The Laughing Wolf

A Thought In Regards Comment Spammers

I’ve just spent 15 precious minutes of my day dealing with spam that got past Blacklist. They are finding ways to defeat it, ways that mean I have to go through almost every spam comment and delete it individually. Add to this the fact that the new temporary lair is very nice and I enjoy it, but it also has no DSL or high-speed so I am on dial-up. The time it takes to deal with them is the time I had set aside for writing, so that may not happen today.

The sudden surge in spam comments is bad not just for me, but for a number of other bloggers I know. If it continues, I will have to discontinue comments.

This is not something I want to do, as comments are an essential part of this site and of rational discourse. It makes the site, and my day, to get good and thoughtful comments back. There are other ways to defeat the spam, such as a Turing test or some such, but right now I flat out can’t afford to add that.

Though a rational pacifist, I am fast reaching the point where I don’t see prosecution of the spammers as the answer. In fact, I am leaning towards going very medieval on them, dumping the parts in a crossroad, hearts destroyed, salt in their mouths, and one final thing done. Rather than their head upon a pike, I think it should be the literal part displayed to the world that matches the figurative shown to the world online. Nor do I think the pike should go in the usual place, but to leave such for whatever may come. Think rigid catheter folks.

Perhaps one or two such displays might deter many more.

LW

PS: Forgot to mention that in the best tradition, the "mounting" should take place at the start of the festivities, so that the spammer can enjoy it too...