So: the dirtiest city in Russia is bad.

Will that do it?

Even with approval of first post, which stops most of them, spammers get by. Usually the ones who are more grammatically correct with their English, and who have hidden the link somewhere in their signature or profile so the moderator doesn't see it. Still, it does require a fair amount of time and I'd love to put them all out of business.

Whether Chelyabinsk is the dirtiest city in Russia, I am not qualified to say.

That only follows if you assume that dirtiness is a total ordering. The grammatical structure of comparatives in natural languages does invite that assumption, but I'm not sure it actually matches how we perceive "more dirty" in reality.

If we can conceive of two kinds of dirtiness that cannot be compared for which is worst, then it is possible that Chelyabinsk is only maximally dirty without actually being dirtiest city in Russia.

I've never had anyone ask for a Belarusian version of my page, but I figured, no harm done. So I said: Okay, as long as you credit it, link back to the original, and don't use it commercially.

After they did it, they got very persistent about asking for a link back to it (with both repeated emails and eventually an international phone call). I had a look at what they did, and while there were no visible ads or out-links on the page itself, it was hosted not on any blog I could find, but on the domain of a site that pitched bank loans.

At which point the penny dropped. (My site has high PageRank, and any link from such a site to a particular domain can have the effect of boosting the search engine rankings of that domain.) I said no, I'm not linking back, and please remove the page you made.

We'll see what happens next. But I suspect I'm not the only one to get approached with a scheme like this.

I've got a contact form on my site that was supposed to reduce spam -- only somehow spambots are getting to that too now. I hate capthas so instead, I added a dropdown list where the default selection is "I'm a spambot." It's amusing right now to see how many messages come through with the tag "I'm a spambot" but eventually I'm going to get bored and have them sent directly to my trashcan.

Thanks for the info on those too-generic-but-otherwise-seemingly-harmless comments. Now I don't feel bad about deleting them!

In addition, another dozen comments were stopped by the filters (which have been adjusted again).

Also, I wonder if there's a site out there somewhere where spammers sit around complaining about sites that purge inactive users and employ clever spambot catchers.

I've seen at least one small wiki which, despite a fair bit of public participation, is effectively dead, because the two "real" owners went off to do something else... and the one empowered user wasn't up to daily cleanup, and didn't have the access to work on automated defenses. (Also: "the reCAPTCHAs, they do nothing!")

Hi would you mind stating which blog platform you're using? I'm going to start my own blog soon but I'm having a hard time making a decision between BlogEngine/Wordpress/B2evolution and Drupal. The reason I ask is because your design and style seems different then most blogs and I'm looking for something completely unique. P.S Sorry for getting off-topic but I had to ask!

Very good suggestions, you just gained a brand new reader. I’m curious if you have any follow ups to this post?

a good discussion can be started on this post,as i do not fully agree with you,but nevertheless,good post.

hello!a bit offtopic but can you tell how much does it cost to setup a blog?not a expensive and good looking one like yours,but a small normal one?

I have been meaning to post something like this on my blog and this gave me an idea. Cheers.

I just added this site to my bookmarks. I like reading your posts. Thank you!

your site ranks high on yahoo and i must say your consistent writing style deserves your blog to be such high in rankings.i relished your writing style.keep it up.

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And some exact duplicates.

Posters include but are not limited to: Garmin GPS Forerunner 305, hotels in shimla, pregnancy-symptoms, and Brooklyn Apartment cleaning service (plus a variety of random human-style names, including but not limited to Masako Balbi, Tamika Guadian, and Lila Ketchersid).

Since some sites no doubt still don't implement rel="nofollow" for comment-provided links, is it perhaps the same psychological effect that causes people to repeat more of a behavior that is only rewarded occasionally than one that is rewarded consistently?

The writing passes mustard?

"Atlanta chiropractors" have tried to post 3 times. "Boise Chiropractic" showed up 6 times, while "miami chiropractors" and "Tucson Chiropractors" wound up in the spam filter 4 times each.

"Best electronic cigarette reviews," "Web Site Builders," "Online Website Builder," "Learn Guitar Brighton," "baker boxes," "ugg laarzen outlets," "spelletjes," "top insurance company," "Garmin 1490t," "Cheap Louis Vuitton Handbags," "poker-sites," "NFL Teams jersey," and "Queens House cleaning service" joined the mix with one appearance each.

Then there were another 97 posters that would pass the Google+ "real name" test.

So goes another day, minding the back of Making Light.

I thank all the regulars who post "Spam Spotted" messages. Couldn't do it without you, folks.

JDM @25: Dumb question: doesn't mentioning them by name in a comment boost their ranking (if even minutely)? (Serious question. Does Google only rank links and not mentions-in-text?)

Actually, this thread has provided a tangential service, for which I thank you, Jim. One of the "duties" listed in a lot of web-related job listing is "understanding of SEO." Instead of feeling inadequate because that's not a skill I can honestly claim on my resume, I can summarily reject any job with that as required responsibilty. I try not to work for places that manufacture landfill, or otherwise damage the environment as part of their business model.

Would there be a reasonably easy way to route all new comments to old (like >1year, or something) threads to the current Open Thread? This would have the triple effect of bringing new legimate commenters to the positive attention of the community, bringing old threads up in conversation again, and consolidating spammage into a central location?

I have a vague recollection that this suggestion has been floated before and discarded for good and rational reasons. If so, please disregard.

(I did preview. Honest.)

