This is just a brief post partly to apologise for some missed comments and partly to simply get it off my chest.
This morning I went to comment moderation in settings to do some housekeeping. I thought I did it most days but I've obviously slipped up in the last week or so.
In moderation there were 166 spam comments to be deleted and 3 comments for allowing through that I had missed. I apologise to those whose comments I'd not moderated. The trouble with so much is that the good gets lost amongst the bad,
I have to say that some of the spam I've had recently has been of a nature that even I found offensive.
Given that I presume we all mark these as spam I cannot fathom why Google's algorithms don't pick them up and automatically send them to junk. Particularly as some of my incoming ordinary mail gets occasionally sent to junk for no apparent reason.
I don’t get as much of the disgusting stuff as you Graham, but yes, the recent Spam has been quite explicit and thoroughly offensive.
ReplyDeleteI too am confused as to why Google’s algorithm is not detecting those ‘accounts’ the spam is coming from, but I suspect the ‘bots’ which create the spam are working faster than Blogger can keep up . . . What I don’t get is why it is done? I am not “up” enough on current tech goings-on to know what the spammers are trying to achieve?
Jayne, as I would never ever click on any of their links I'm not sure either. However some are plain scams and if they get a few bites I suppose there are enough people who will fall for their 'offers'. Some download malware but that's usually aimed at Microsoft computers.
DeleteSo much for the often-claimed progress in AI! It certainly does not apply to the spam-detecting algorithm here on Blogger.
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely, Meike.
DeleteI have reported to Blogger in the past that I consider them to be letting us down in not spotting spam bots. Nothing has changed and we are still bombarded with it. And yet as you say, they still occasionally put perfectly normal, ok, regular commentators into spam.
ReplyDeleteRachel, I've never bothered reporting it because I've never seen any response to any matters reported to them via the Google Forum years ago.
DeleteI get spam certainly, but nowhere near the volume you receive it appears, Graham. I delete the message rather than marking it as spam, but perhaps it would be more effective to do that, and enable the algorithms to pick them up. But my oh my, how I am missing out on those cheap loans and promises of forbidden pleasure next time I am in Mumbai!
ReplyDeleteDavid, I try and mark them as spam because it is the only hope of Google ever seeing them and perhaps doing something about it.
DeleteI get the occasional spam messages but as my blog has very few followers I am probably not "out there" as much as others, which is probably a good thing.
ReplyDeleteI always mark them as spam before deleting them but assumed that they come back using a different account to slip through the e-barricades.
JayCee, I don't know what Google does and whether spammers do change the account but the Google algorithms should pick them up anyway.
DeleteThat's a huge amount of spam, what a fiasco. I wonder that you still stick with blogging but I'm pleased you do. I sometimes resort to the old adage of what you pay for is what you get with google..,
ReplyDeleteAlphie, it's increased a great deal in the last few months. Well I suppose that no one in my Blogworld is a professional blogger. Presumably they attract even more but perhaps as Google makes money from them they look after them Hmmm. I suspect the bloggers need Google more than the other way round for any individual blogger.
DeleteGoogle could be doing much more to keep the creeps from making their offensive comments.
ReplyDeleteIt certainly could, Red. I wish it would.
DeleteSome of the unbelievably offensive troll offerings, I keep in my spam folder. I'm just hoping that at some stage Mr Blogger will be able to prosecute. The present idiot who talks about 'boomers' should be locked up!
ReplyDeleteCro, The 'boomers' nutcase is a menace buy for the first time since the great deluge of an particular enhancing pill I'm now getting lots of daily online invitations all of which are different (with the same underlying message) which I'd rather not have seen on line.
DeleteGraham and Cro, I am sorry to hear about your blogging woes. May I put forward a few thoughts:
Delete"Prosecute" on what grounds, Cro? By which I mean legally.
If it's any comfort, the source of those strange boomer comments might not even be an individual, an actual person (troll as you, Cro, call them) - just some automated generic anonymous rattling a sabre for reasons most certainly eluding me.
