1 EAGLETON NOTES: Spam and Clouds

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Monday 2 March 2020

Spam and Clouds

Today I noticed a comment from a Chinese blogger. It was a perfectly satisfactory and 'real' comment so I actually replied even though the person concerned runs what looks like a perfectly respectable and legitimate on-line shop and is, presumably, simply trying to increase whatever the on-line equivalent of footfall is. A while later when going through blogs I realised that this was a spammer  who was rather more subtle than others. A comment was often 'borrowed' from elsewhere in the comments and used. It was only because I recognised one of the comments that I realised it was a duplicate.

Spammers are certainly going through a prolific phase at the moment and there will be times when I'm not in Blogland for a day or two when they will appear on my blogs for a little longer than I would like.

However I am not going to use comment moderation (unless comments are for a post over a couple of weeks old where I might otherwise miss them) because I think it ruins the whole conversation aspect of blogging. I don't want to comment in isolation and I'm sure that some of my readers don't either.

Nothing to do with the minutiae or mechanics of blogging I saw this cloud formation over the middle of The Minch a day or two ago. I'm not very knowledgeable about clouds except a select few like Lenticular Clouds. These over the Minch are, I think cumulonimbus capillatus anvil.


34 comments:

  1. I have also been visited by this spammer and, like you, I realised that their comments were duplicates of others on my post. As it also contained a link to a third party website (which I did not click on) I have marked them as Spam.
    That cloud formation is very impressive. Did you get any lightning?

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    1. JayCee, we didn't have any lightning with these clouds so far as I am aware. I certainly didn't hear any thunder or see any lightning.

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  2. I have the similar settings for comment moderation. Seems to work reasonably but then I don't attract your clickfall.. The clouds are anvil topped cumuli nimbus I think. Lucky you didn't get Donner and Blitzen. Perhaps they aren't and foretold some other Reindeers.

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    1. Adrian, there were no Reindeers wandering around the sky to my knowledge. I thought that's what the clouds were.

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  3. Spam is nothing but a mild irritation, means little or nothing to me. Anyone who has trolls to deal with will know that spam is nothing. The spam seems to have reached rather a peak at the moment and I feel mildly irritated that Blogger is letting us down, in that Blogger claims that it controls spam. In my opinion they are failing us. I mark spam as spam but it still comes back if I can be bothered. I do not use moderation because I like conversation to be spontaneous and if I come across moderation on a blog, and remember it is there and can stop myself, I do not comment. I like the clouds, quite Brutalist.

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    1. Rachel, I've never had to deal with trolls in my 12 years of blogging. I suspect that my subject matter (on both my blogs) was pretty benign and not of any interest to trolls. Looking at the clouds I can see what you mean by them being Brutalist although I would have though them a bit too fluffy around the edges.

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  4. There are so many "wastes of space" around these days. I don't understand their mindset...their mentality, at all. Stupidity is breeding than any virus/pandemic!

    If an unfamuliar "name" appears on my blog I don't respond. I immediate delete, just to be on the safe side. It may seem rude or ill-mannered of me...so be it. I know I'm not rude or ill-mannered...I'm just covering my own back.

    Similar applies to when I receive emails from unfamiliar sources...into the "Delet" bin they go...immediately.

    Spam/spammers to some may seem just a mild irritation, as Rachel above says it is to her...but in my mind they could be hackers...and I'm not prepared to take the risk.

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    1. I love your cloud photo, Graham. A similar one appeared on the horizon down on the Gold Coast a couple of days ago. A viewer sent it into the weather section of the local news...and it led into the weather report.

      You take lovely photographs, Graham. :)

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    2. I have recently had quite a few unknown names appearing and, on the whole, they have been genuine. Most of the spam is very obvious without even looking at the name. Mind you with such a large link if Kay's comment (the next one) wasn't from a known name then it would have been junked. I completely forgot to send the photo to BBC Weather Watchers. Silly me.

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  5. I could not live on your island, I would fall into a hole looking up at the sky!
    There is a book that my mother-in-law had (it had to be replaced because the dog chewed it up!) and I loved it so, I had it buy a copy too! It is "The Cloud Collector's Handbook" by Gavin Pretor-Pinney. It's just a small book but has a lot of cloud info!https://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/08/magazine/the-amateur-cloud-society-that-sort-of-rattled-the-scientific-community.html There! I have a link to an article in the NY Times. It is very long, if you only read the last 3 or 4 paragraphs and look at the cloud pictures, I think you will like it. I love clouds!

