Comment spam: Spammers vs morons

re: Comment spam: Spammers vs morons

windows update agent — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 16:53:14 GMT

Spammers vs morons ? Is there a difference lol.

re: Comment spam: Spammers vs morons

MSN Plus — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 21:23:50 GMT

The thing is this just doesn't really do it for me, prefer something a little less... mainstream.

re: Comment spam: Spammers vs morons

Computer Repair — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 23:17:30 GMT

Really simple guide, has given me an idea for a blog of my friends.

re: Comment spam: Spammers vs morons

Dave Hybrid — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 21:35:25 GMT

Great post, really helped me understand, thanks!

re: Comment spam: Spammers vs morons

Huey — Thu, 29 May 2008 20:35:16 GMT

The idea of a distributed NNTP killfile or blog-posting filter based on the relative content-free-ness of posts isn't new, but it's hard to implement, since one man's Moran is another man's Congressman, especially here in northern Virginia.

Seriously: if you put a 'report moron' button in a newsreader, most of n.a.n-a.e would click it on Vernon Schryver's posts, creating exactly the opposite effect that you want - say what you will about Vernon, but he's definitely not a moron. You can't even use second-order effects, since morons will tend to agree with each other. I think you'd need to start with a base of people who aren't morons, and then add in the data provided by everyone they consider to be not-morons but weight everyone's score downwards the further they get from the original group, but possibly increasing the score weight later when their moron-judgment is shown to correlate with the baseline criteria for moron, that being "everybody calls you a moron".

I'll submit a grant proposal in High-Energy Bogon Research.

re: Comment spam: Spammers vs morons

AlecR — Wed, 28 May 2008 01:06:19 GMT

I've seen a similar system implemented in other sites. They use a sort of Karma based system where established users gain the ability to mod posts up or down. Anything beneath a certain threshold is not displayed. You can chose the threshold. /. is a perfect example.

re: Comment spam: Spammers vs morons

MichaC — Tue, 27 May 2008 23:44:01 GMT

What I've seen becoming popular is the ability to mod comments up and down, and if enough people mod it down it becomes invisible by default. Of course this necessitates a login mechanism and a limit to how many times a person can mod comments down under the same post to prevent abuse, but it is satisfying to see things like "first post!!1!" modded down to non-existence.

re: Comment spam: Spammers vs morons

David Cawley — Tue, 27 May 2008 23:35:16 GMT

The "Report Moron" button is an excellent suggestion and I'd be interested to hear more about it if you figure out a way this can be integrated into meetings and presentations to preempt the usual silly questions or comments :)

re: Comment spam: Spammers vs morons

MichaelGG — Tue, 27 May 2008 21:49:17 GMT

"zomg your a moran."

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But yes, I've felt the pain every now and then. Particularly because spammers often post one liners like "Nice post!!! I think it's right!" with a name or link back to their site.

I'm always puzzled when I get similar comments but there's no obvious spam link.

re: Comment spam: Spammers vs morons

tzink — Tue, 27 May 2008 20:25:01 GMT

LOL.