He doesn't use bots as far as I know. Instead, he gets friends and acquaintances to put links to sites he's working on in their signatures on old message boards that they no longer use (or just give him those logins outright). Those sigs occur on anything from dozens to thousands of pages, but the chance of any human eyeball seeing them again is low, and the content of the comments the sig is associated with was legitimate at the time it was posted. He asked me if I had any defunct accounts he could use, but I told him no... (I did go back and meticulously make sure that all my defunct or seldom-used accounts contained a link to my own actual web address, of course. Some dark magics can be co-opted by the forces of good.)

A lot of porn sites do semi-visible link exchanges as well. They'll join a link-boosting network, and post dozens or hundreds of links to other sites in the network on their own site. The other sites will do the same, to boost the collective ratings of in-network sites versus those not participating. I consider that pretty grey hat as well.

A lot of the most annoying and intrusive SEO techniques can be done in a way that is less intrusive and doesn't really hurt anyone. There are ways to do SEO without bots or comment spam. They're just a lot more work, so places that sell SEO as one of their primary products don't bother with them. 95% of that grey-hat guy's business is web design, content management, and marketing, so he goes out of his way to do SEO without being too much of a nuisance. A lot of social networking grunt work is essentially white or grey hat SEO, though it serves other functions as well.

"Copenhagen Hotels" and "hotels in shimla" are still hammering us pretty hard; "restaurants in kandivali" is the new addition.

"Best deals," "my deals," "big deal," "best deal search," and "deals for today" have joined the hit parade.

Meanwhile, more locally, "Apartment cleaning Queens," "House cleaning service Queens," "New York Studio cleaning service," and "Residential cleaning service NY" appear to have paid their bucks to some SEO outfit who promised them ... that they'd become hated?

"Bad credit," "health care tips," "niles motorcycle dealer," and "pyschic medium" are on the board with one appearance each.

So ends the last six hours.

What youre saying is completely true. I know that everybody must say the same thing, but I just think that you put it in a way that everyone can understand. I also love the images you put in here. They fit so well with what youre trying to say. Im sure youll reach so many people with what youve got to say.

When I used to do it as part of my web design job, the general approach was:

1. Put up a load of interesting & informative pages on useful topics that have minimal branding, etc, but a lot of content (1,000 words minimum, 2-5,000 much better). Make sure you hit your main target keywords early (preferably in page title, initial heading, and first sentence) and often.
2. A link at the bottom of the page and from any relevant keywords in the text of the page can go to the main site you want to promote.
3. Ask owners of as many highly-ranked pages on related pages as possible to link to them. Be honest about commercial nature of site, promise to keep the information relevant and not try anything sneaky.

This is more work than less honest approaches, but the results seem to last longer -- your links tend to duplicate by themselves after a while, so you don't need to keep getting new ones in.

They'd all rock. Particularly Freddie.

^‡ Well, actually, it's a house now, but I live in hope.

I really like Carrot soup greatest what about you? Whats your Favourite soup recipes ? and have you ever used [redacted]?

I like Carrot soup perfect what about you? Whats your Favorite soup recipe ? and have you ever used [redacted]?

I adore Carrot soup best how about you? Whats your Favourite soup recipes ? and have you ever used [redacted]?

I really enjoy Carrot soup perfect what about you? Whats your Favorite soup recipe ? and have you ever used [redacted]?

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(Links disabled--JDM)

Daniel Martin (#18) - What I don't understand is why rel="nofollow" doesn't put these people out of business, or at least make them go somewhere else.

My theory: The business being supported here isn't the "Atlanta Chiropracters," "Cheap Louis Vuitton Handbags," "Apartment Cleaning Queens," etc. The business is the sleazy SEO consultants.

As long as the sleazy SEO consultants can convince Atlanta Chiropracters, Cheap Louis Vuitton Handbags, etc., to give the consultants money, then the business model is viable, whether or not Atlanta Chiropracters etc. make a single dime off the investment.

This will be a terrific site, could you be involved in doing an interview about just how you created it? If so e-mail me!

We also got a post from "Volume Sperm." I don't really want to know what they're pimping.

I've pointed this out before, too. It's not that View All By doesn't use Unicode. The page is labelled as UTF-8 and the weird characters are specified by UTF-8 sequences.

There's some interesting double translation problem going on, where Xopher types Unicode U+042F, CYRILLIC CAPITAL LETTER YA, which is represented in UTF-8 by bytes D0 AF, and displays correctly in the current thread. In View All By, we get each byte interpreted as a Unicode point, so we get U+00D0, CAPITAL LETTER ETH, and U+00AF, MACRON.

Also, if you click the date link on the post on the VAB page, it goes back to the thread, displaying it correctly.

No, compañero, my spam filter is doing just fine. This was the ninth comment-spam post in a row from you, the others being totally generic yet wildly inappropriate, many to threads where the last post was two years ago or more, fired within a matter of minutes. All of the others were filtered for good and sufficient reason.

Wow, look at me. Arguing with a bot.

Cue to a scene in the film version of "George Of The Jungle:"

"Are you arguing with the narrator?"

As for Chelyabinsk, it might well not be the dirtiest city in Russia. Chelyabinsk might instead be tied for dirtiest city in Russia with one or more other dirty cities in Russia. Which is still bad.

Pimping or pumping. ITWSBT

(On second thoughts, perhaps we shouldn't.)

The Queen of Melanesia, perhaps. She already has a history of dropping by to help with the gardening.

Candy is dandy. But plutonium makes you sicker. Quicker.

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And another from the same guy:

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Awesome.

Shame it got marked as spam upstream of our content filters; I went to the back end looking forward to seeing how many different ways your regexes were going to flag that one.