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    1. Thanks for the link, Kay. I'll doubtless get around to looking at it when I'm sitting down in the evening. I do have a few cloud books because we have such big 360ยบ skies that there are always odd ones cropping up that are that bit different and it's good to try and identify the ones I don't know.

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  6. I have had some comments lately that are somewhat doubtful. I don't publish them.

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    1. It's a bit easier for you, Red, because you have comment moderation.

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  7. Your cloud photo is dramatic, it does rather resemble an anvil.

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    1. Yes, Terra, I think that its sheer size is dramatic.

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  8. I often go to my comments page to delete all those spammers, and tick them as 'spam'. Unfortunately Mr Blogger fails to recognise this, and they continue to arrive. I fear there is no guaranteed way to stop them.

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    1. Cro, Blogger is pretty hopeless at looking after us from the spam point of view. I suppose we are just not high enough up on Google's priority list.

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  9. Beautiful photos of a fantastic cloud formation!

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  10. Beautiful cloud photo, Graham! I do use comment moderation because my situation is a little different. For some reason unknown to me, I cannot comment on anyone's blog or respond to comments on my own blog from my iPhone, only from my computer. Bother, because my iPhone is portable and is with me always, while my computer is not portable but stationary (I have a desktop, not a laptop). It's just peculiar; I can publish comments on my blog from my phone, but I cannot respond to them unless I'm in my bedroom at the computer, and I can't comment on other people's posts unless I am, but I repeat myself, in my bedroom at the computer.

    I do hop my cyberfriends understand. So far none of them has gone away angry or boycotted me in an impatient hissy fit (hissy fit is an expression of the American South), including your very kind self. May it be ever thus is my prayer.

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    1. Thank you Robert. I can't hop either. I know that because I tried yesterday (coincidentally). It's to do with having a false knee. I can kneel okay (although getting up isn't quite as easy as it used to be).

      Yours is one of the few blogs with comment moderation which still manages to have dialogue.

      On the subject of the iPhone I have set up my Blog on Chrome and signed into it with my appropriate Google account. I can therefore operate the blog. However it's a real pain because despite having an iPhone XS Max the screen is still quite small for operating a blog.

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  11. I too have noticed an increase in spam comments recently, both on my own blog and others. It has made me reduce the number of days I leave comments "open"; but like you, and for much the same reasons, I don't want to have moderation turned on right from the start. I delete all comments of dubious content or source, though. I also recently closed some old blogs of mine for comments altogether, as I also noticed an increase in spam comments on very old posts - and even with comment moderation, that gets rather annoying. I suspect most spam comments are probably more or less autogenerated (somehow!)

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    1. I think, Monica, the spam messages are generated by something called spambots. Once they have a blog URL that's it.

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  12. I don't like comment moderation either. So far the annoying spammers haven't overwhelmed me. I just delete their pointless "comments" as soon as I spot them. I wonder if any bloggers have allowed themselves to be duped by these online parasites.

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    1. I would hope, YP, that most of our Blogworld bloggers are pretty well aware of the problems of spam and spammers and take a fairly sensible and jaundiced view of any we receive.

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  13. Like you and some others here, I have set comment moderation on my blog to posts that are two weeks and older, and for the same reasons. I am always left a little disappointed when I comment on someone's blog but they never reply to (my or any other) comment.
    The spam comments have become a little more subtle, as you have noted, copying from other comments. I dutifully mark them as spam but, as we have all observed, that does not stop them.
    Sometimes a week or more goes by without any spam comments, and then they sweep my blog and those that I regularly read; it is annoying but I simply delete them now.

    The cloud formation does indeed look anvil-like!

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  14. I still get spam at my blog occasionally, usually about cleaning companies or such people trying to promote their business so they get deleted very quickly.

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    1. Yes, Amy, it just seems to be blossoming in numbers at the moment.

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  15. Yes that happened to me and I was getting them on old posts which I wasn't checking. I got sick of deleting up to ten a day and on ten different posts so I reluctantly use moderation now but i get emails telling I have a comment and that can send me straight to moderation page and all comments can be published or spammed. I do this everyday so the conversations are not interrupted too much and I rarely reply on my posts because i know people often don't return. I reply by email if I want a conversation. I guess that leaves other readers out. Anyway good luck with dealing with them. Love the anvil cloud.

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Comment moderation is activated 14 days after the post to minimise unwanted comments and, hopefully, make sure that I see and reply to wanted comments.