Suggestion for Comment Spam -- Akismet
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jayp
Joined: 2005-10-24
Posts: 52 |
Posted: Mon, 2006-08-21 14:23
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Hello, this is directed towards the developers (or any other development minded persons). I think one of the most glaring oversights in the current feature set of Gallery is a way to deal with comment spam. I've heard that as of 2.2, a captcha module will be integrated with the comment module. Captchas are not only very user unfriendly and obtrusive, they're also terrible inaccessible to some people. (Yes, I know an argument could be made on why blind or low vision people would be looking at my gallery, but people with learning disabilities, such as dyslexia for example, can find captchas very difficult). In short, captcha's are not the way to go. So, I'm surprised no one's (apparently) mentioned it yet, but Akismet is an open solution that works wonders for Wordpress and an ever increasing number of other applications. (I know there's even a module for Coppermine photo gallery). Take a look at their development information. It seems like this would be very easy (relatively speaking) to integrate with gallery and provide a very effective, user-friendly, comment spam protection in Gallery2. Any thoughts? |
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Posts: 3236
Not a bad idea, but are there any issues with it? I know I use it on WP and it required me to get an API key by signing up with wordpress.com (or something)?
G2 has a module system, anyone who wants to create an Akismet plugin is welcome! They can even get any needed help.
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Support & Documentation || Donate to Gallery || My Website
Posts: 52
Yes, you'd have to get an API by signing up for a wordpress.com account. You don't actually need a Wordpress blog or anything. You just fill out one form, they provide you with the API key. It's very painless. The system works great too.
I would love to develop this plugin and get it all to work, but I'm simply not a developer. I can sometimes modify code to suit my needs, but usually only with great effort. As a full time graduate student, I won't be able to help here.
What's the possibility of bring this to the developer's attention and getting it put on a list somewhere so that one day it would be added?
Posts: 3236
It is 100% possible to get it on a list somewhere! Visit the sf.net/gallery/ site and create an RFE. It will then show up in the feature vote. If enough people think its a good idea, it'll move up the list. Don't forget to vote for it yourself. I'll vote for it too, got some freed up votes recently
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Support & Documentation || Donate to Gallery || My Website
Posts: 52
So I've added an RFE, but I'm not seeing it on feature vote page... Did I do something wrong? Will vote for it once I know how...
Posts: 52
Okay, I see it now. Just needed to wait for the page to update.
Please, everyone that wants fool proof spam control on comments, go vote for this feature request. Thanks.
Posts: 18
I have never used Akismet, but I'd like something for my gallery.
I am using SpamKarma 2 on some wordpress sites, and it has been doing a bang-up job for me there.
H
Posts: 171
any news on that akismet plugin? would be great to have!
Fabs
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Posts: 107
Or ANY news on ANY kind of spam prevention/correction (I have disabled comments in my pages until something allows either to filter or mass delete comments).
Eduo
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www.hamsterspit.com
Posts: 32509
There's already the captcha module which can at least protect your G2 from most automated spam postings.
But there are still people that actually post spam manually and our captcha image could easily be passed by a OCR-enabled spam-bot.
The more resources the evil people throw at you, the more resources you'll have to dedicate to work against them...
Akismet will sure be a great addition to G2, but it could take a while until we have Akismet support.
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Documentation: Support / Troubleshooting | Installation, Upgrade, Configuration and Usage
Posts: 107
Yeah, I know. And if I had to choose what I'd really like to have, right now, is some way to bulk delete comments.
Back in G1 there were ways to select all comments that fit a certain pattern and delete them wholesale. In G2 there is absolutely no way to bulk delete comments that I know of. Akismet is pretty good at catching spam, but before Akismet comes I think there should be some way to bulk-edit comments in G2. It should be a pre-requisite, actually.
I find it weird that this has never been a priority (and yes, there are FREs and yes, I've voted for them). I've seen lots and lots of posts about this but FREs for other (flashier) things tend to get all the attention.
I'm not complaining about the G2 team or at the developers. I'm actually complaing at the users that vote
(and, if anyone else, at the developer that created the current comment module 
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I know about captcha, and it doesn't help the damage already done (thousands of comments already existing in the DB). I need to find some way to delete comments in bulk without affecting legitimate ones.