I have on good authority (don't ask, I wish I never had) that there are strange machinations out there. The secret is to not let them unsettle you. Just ignore. Laugh them off. Not last because whoever sends that boomer hate is most likely an offspring or several of same boomers. Reflect on that for a moment - for light relief. It'll bring a smile to your face.
Having said that I myself have not been completely untouched by the unnerving. There was one very unfortunate period (didn't last long) when someone used my email address to send messages to friends and family. Which they OPENED (coming from a "trusted" source). Brilliant. Those friends and family then descending into my inbox asking me what the hell I was thinking of. Que? I had no idea what they were talking about. My father tracked down the source, don't know how he did it or what he said, and the avalanche stopped.
And to think that once upon a time Kafka, Huxley and Orwell gave me the creeps about the future. A future we now live.
U
I'm sorry you're having to deal with so many of these comments, Graham. I often wonder how they are targeted.
ReplyDeleteJules, I think that they are just 'found' by a spambot for the most part which finds one and then goes through the blogs associated with it and so on. Sometimes they search for a specific word which was why I used the term 'compressed processed meat' when I was talking about this subject a few posts ago.
DeleteMe too. I know which one you find offensive, it's not nice and pretty stupid really. Whoever is leaving that comment everywhere obviously hasn't done alot of research into the meaning of their accusations which is why I have mine on moderation, so much easier to mark as spam.
ReplyDeleteAmy, I know the one to which you are referring but I can cope with that even though it's offensive because the person seems deranged. The ones I'm getting , and another 7 appeared this morning, are explicitly intimate (I avoid using the s word because the perpetrators' scanners find the word and latch on.
Deleteoh wow I must admit I haven't seen that one yet.
DeleteI've had some pretty offensive comments recently too, some have gone to Spam automatically, some haven't. I mark them as spam and then delete, but not sure if that works or not.
ReplyDeleteSerenata, I never use the S word because their scanners latch onto it. I mark accordingly too and delete but it doesn't help. I had another 7 explicit ones from the same person this morning when I woke.
DeleteHope your consistent marking of them will eventually have effect. I have so far not had to deal with all that many. I too have noticed though that certain popular search words may be more likely to attract ---. Rather difficult to rename everything though (and still make sense!) 😉
ReplyDeleteMonica, at the moment it is, I'm glad to say, mainly a problem on my blog only for me because I have moderation set at 10 days and most of the comments are on old posts. However there are a lot of them which is an irritation. I have tried to avoid certain words and it sometimes makes my sentences very cumbersome.
DeleteI am SO with you, GB!
ReplyDeleteIn more than one way, Marcheline. ☺️
DeleteSpam...spammers make me very angry! Why the hell they don't do something worthwhile with their time, beats me!!!
ReplyDeleteI'm with you there, Lee.
DeleteI am not sure anyone is bothering to spam me now I have not posted for so long. I wonder if the increase in spam is due to new Blogger.
ReplyDeleteI've been getting lots of it for a long time, Jenny. Possibly because the bot they use just keeps going through my back catalogue. Yesterday I got 28 of an explicit nature but they rarely target the current post which is one thing that leads me to believe that particular one is just a bot and not a person.
DeleteWhile I do not moderate comments because to me that would be time consuming, I do check them daily now. For awhile I didn't and found, as you said, that older posts were spam targeted. I noticed that in the "new and improved" blogger interface there is no way to indicate they are spam, but only the option to delete. I prefer the Legacy blogger which let me mark them as spam and then delete them. I do wonder why some bloggers are much more targeted than others, but don't have an answer.
ReplyDeleteBeatrice, the new Blogger interface does allow you to make things as spam. If you go to Settings>Comments>Moderation or to Settings>Comments>Published it offers you three options: X ! 🗑 . The exclamation mark is to mark spam. They then don't appear Moderated) on the blog or are deleted from the blog (Published). As to why some get lots and some don't is beyond my ken.
Delete