My Brother the Spammer
A few weeks ago, I began using Akismet to moderate the comments on this blog. Akismet is one of those “pass or fail” databases that scans all comments and allows or withholds the comment based on perceived spaminess. I’m not sure what sorts of voodoo it uses to determine spaminess, but so far it’s worked just fine, having protected you, my loyal reader, from approximately 35 pitches for Viagra, cheap home loans, or “hott sexx noww” (which seems to be an invitation from someone with a nervous disorder).
For some reason, this little spam net has also managed to snare my brother, Mike. Couldn’t tell you why, but the powers-that-be at Akismet have decided that my brother is a spam king.
As far as I know, he doesn’t even eat spam, so I’m puzzled how this is happening. And it’s not just at my site; he uses Akismet on his own blog, and it’s even catching him there. On one level, it’s nice to know that Akismet is robust enough to keep people from spamming not only other’s blogs, but their own as well. On another level, this is incredibly funny. (Sorry, Mike).
Fortunately, I’m able to review these “spam” comments before consigning them to oblivion. So if you’re upset that your automatically-crafted advertisement for Cheep Pr3scription Droogs isn’t being read, be content in knowing that I’m still reading it.
All this to say: if you notice that your comment isn’t posted right away, not to worry. All this means is that one of the premiere Wordpress anti-spam engines has decided that you’re an irreformable spammer.
You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
Clearly Mike has something to hide!
As I told Mike, so far I haven’t had any problems with spam, but I don’t have a big readership, either. I guess the ordinary everyday subjects of my blog haven’t attracted the attention of the spammers’ software to catch their popular “hit words”. It is kind of funny, I just read Mike’s blog earlier where he said his own software isn’t wanting to let him comment on his own blog, tee hee.
I am totally puzzled by this. I have yet to receive a reply email from Akismet. I know it’s not an email thing, because I post my regular email on your blog, and my blog email on my own. It probably has something to do with MikeyLikey. Some time, long ago, there were probably spams like MikeyLikey Vicodin; MikeyLikey Lortab; MikeyLikey hot porn.
BTW, I wrote this at 5:04 pm on 05/11/06. Let’s see how long it takes you to get it posted.
I just now noticed your comment. Sho ’nuff, Akismet nabbed you. Admit it — you sell credit cleanups on the side.
I Googled this problem and have run across quite a few complaints of false positives. There are 2 other spam catchers that people say work better. The names escape me now. Maybe I am better off just letting them post, since all posts are emailed to me anyway and listed in my admin section. I mean, it is really a pain in the a** to comment, and then each time loggin to admin to release it.
BTW, how long have you been running Akismet? I didn’t experience this problem on your blog until this week.
I started running it a week ago. You’re the only false positive I’ve had so far. Not that my blog is a hotbed of commentary or anything…