From what I’ve read on a number of blogs over the years, there is a discussion about comment moderation but it’s basically binary: you are either for it or “agin” it. There is in fact a third option, which is a modified moderation, a middle ground, if you will.
Comment moderation is a topic about which people have strong opinions, especially those who feel that if you moderate comments you are choking off the conversation that can build up in a comment thread. I’m not insensitive to that argument and every now and again I think maybe I should switch off comment moderation, with the idea of providing a more free flow of conversation.
It’s right about then that a spam attack, masquerading as comments, comes along to bring me back down to earth.
Just now, a quick search on the subject reminded me that I posted about this back in March 2007 – Comment Moderation Turned on Reluctantly
Until now I’ve resisted the impulse to moderate comments. But lately I’ve been irritated by finding “comments” that are just excuses to include links to other sites, without any evident relevance for the topic of the post being “commented” upon.
I’ve just had another flurry of “comments” which fit that description.
So I’ve decided to keep moderation on, but not totally.
The middle ground position I mentioned above, and the basis of the policy and practice here, is that only the following comments are held for moderation:
- comments from first time commenters
- comments with a few suspicion-inducing elements
The ability to do this, without having to watch the blog day and night, is provided by the excellent toolkit in WordPress.org blogs, under Administration -> Settings -> Discussion.
There are some basic “suspicion-inducing” elements for which you can set moderation in the “on” position, so to speak:
- a specific number of hyperlinks – number specified by the blogger
- specific words or phrases – specified by the blogger
WordPress also makes it easy for the blogger to edit comments. I have started to do that with “harmless” comments that contain clearly spammy links, mostly quite irrelevant in terms of the blog post being commented on. As we have CommentLuv installed, the commenter already has a link back to his or her blog.
That’s why I say that, courtesy of these WordPress tools, I am able to have a middle ground approach on comment moderation.
This is the policy we have – displayed on the Comments Policy page and linked from the right sidebar.
Comments are moderated for first time commenters and for comments with “spam-like” elements, such as an excessive number of hyperlinks.
So for your second time comment and thereafter, and provided your comment does not trigger our other “unacceptable use” principles stated here, it should appear immediately.
We reserve the right to delete comments we deem as spam, transparent attempts to get traffic without providing any useful commentary, and any contributions which are offensive or inappropriate for civilised discourse.
Links are ok, if relevant to the post: otherwise they will be edited out.
If you experience any problem with posting comments, please contact us immediately and we will see what needs to be done to resolve the situation on a “win-win” basis.
To me this seems a pretty rational, not unduly restrictive approach to comment moderation. The comment stream is kept free of spam and once people have made one comment their subsequent comments are posted automatically. What’s not to like? I welcome comments and dissent, within the rules 
.
comment spam free zone badge by Suzie Cheel
In Praise of Akismet, Comment Spam Catcher
For those new to blogging, it may help to explain that while email spam is targeted at you or me, comment spam is targeted at Google.
It’s a parasitic activity, aiming to get a better ranking on Google by linking your site to the spammer’s site via the comment. Hence the practice described dramatically as “Google bombing”.
As the WordPress.org Codex explains:
What to do?
If your site is built on WordPress, the first thing to do is to make sure the Akismet plugin is activated.
The Akismet plugin developed and maintained by Automattic, the company behind WordPress, comes supplied with every WordPress installation.
I for one would not be without it. It does a terrific job in keeping this blog, for example, free of spam comments.
But you have to activate it. And for that you need to have an API key. I got my API key from a site I set up on the WordPress-hosted platform at WordPress.com If you don’t have a WordPress.com blog and don’t feel a need for one, you can still get an API key by signing up, at no charge, for a WordPress.com account .
This is a non-trivial issue for any blogger
I just counted in the Akismet spam folder 18 spam comments on the one post I published here yesterday, 5 Things I Look for in a WordPress Theme. A genuine comment was let through as was my reply. All the spam comments had been picked up automatically by Akismet, so they never appeared on the blog. Typically they are illiterate or semi-literate and have little or nothing to do with the blog post in question.
These days, unless I go and look in the spam folder I don’t see many of these “comments”. That’s surely because Akismet learns from the blog owner’s or administrator’s actions as indicating what he or she regards as spam.
When Akismet is still in the learning phase for your blog, you may see “comments” along the lines of the following examples taken from yesterday’s mini-blitz on the one blog post:
It would be funny if it wasn’t such a plague. I see blogs with this sort of comment and wonder if anyone is taking responsibility. It is such a bad look.
As well as having Akismet installed and active, you can moderate the comment stream using the various options provided in your WordPress Dashboard, under Settings -> Discussion.
Do you have any other tips for managing the comment spam issue?
Image credit: Blog with cockroaches photoshopped using the image Cockroach, by masterbutler, via Flickr, CC BY 2.0