September 29, 2004

Trackback Spam :-(

I've just about got a handle on the comment spam. I clear it out, taking about five minutes every day. It's a small price to pay for decent discussion. But now I'm getting trackback spams. And they are 10 times worse.

For a start, MT's Trackback management interface isn't the same as its comment interface. There's no link in the email you get, there's no central list of trackbacks, and once you finally get to the correct entry you have to delete every dodgy trackback individually. And although you can turn off comments globally, you can't turn off trackbacks. It's a per-entry setting, so I'd have to go through all X entries and turn it off for each.

And, to add insult to injury, when you try and create a generic URL which you can paste numbers into, MT complains "Can't delete that way". Why on earth not, you brain-dead piece of software? Grr...

Any solutions, please let me know!

Posted by gerv at September 29, 2004 11:39 PM
Comments

Well, looking at this, it seems that your mozillaZine is using Movable Type 3.0D, which does have a comprehensive list of Trackbacks. Just click the Trackbacks link on the left side, under the Post heading.

Coincidentally, I’ve been clicking the Check All button, then the Delete button on the Comments listing too often lately. Sign of the times, I guess…

Posted by: Minh Nguyễn at September 30, 2004 12:05 AM

I'm running MT 3.11 and I have such an interface. Right under comments in the left nav.

Posted by: Robert Accettura at September 30, 2004 12:32 AM

I'm not sure if it helps in your case, if you don't maintain your own install of MT, but I find the mt-blacklist plugin works really, *really* well, both as a means of intercepting spammy comments/trackbacks, and a means of removing them after the fact (particularly useful if you find the first behaviour undesirable for some reason).

Posted by: James at September 30, 2004 1:19 AM

All your trackback settings (including ones you don't think exist) are in Weblog Config -> Prefrences -> "Publicity / Remote Interfaces / TrackBack".

Posted by: Simplex at September 30, 2004 4:06 AM

Yes Mozillazine will need to upgrade to 3.11, 3.0xD is a dev update with loads of bugs and I'm surprised they haven't upgraded already.

Once upgraded, install the MT-Blacklist plugin and read the tutorial Elise wrote http://elise.com/mt/archives/000246concerning_spam.php

Posted by: Arvind at September 30, 2004 4:36 AM

It's pretty ironic that you're blogging about this only hours after I do, and you _don't_ trackback my blog entry! Don't worry though, I would probably just take it as spam. ;)

(http://weblogs.mozillazine.org/djst/archives/006596.html)

Posted by: David Tenser at September 30, 2004 8:15 AM

same thing happens over @ The Rumbling Edge.. :|

The reason why the burning edge doesn't have most of these spam is because Jesse implemented some anti-spam measures. mozillaZine should do it too!

just realised that David Tenser just posted the same problem in his blog in the post above me..

Posted by: skywalker at September 30, 2004 9:19 AM
All your trackback settings (including ones you don't think exist) are in Weblog Config -> Prefrences -> "Publicity / Remote Interfaces / TrackBack".

Indeed - but there is no equivalent of the global "Accept Comments" options - you can only define the default Trackback setting for new posts. :-(

Posted by: Gerv at September 30, 2004 8:29 PM