Spam in Comments

[MrPixel]

Is spam more or less normal in story comments? Not like they're difficult to delete, but the first one I've received in three years of stories was posted a couple of days ago. I zapped it, of course.

 

[OlderFitterWiser]

Haven't noticed that. What sort of spam?

 

[MrPixel]

Slightly wordy, but it amounted to "call XXX-XXX-XXXX for a good time". I don't recall the area code; it could've easily been one of those "Gotcha!" offshore pay numbers.

 

[OlderFitterWiser]

No I haven't seen anything like that yet. Will watch out for it. I do however notice that most anonymous comments tend to be negative with some appearing to come from the same person .

 

[TarnishedPenny]

You can report any comment and should report any which you feel are out of line.

Spam became a real problem a few years ago and the site imposed a time delay on comments, presumably so they could be vetted and spam removed. Maybe it’s restarting.

 

[NotWise]

Spam in comments got very common for a while, and it's the reason that the site started delaying comments for review. You can zap the spam yourself easily enough, but imagine the amount of spam that would stay because the author is absent or not paying attention.

 

[Altissimus]

Someone left me this gem: автокатастрофа?? а так все супер

I left it up as a thought-provoking peroration illustrating the disposition of the cerebrally challenged.

 

[nice90sguy]

Slightly wordy, but it amounted to "call XXX-XXX-XXXX for a good time". I don't recall the area code; it could've easily been one of those "Gotcha!" offshore pay numbers.

Or you could have called and had a jolly good time. You'll never know for sure

 

[Passiontyper]

Slightly wordy, but it amounted to "call XXX-XXX-XXXX for a good time". I don't recall the area code; it could've easily been one of those "Gotcha!" offshore pay numbers.

Or you could have called and had a jolly good time. You'll never know for sure

I'm trying this, but I can't find the X button when typing in the number!

 

[MrPixel]

I'm trying this, but I can't find the X button when typing in the number!

Try 123-456-7890 instead.

 

[ElectricBlue]

Is spam more or less normal in story comments? Not like they're difficult to delete, but the first one I've received in three years of stories was posted a couple of days ago. I zapped it, of course.

Quite rare nowadays. You should report it, then delete it, so the site can see if it's a trend.

As others have said, the site was heavily spammed several years ago, which brought in the batch processing of comments. The filters must be more effective now, because the batch processing of comments appears to have disappeared.