Spammers, being the boringly insistent flies that they are, have finally caught up to my happy little blog. This was not unexpected. I was holding out on taking any real measures because I have had my dance card full for a very long time. Also, my blog is pretty tiny, so I had some small hopes of remaining under the spamming radar.
But, the flies will eventually show up, and then one has to get out the fly swatter. I am in the middle of swatting, and previous posters may find that they are not able to do some of the things they have done in the past.
If you are one of the good guys, drop me a line and I will remedy your situation as soon as possible. If you are not one of the good guys, this is the desired effect and no further action on your part is required.
update #1: 50+ spam comments have been removed, and rudimentary spam blocking seems to be working.
update: #2 Simple spam blocking is in place, and, at this point, it seems to be effective. The spammer is attacking with fairly low grade methods, and my simple countermeasures will be adequate for the time being. The most convenient thing that could happen is that my little blog slips back under the radar. If unknown dog starts to attract attention to the point that the attacks escalate, I will respond in kind.
To the friendly users of this site, the inconvenience is slight: if a user posts a comment to the blog that contains the words “poker” or “casino”, there comment will be lost. This does not apply for original posts, just comments. It will be an irritation to respond to a post about casionos and/or poker, but that is the current state of things.
The likely alternative that will take place is that before any comment will be allowed to post to the blog, one will have to fill in a random number or word that shows up on the screen.
update #3: It is likely that before the end of the Thanksgiving weekend that the blog will be modified to become spam-resistant. Please report any errors you may find.
I am so sick of spam. Fight the power.