Eduo
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Posts: 60
Me votes for Akismet ;)
Posts: 13
Try the suggestion here:
http://gallery.menalto.com/node/55331
Its a bit hardcore but hopefully your ideas about selecting comments that fit a certain pattern will be implemented one day.
Posts: 8
Although it isn't an answer to the question why don't you try to nofollow the comment entries.
- Easy Living -
Posts: 107
Sorry, asladeep, but that didn't make much sense.
Eduo
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What I was trying to say it to NoFollow all the links that people can place in your comments. This is a useful deterant so the spammers won't get any link juice from your blog. Naturally you'll still get spam from people thinking that they will get traffic, but you'll loose those Cailis, Viagra type spam wanting to get some link juice from your blog. Try that before putting on any other measures.
- Easy Living -
Posts: 107
Yeah, well. These thousands of comments are already there, so they can't be easily modified and, anyway, what I care about is the awful image they give.
Don't kid yourself. If you put the "nofollow" attribute in links you'll stop the "link juice" but you won't stop the spammer bots, they will just pointlessly spam your comments.
Spammers don't verify if their attempts have any effects, they assume they do and if they don't then it's still no loss to them. They won't change their actions.
Forbidding spammers doesn't mean they'll stop trying either, their attempts just won't work.
Eduo
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www.hamsterspit.com
Posts: 8
Well you're in a pretty tough position then. You can put all the other things up like captchas and all that, but ultimately it will also drive away the people who really want to comment and add to your blog. Its pretty much up to you.
- Easy Living -
Posts: 107
Blog? What blog?
If you read you'll notice there is a request for two things:
1.-Akismet or some other sort of spam control
2.-Some way to fix the damage that's already been done.
Your suggestion makes no sense for either of the two. And this is all related to comments in pictures. This is not about a blog.
Eduo
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eduo.info
eduo.info/gallery/
hamsterspit.com
Posts: 8
The similarities in both blog comment spam and gallery comment spam should be glaringly obvious. Another member has already made reference to it previously. I was just providing a suggestion.
In your case I think you'll just have to delete your comments one-by-one or if you feel thats too much work maybe consider just abandoning your gallery and start another one since its already spam ified.
http://www.asiadeep.com
Posts: 107
It's irrelevant how similar they are, no matter how glaring it may be. The comment made before was to use an existing solution for blogs into gallery2. But he was talking about gallery, as was I. You especifically mentioned MY blog, derailing the discussion.
I know what my available solutions are, which is the reason I was mentioning here that something more robust is needed. I was also asking for something to bulk process past-spam as whenever something like this comes up in G2 there will be hundreds of galleries with spam to delete.
Eduo
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hamsterspit.com
Posts: 7
In my opinion, the best way to go is via JavaScript auto-filling form. It's a very simple and yet a very effective way to leave the robots outside. You simply place a hidden field and fill it via JavaScript when the user presses the submit button. If it's a bot, JavaScript won't work and by the way, bots do not press buttons.
On the other side, for manual spammers... you have nothing to do. But the thing is... there are 500 bot posts vs 1 human post. So even if you have to delete it manually, it's not a difficult task. I really stopped the SPAM completely that way, and without captchas.
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Lionel - Actimel
Posts: 28
Eduo
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Any updates on this as I am really burned out deleting spamming comments one by one and not having anything to email me once a comment is made. Akismet seems to be a great solution.
I just noticed the new version has no information on this...
Posts: 27300
G2.3 has Akismet
Dave
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Blog & G2 || floridave - Gallery Team
Posts: 28
So I'm guessing I need to upgrade considering my system information.?.?.?.
Gallery version = 2.2.4 core 1.2.0.6
Thank you for your support, SB
Posts: 27300
Yes but I would wait until it is out of RC stage. Unless you want to upgrade a few more times in the weeks to come.
Dave
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Blog & G2 || floridave - Gallery Team
Posts: 28
Oh wow, thanks for the input. So I'm guessing in a month or two it will be ready. Upgrading this CMS is not easy and takes a lot of time.