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February 12, 2005
Introducing... Operation Return Fire
Over the past month, because of attacks by comment spammers, I first closed the comments on all of my older posts. That didn't help much so I closed comments to unapproved users. But I was still inundated with emails generated by spammers trying to post their links on my site. I closed comments to unregistered users. and... what do you suppose happens? I get hit with trackback spam.
While searching for solutions, I found Interview with a link Spammer. Reality is that trackback spam is just not going to go away.
I have had quite enough of this nonsense. This is my website, I pay for it, and I don't like being a victim.
So, I had lots of ideas about what to do about it, but violence didn't seem to be the right answer and then there were feasibility problems. I rejected most of them but, one stuck around. It was such a happy thought, it would not go away. In fact, the more I thought about it, the more I liked it. And so... it began to grow... and eventually, it grew into... Operation Return Fire.
I was thinking... wouldn't it be a shame if those websites responsible for comment spam got what they wanted... as in... lots and lots and lots of traffic?
What if you, and every blogger you knew, and every blogger they knew, all visit the same website over and over again in the same 24 hour period? and... What if all your readers, and all their readers, also visited the same website over and over again in the same 24 hour period?
There are millions of bloggers, how many do you know? Can their server survive the traffic? Maybe. But if there are enough of us, probably not. And if the server survives, what would the bandwidth cost?
Jeepers. It would be such a shame if all those visits used up lots and lots of bandwidth while the links themselves did absolutely nothing to increase their web rank.
Time to Return Fire - I say we link them. And I mean, we all link them. One day a month. One Spammer of the Month. What could be wrong with asking our readers to visit a site that has posted links on our sites? They must want the link, after all, if they didn't, they wouldn't have posted their link. They really have nothing to complain about.
So. We all post a link to the Spammer of the Month on the same day, and visit them, over and over again, throughout the day. We invite our readers to do the same. That's what they want, isn't it?
If we all work together, we can give a little back, one spammer at a time. And... thanks to Google's no-follow link, we can give it back without increasing their web ranking.
Anybody with me? If so, you can click the pic to join Operation Return Fire.
Operation Return Fire will debut in April, or, as soon as I have enough particpants to make it worthwhile. I have already chosen the first Spammer of the Month but, in order to preserve the surprise, there will be no public posts about who it is, or on what day it will happen.
To join up, click the logo above, and please, spread the word! If there are not enough of us, I will simply abandon the project.
Posted by LindaSoG at February 12, 2005 04:25 PM
Comments
LOL I still haven't figured out the type key stuff. I read the article and I think what the spammers do is nothing less than outright theft. What they do costs not just the loss of bandwidth but something much more precious, someone's time. I like the idea that these guys are being sued and prosecuted. But it seems as though the punishments nor the judgments are sticking because of fuzzy jurisdiction issues. If you want to mount an email campaign I'll send a few.
Posted by: Warren aka Highway at February 13, 2005 02:43 PM
I think this is a great idea if it's well organized and has the support of a lot of other bloggers. That will be the key: numbers. Something like this can't be effective without a big crowd of us participating.
On an administrative note, I should mention that I've had no trackback spam problem to speak of with WordPress. I switched from Movable Type late last year, and with a couple of tweaks and plugins, I've pretty much eliminated my spam problems. I was starting to see some trackback spam with MT before I switched, but haven't seen any with WP.
On my site, I added a "captcha" to my comments which requires the commenter to fill in a box with a set of numbers before their comment is accepted. The plugin was easy to install and stopped a pretty persistent spam problem I had recently.
Another thing I do is to require all comments and trackbacks with more than two URLs to go to the moderation queue so I can review and delete them. This works really well, but got to be a pain with the inbound spam because I was getting slammed with 20-40 at a time, and I was wasting a lot of time mass deleting them. Once I added the captcha, the problem stopped, immediately.
My only fear is that the script kiddies will figure out a way to "read" the captcha codes in scripts and bypass them. In the meantime, it's an effective weapon. I'm pretty certain you can find a similar plugin or hack for MT.
Or, you might consider switching to WP. In your case, Linda, it will take a little work, since you have so many links to outside content. But I found it to be pretty painless. I converted almost three years worth of entries in a few minutes, and once I figured out where everything was in the templates, I got most of my menu extras back up.
Something to think about anyway. ;-)
Posted by: Joe at February 14, 2005 07:44 AM