Five ways to reduce spam in your Comments — From my perspective

With there being so many different ways to rid you self from comment spam. I figured I would suggest some ways to help reduce your spam. On Growmaps Post about Akismet, We were discussing some ways to help reduce spam in her comment moderation and I wanted to post about what I use to help reduce the bots from posting. Anyone can do this because of all the problems we are having with Akismet, I have disabled that on my blog and I haven’t looked back yet.

Having been working to minimize my spam intake.   I have talked about about some email spam problems in the past.  Although there are many reasons why you get spam, the main reason is for someone trying to make money from something they want you to buy or even install!!

As you can see that image I have up shows you the type of spam I get and you probably like me asking yourself why are they trying to leave those comments.   I think I know but this is to help those who might want to get rid of some of the most common comment spam.

  • Bad Behavior Plugin — I am using this plugin with conjunction with my Project Honey Pot to help harvest those bad guys.   This little plugin works in conjunction with Project Honey Pot to determine if it is posting same comments from the same IP.  You will need http:BL API Key to get Bad Behavior to talk to each other.
  • Project Honey Pot — You should understand, there are more than the API KEY.   I installed a few Honeypots on my server to help other content management systems administrators help collect data of possible comment spammers.  This helps others who are trying to fight spam see if there are other sites that this IP is commenting on!!  The more who sign up and install their own honeypots the better off the community is in the long run.
  • WP-Recaptcha — Now this works with logins and Comments to help reduce the amount of possible bots.   Although it is somewhat harder for comments to be written by a true person.   This helps reduce bots but won’t reduce them to much.   You should also protect your Wp-admin subdirectory by using this to help detour scripts from dictionary attacking your password.
  • WP-BAN –  This is proactive solution from just sitting back and doing nothing.   Here you can watch spam and figure out which IP’s are making the most comment spams and prevent them from even accessing your website.   This is great because this will alert the user who has an infected system that can’t access your site and to email the admin.   I haven’t had one of the banned IPS to send me email yet.   So either they don’t want to get on my blog or they are just bots.
  • Comment Spamtrap — This is almost like Project Honey Pot but instead these are hidden to all real users and bots who fill in these forms are reading from HTML and not from the screen. If you fill in all the forms then you will be consider a spammer. So it automatically deletes them or marks them as spam. These are the one that I use to help detour spam bots.

You have to understand in order to fight spam you have to find more than one way to block spam.   I will not be going back to Akismet because I feel I fight back with spam and figure block the ones that I know are spam commenter.     You got to give your comments almost a firewall for bots to get past to get to post comments but there are no guarantees that this will work on all blogs but I do think it is working well with me because of the spam I haven’t gotten in the past few months.   I hope this blog post has helped you and if you know a blogger who is having problems with spam send them to this page.

Have a Good Monday, See you Wednesday!!


I get my glasses from GlassesUSA. They have a Satisfaction Guarantee and evenPrescription Sunglasess for when your out doors. Give them a try, and I know you’ll like them!

Facebook starts the long spiral downward!

 As you can tell we are seeing how more and more people aren’t using Facebook.   I am one of them, I haven’t used Facebook for over 3 weeks.   Why might you ask? I have several reasons and i would like to talk about them.

Security Issues

Yes, that is definitely one of them.   I have seen how they have dealt with it and I am not that comfortable with them.   So I haven’t felt compelled to be on Facebook because of this.  I am not the only who has quit Facebook, check out my Poll.  Here is the current Standings in my Poll:

Are you Going to quit Facebook?

  • 24% Voted Yes
  • 45% Voted No
  • 14% Voted Maybe
  • 17% Voted (Boycott June 6, 2010)

As you can see it means half the votes are staying and other half are leaving or possibly leaving.  Which doesn’t do well with me being that people are leaving it.

The Games on Facebook

I was mainly using Facebook as a way to play games on it. For One of my Favorite games on it is Zynga games.  Although I am unhappy how Facebooks gets to keep that game on there, I do know why though.   This was a last attempt effort to keep on Facebook.   I am sure of it.   So since I won’t be on Facebook, I have no need to play games.   I am hoping Zynga creates there own way to play the game without being on Facebook, if they do that I might return.

Facebook has becoming uninteresting

This is the final reason why I haven’t been on Facebook for over 3 weeks, I am uninterested with Facebook and have no desires to go back. I haven’t however deleted my account but merely haven’t been on Facebook. I see no reason to even go there to delete or put suspend my account. That would merely make it harder to go leave it, because I would want to read messages and other such things. I have decided just to keep away from it for the time being. If Facebook does make a come back, then Maybe but for right now. I have better things to take up my time.

Have a Good Friday, See you Monday


I get my glasses from GlassesUSA. They have a Satisfaction Guarantee and evenPrescription Sunglasess for when your out doors. Give them a try, and I know you’ll like them!

Email Oppurtinities that seem Phishy!!!

Subject: Service manager position. Job ID 1278757758

Subject: New employment opportunity. Vacancy ID 1278793388
From: Xyla Cleveland <lopes_vivian@diamond-sky.net>
Date: Sat, 10 Jul 2010 11:29:22 +0100
To: (hidden)

Our company Diamond Sky, which is dynamically developing with every passing year, is going to offer you the convenience of various perspectives on the prospective position of a service-manager.

