Moderating Comments?

I've been moderating the comments on this blog since early February, when I got so fed up with the comment spam building up on this blog that I took the step of approving every comment.

About half the comments I get are spam and about half are legit.

I hate moderating the comments.  It takes away the immediacy of the comment which I think is extremely valuable.

And if I don't check the comments every couple hours, then there are always a bunch of comments waiting to be approved that nobody is seeing and I think that reduces the amount of discussion that would ordinarily happen.

I am tempted to take moderation off and just live with the comment spam.  I think that might be the lesser to two evils.

Many of you have written that there are solutions to this comment spam problem but I can't find any that work with TypePad and I am not leaving TypePad right now for a host of reasons.

I am curious what you all think I should do.

Comments

[Tom Labus]

Let the spam through. This will raise the annoyance level for all involved and someone will figure out a solution.

[Douglas Arellanes]

I used to personally moderate comments too before installing the new WordPress 2 and its Spam Karma 2 plugin.

Spam Karma 2 uses a number of different criteria to determine if a comment is spam or not, including whether the browser supports JavaScript and whether the comment contains multiple URLs. Then, if the comment's 'karma' score is too low, it's put into 'purgatory,' where you can still choose to retrieve it. Comments older than a certain time (default 30 days) are deleted.

[COD]

You could require a Typekey ID to comment. It is a relatively benign hurdle for commenters to deal with.

[Ric]

Like all moderation, it requires someone in attendance 24/7, or (as you've noticed) comments pile up. And yes, as an occasional commenter here. I am disappointed when my comment doesn't appear immediately. Now I can handle a small delay, but if I came back tomorrow and it still wasn't there (maybe because you were taking a well-earned break) I would think about not coming back at all. The other thing is that I use coComment, and my text will often appear on my own blog before yours!

[Ric]

PS - I think WordPress allows me to see my own un-moderated comments (that's what seems to happen on JP's blog anyway
http://www.confusedofcalcutta.com/ ).

Post your requirements on John T's blog
(http://www.typepadhacks.org/) - he can probably help ...

[Keith]

I'm sure you've thought of this, but it's probably worth harassing TypePad to give you a good CAPTCHA option (ie one that doesn't keep out people using screen-readers). Nicer CAPTCHA implementations provide an audio equivalent for the blind. I'm sure that would reduce spam significantly, if not completely.

[John Brothers]

Let's see, we have "tinker with the box" answers, which include:
* Use a CAPTCHA (http://mt-plugins.org/archives/entry/scode.php)
* Rename the CGI script that processes comments.

Unfortunately, neither of those options probably apply for you specifically.

Something under your control, according to TypePad FAQ:
* Require the user to have a Typekey account. That shouldn't present a problem for people who want to post to your blog

Interestingly, TypePad claims that they already throw CAPTCHAs at suspected Spam posts. You may want to make sure that's turned on. It might help.

Of course, you could do what I did, and ditch TypePad for Wordpress. All-in-all, I find it to be a better piece of software.

[Tony Alva]

Can't offer you any advice on how to fix it, but the delay in comment posting is taking away from the immediacy of the discussion…

[Rogel]

Fred,
Are you sure you cannot use captcha with typepad? this is the simplest and quickest solution for spam.
If none of the solution is working for you I'll vote for the current approach. it is better to read comments in delay than to filter the spam.

[Michael Vanderdonk]

You have several options.
With wordpress you can use Akismet which does most, if not all the work for you. Movable type has Blacklist. There are likely to be the same tools for any platform.
You can add a random captcha graphic to cull out the bots.
Then there is the hard line - remove comments all together.
It really comes down to what you are writing on the blog for...

[Raphael]

Fight !
The discussion on the previous post is probably stuck in the pipe ! Dam.

[Jarett]

It seems like typepad just opened up their API's (http://www.techcrunch.com/2006/03/30/typepad-is-launching-blog-widgets/). I would think it shouldn't be too much longer now before you see someone take the initiative and write up a widget to deal with comment spam.

[Ron]

You don't have too many choices.

1. Do nothing.
2. Wait for TypePad to take care of it.
3. Moderate.
4. Switch to something else.

While not arguing with your decision to stay put, I do want to say that switching to something where you have some self-determination (ex: WordPress on your own hosting account) is probably the optimal solution, given that Six Apart apparently isn't making much/any effort to stop the spam. Their sister service LiveJournal takes this problem seriously, as a result there's not much to complain about. Surely they could do the same for TypePad. I hope for your sake that they do, and soon. But in the end, using a service puts you in the position of the least flexibility and you'll have to decide what's worse, waiting for the service, or occasionally having to upload some software/plugins. The correct choice is whatever you decide is best for you.

[Jim Parsons]

I've had two bloggers rip my head off for posting comment spam -- but I didn't think it was... so this is an interesting discussion on methods and technologies for "managing" what is essentially free speech... the Faustian bargain of blogging? Good luck!

[Tom Fragala]

I run several blogs. I think keeping the comment moderation on is totally reasonable. Anyone that runs a blog would understand. And I read just the VC/Tech feed so I don't think moderation does enough harm to the conversation flow in that topic. Maybe in the music side of things, there's a different vibe and faster commenting would be better.

[Jackson]

I installed SpamKarma on my wordpress blog last night. After just 12 hours it had blocked over 300 spam comments.

There is a better way. TypePad needs to give it to their users. I am not a fan of Typekey, I have enough usernames and passwords to remember.

[Ian McAllister]

I'm sure you have an entrepreneur in residence there at Union Square. Have him or her chew on the question and figure out if there is a business there. You could also check out some of existing approaches like Sxore that haven't gotten traction and put in a good word.

[James Avery]

I say let it through and try your best to clean it up after the fact. I usually find most comment spam is for old posts, anyway to selectively enable moderation?

[Brooks Jordan]

I don't know how Raj Bala codes for his spam control at Loudspeakers at InternmentCamp, but it's the best I've seen, quick and easy:

Anti-Spam: What is the sum of 5 and 4?

[Peter]

Here's how I do it. Comments go up immediately and are not held back for review. When someone posts, an email alert is sent to me which is then also forwarded to my cell phone. Then as soon as I'm at a computer, I check the email notification, which includes both "delete" and "edit" options. I rarely hit either.

I am amazed by bloggers who require you to first register with their platforms and then wait for approval before finally seeing your post.

Even worse are the ones who don't allow commenting at all. Who the hell are these people? What is the point in blogging if you don't allow commnets?

[Scott]

I'd agree that a captcha solution is best, but as you pointed out you're at the mercy of TypePad (as am I) to implement a fix.

You know, I'm surprised I haven't seen a feedback style "let the public" moderate type of solution. If it's spam, those reading can click a little "spam" button on the post and get it deleted for you. I can think of a lot of reasons why this type of solution wouldn't work, but it'd still be better than our current options. Well, for your blog anyway, it wouldn't work for a blog like mine with relatively low comment traffic.

[Andrew Fife]

A number of blogs that I read handle this problem by making the commenter prove that they aren't automated spam by repeating numbers/letters that are squished or have lines through them into a box. I think blogger does this. However, I use blogger and I think it sucks so it may not really be a solution.

[Richard Zarback]

The ideal solution is probably user based - something like digg where users (like us) can bury spam comments and vote others up based on relevancy, etc.

[Asif (SINLetter)]

Go low tech. Why not keep it real simple and put up a note saying that comment spam will be immediately deleted?

This should discourage a majority of the comment spammers. Maybe I am being naive as I do not see too many comments/spam.

[J. Mark English]

Congrats on the great site! I look forward to checking it out from now on...