio.
No, it isn’t that TeleBlog asks that much. It’s just that the spamsters and their bots are mounting an all-out attack on this and other blogs, distorting the usual ratio. All over the cosmos, greedsters are trying to get links to boost their Google ranks, and as one of the Feedster 500 blogs, we get our share of attention. Just now, in one swoop, I deleted 20 comments with “shoe” in ’em and added the word to my anti-spam filter. For now, at least, “shoe” will get you bounced if you mention it in a comment.
Oh, and then there’s the Kluxer-minded imbecile in or near beautiful Mcdonough, Georgia. Alas, he isn’t a spambot, just a real live bigot whose IP address I may share with Charter, Henry County authorities and the ADL’s Atlanta office if he threatens me again. “Eat s— and die jew scum,” he suggested. I deleted his excrement. His next would-be post asked why I’d zapped him. If that’s indicative of the IQ of the white-sheet crowd and similar dreck, I guess we’re safe. For what it’s worth, the TeleBlog willl continue its policy of deleting hate comments, whether they’re against Jews, black people, Muslims, albinos or Eskimos. The TeleBlog isn’t Usenet or an information utility like a search engine, and people here prefer a good signal-to-noise ratio.
Needless to say, legit comments are not just welcome, but cherished, especially your own thoughts on the comment-spam crisis. If our electronic Doberman won’t let you through, just write us at drNOSPAMteleread.com.
Tip: If you’re running WordPress 1.5 or above, try Spam Nuke to permanently delete the bad stuff from the tables of your database. Otherwise the comments will remain hidden there, even if you’ve already identified them as spam. Caveat: Use this tip at your own risk. You may want to back up your database before trying Spam Nuke.
