Comment spam prompts change of policy
As weblogs become more and more popular, people who seek to twist the medium to serve their own purposes have found a way to increase search engine traffic to their own sites: comment spam. For someone with a bit of programming knowledge, it is a small task to write a program that will visit blogs and write ads for penis enlargement or other bullshit in the comments section, with links that point back to the advertisers’ sites.
Recently, this blog was spammed--twice.
It’s a practice that is every bit as obnoxious as spam e-mail--and just as likely to stick around. That does not mean that we simply have to put up with it, though. In fact, I’ve already taken steps to make sure that this blog is not spammed again. Although I don’t like to have to require registration for people to post comments, it will provide a mechanism for keeping the spam out. As of today, anyone who wishes to comment here must register first. It’s a shame to have to do this, but I am left with little choice. Chalk up another major inconvenience to the unrelenting persistence of the spam industry.