We are acting as concierge services in  7 highly-developed countries of the world. Our managers provide assistance in different spheres of business and leisure such as:
– booking of air tickets
– hotel bookings
– car renting
– search, hire and design of conference halls
– search, purchase and delivery of presents

As a result of our managers` assistance our clients are exempt from spending their personal and business time. Due to the fact that the services we deliver are in great demand all over the world, we expand  the stuff and we invite you to participate in the contest for the position of the Service MANAGER and to join, become a member of our company.

MAJOR DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES of the service-manager are mentioned below:
-work with clients
-processing of orders of our clients
-processing and updating of our database of services

Position Requirements:
– efficiency in processing of orders
– responsibility in carrying out your duties
– good communication skills

We are constantly looking for diligent individuals, at all levels, to join our winning team, across all our concierge services divisions.
At Diamond Sky, we distinguish ourselves as a high performance organization with hard-working people who provide quality service to our customers. We believe that one of the most important functions of management is to provide employees with the possibility to develop their talents to the full. The benefits are job satisfaction for our employees enabling them to make a positive contribution to the success of the company.

If this position seems to be interesting to you, you fit the requirements and would like to become a member of our company
send your resume  and your contact phone number to vivian_lopes@xxxxxx and we will contact you.

My Wife got this email and I wanted to talk about how this looks phishy!!   After doing my research about this company, by going to their website. You’ll probably thinking they have a website, well it isn’t a very useful website just a page that has nothing clickable or even any phone numbers or where they are actually located.    This is why I suspect there is more than meets the eye.   I wanted to warn people not send your resumes to people you have no way of verifying because like anything else if you have done your homework, you will have found my website.  This is most likely a way to get your personal information from your resume,   like you name, your email address and you home address and other sensitive stuff.   Since there was no way to contact them directly I would advise caution when you find emails like this and the possibility of a job.   It seems like more and more these scammers and other nefarious people will lure you into giving out your personal information in hopes of landing a job to help pay off your bills and other such necessities.     If you get this email, I would just delete it and do not even consider this a viable source of a job opportunity.    My Wife got 3 different emails from the same place, I also did some searching and I found the website in question was recently made June 29, 2010. Stay Safe and remember do your homework before you jump into anything like this!!


I get my glasses from GlassesUSA. They have a Satisfaction Guarantee and evenPrescription Sunglasess for when your out doors. Give them a try, and I know you’ll like them!

TGIF: Time to watch Babylon 5 Season 1 through 5 On the Roku!!

As many of you know I simply love Science Fiction shows and movies. This weekend I intend to sit down and try to start watching Babylon 5 all the way through. This will be a marathon for me, but I thought people would like to know you can watch these online through your Roku Box and Netflix Accounts right nows. You can also watch these on the Tivo if you have Netflix Subscription!! Since I don’t have the URL’s for the netflix I will show you where else you can you view these:

Babylon 5 is an American science fiction television series created, produced and largely written by J. Michael Straczynski. The show centers on the Babylon 5 space station: a focal point for politics, diplomacy, and conflict during the years 2257–2262. With its prominent use of planned story arcs, the series was often described as a “novel for television”.

 

I must admit when J. Michael Straczynski created this series he made it so you can watch each episode independently of each other but also create it where you could actually think of this as a novel for TV. Let me break it down so you can understand it just a little more, Each season has a season story arch but also a series story arch. For instance the first season we have character development along with understanding all the races. Season two has a season story arch about the impending fight with earth and series story arch of fighting with a new powerful enemy that is on the rise. I won’t spoil it for you but I simply love being able to watch these on my Television set without having to sit at my computer to watch these. I know with all the episodes available to watch on the Roku that I probably won’t get through but One or two seasons this weekend but I will continue next weekend to watch the rest of the series.

Have A Good Friday and See you Monday!!


I get my glasses from GlassesUSA. They have a Satisfaction Guarantee and even Prescription Sunglasess for when your out doors. Give them a try, and I know you’ll like them!

Roku offers more Television for your money!!

New Stuff for the Channel Store:


  • New Stuff for the Channel Store:

    If you haven’t visited the Channel Store lately, I wanted to talk about the new channels that have been installed since previous mentioning of this.

    • Radiotime
    • Nasa TV
    • Film Fun 5
    • Radio Paradise
    • Blastro
    • Liberty News Radio

     

Premium Channels:

  • MHZ On Demand
  • Midwest Caged Championship
  • Weiss Money Network
  • BigStar.Tv

I am really glad they are adding more channels and making it easier to use theRoku.   Even though Netflix hadproblems with the last update, this seems a good step for those of us who like to listen to Music or watch a Space shuttle Take off.

 

I am hoping they will add Hulu to the Channel Lineup in a couple of months.  We have heard about the possiblility from many sources about Hulu becoming a subscription, and this would be one of the many Hulu would want to develop for.  If you haven’t bought a Roku maybe it is time to go check them out!!

 

205627_Lowest Price Ever on Roku $49.99

 

Have a Good Wednesday, and I will see you Friday!


I get my glasses from GlassesUSA. They have a Satisfaction Guarantee and evenPrescription Sunglasess for when your out doors. Give them a try, and I know you’ll like them!