I got tired of the nearly one thousand spambot “users” on this blog and mass-deleted any account that had never posted a non-spam comment and had no optional user information. I also added a confirmation-link requirement, and auto-removal of any account that doesn’t complete the confirmation within seven days. Apologies to any human users who might have had their accounts deleted… but I rather doubt any did, since I don’t require an account to post comments.
Sounds like a plan. 🙂
I wrote that less than twenty-four hours ago, and I’ve already had half a dozen more “users” sign up for accounts. With names like “Free-Ipad” and “EPIVECEAF”, or addresses like “scrapeboxautoa.pp.r.ovelist+427727@gmail.com”, it’s pretty obvious that they’re all spambots.
Aw, come on, I’d been hoping on a free iPad. ;->
Even with the e-mail verification, eight more probable spambots got through, so I added two more layers of spambot-defenses a couple days ago. None have gotten through that yet.
As an unlooked-for bonus, I also picked up another layer of automated defense against comment spam. 🙂
It turns out all eight of those were using known spammer addresses and would have been caught by my new defenses if they’d been in place earlier. They’re gone now too, and I doubt many will manage to run the gauntlet from here on. 🙂