A Reporter's Life


Blog bots win

The spamming blog bots have won. I've gotten 85 spam replies on my weblog today, and the day isn't even over. Not only are they annoying, but I have to MANUALLY DELETE EVERY GOD-DAMNED SPAM. In case you're wondering, deleting 85 of them will probably take a good 15 minutes of steady clicking and waiting for the program to update. I've come to hate Movable Type because of things like that.

That stupid blacklist program wouldn't work and I can't make heads or tails out of Thomas's suggestion (especially when I looked at his page and couldn't see how he'd made any changes). Travholt's suggestion is a couple years old and apparently meant for an older version of Movable Type, David's suggestion would require paying for the latest version of Movable type, and my mom's suggestion made no sense to me and is meant for some other program.

So, unless I find some other way of fixing it, I'm going to run a full back-up and delete my blog. I only post stupid crap and my main page hasn't been updated since May, so why the hell do I have a blog, anyway?

Posted by Layla at 6:45 PM, November 21, 2004

— Comments —



If you installed MT in the same place I did, you'll find that there's a MT directory in your cgi-bin. In that, there's a directory called "App". In there, there's a file called "comments.pm". On or about line 25, there's the following:

if ($q->param('post')) {
$q->param('__mode', 'post');

Change that to

if ($q->param('elly')) {
$q->param('__mode', 'post');

---

Next, go to your web interface. Click on the templates button. Go to the "Miscellaneous Templates" section and edit the three comment templates. Just before the close comment tag, there's an input tag that reads

[input style="font-weight: bold;" type="submit" name="post" value=" Post " /]

Chang that to read

[input style="font-weight: bold;" type="submit" name="elly" value=" Post " /]

Do that to all three; rebuild the site.

Now your post button is named "elly" instead of "post".

Breaking it down to non-programming lingo:

These spambots send stuff to your MT scripts. One of these things tells MT that "something called 'post' just sent ' Post '". Because the current MT script looks for that, it thinks that the rest of the stuff is a valid post and adds whatever else they sent. Now with the "elly" button, what happens is the spambot sends the junk and MT gets a notice: "something called 'post' just sent ' Post '". However, because of the change we did to comments.pm, MT will just ignore that because it's really looking for someone to say "something called 'elly' just sent ' Post '". Because the spambots keep sending "post" instead of "elly", MT doesn't know what to do with them, so it ignores them.

Posted by: Thomas at 9:27 PM, November 21, 2004


Where it says "Just before the close comment tag, there's an input tag that reads", that should read "Just before the close form tag, there's an input tag that reads".

And in those tags, the value is "%nbsp;Post%nbsp;" with ampersands instead of percent signs -- that code is "non-breaking space" and was translated as such when I posted the above.

Posted by: Thomas at 9:30 PM, November 21, 2004


Hope Thomas suggestion works, and please make sure you get some sleep *before* making any final decisions on the future of your blog.
Although I am speaking as someone who deleted her own blog feedback for the same reason.
But you may recall the grandma's and my famous last words: Do as I say, not as I do.
Hmmm...

Posted by: Mom at 11:55 PM, November 25, 2004


I would suggest, until the spam is controlled, you just disable the feedback section on your blog. I still like reading what you have to say and this way you're not pulling the plug on that.

Then, when you've worked out the spam stuff, turn the commenting back on so you can hear our witty remarks.

Posted by: David at 11:01 PM, November 27, 2004


"...why the hell do I have a blog, anyway?"

Because your life as a reporter is quite interesting, and a lot of things do not or cannot make it into the articles you write.

That's why.

Posted by: Thomas at 7:43 AM, December 01, 2004


I found some interesting about subj, look at it. www.eddiereva.com

Posted by: eddireva at 1:56 PM, December 07, 2004


The liberty of the individual must be thus far limited; he must not make himself a nuisance to other people. by online poker

Posted by: online poker at 1:41 AM, December 24, 2004


texas holdem - poker tables, online poker rooms | poker chips - wsop, party poker | poker rules - empire poker, texas holdem | poker chips - paradise poker, paradise poker | internet poker - empire poker, poker chips | poker online - poker tables, poker tournaments | poker games - poker tables, online poker | free poker online - free poker online, free online poker | paradise poker - poker online, poker online | world poker tour - poker rooms, wsop | texas hold'em - poker tournaments, poker rules | world poker tour - party poker, poker tournaments | online poker - poker tournaments, poker tables

Posted by: party poker at 7:17 PM, December 30, 2004


Great discussion. Just a slight change in the subject. You may be interested in one of these seasonal tax topics: Federal Income Tax - Federal Income Tax - http://federal-income-tax.irs-us.net ; HR Block - HR Block - http://hr-block.irs-us.net ; Income Tax Filing - Income Tax Filing - http://income-tax-filing.irs-us.net ; Income Tax Online - Income Tax Online - http://income-tax-online.irs-us.net ; Income Tax Preparation - Income Tax Preparation - http://income-tax-preparation.irs-us.net ; Income Tax Return - Income Tax Return - http://income-tax-return.irs-us.net ; Income Tax Software - Income Tax Software - http://income-tax-software.irs-us.net ; Online Tax Filing - Online Tax Filing - http://online-tax-filing.irs-us.net ; Online Tax Prep - Online Tax Prep - http://online-tax-prep.irs-us.net ; Online Tax Preparation - Online Tax Preparation - http://online-tax-preparation.irs-us.net ; Online Tax Return - Online Tax Return - http://online-tax-return.irs-us.net ; Online Tax Service - Online Tax Service - http://online-tax-service.irs-us.net ; Online Tax Software - Online Tax Software - http://online-tax-software.irs-us.net ; Tax Calculator - Tax Calculator - http://tax-calculator.irs-us.net ; Tax Cut - Tax Cut - http://tax-cut.irs-us.net ; Tax Deduction - Tax Deduction - http://tax-deduction.irs-us.net ; Tax Filing - Tax Filing - http://tax-filing.irs-us.net ; Tax Forms - Tax Forms - http://tax-forms.irs-us.net ; Tax Preparation Service - Tax Preparation Service - http://tax-preparation-service.irs-us.net ; Tax Preparation Software - Tax Preparation Software - http://tax-preparation-software.irs-us.net ; Tax Preparation - Tax Preparation - http://tax-preparation.irs-us.net ; Tax Programs - Tax Programs - http://tax-programs.irs-us.net ; Tax Refund - Tax Refund - http://tax-refund.irs-us.net ; Tax Return Preparation - Tax Return Preparation - http://tax-return-preparation.irs-us.net ; Tax Return Software - Tax Return Software - http://tax-return-software.irs-us.net ; Tax Return - Tax Return - http://tax-return.irs-us.net ; Tax Software - Tax Software - http://tax-software.irs-us.net ; TaxCut - TaxCut - http://taxcut.irs-us.net ; Turbo Tax - Turbo Tax - http://turbo-tax.irs-us.net ; TurboTax - TurboTax - http://turbotax.irs-us.net ; Thank you for your interest.

Posted by: Uncle Sam at 5:36 AM, January 18, 2005


poker tables - empirepoker, online poker rooms | poker online - poker online, texas hold'em | WPT - poker tables, partypoker | poker supplies - free online poker, poker supplies | poker books - poker online, poker tournaments | texas hold'em poker - poker tables, poker chips | pacific poker - world poker tour, poker games | poker tournaments - WPT, internet poker | online poker - pacific poker, paradise poker | online poker sites - texas holdem poker, internet poker | party poker - poker rules, poker rooms

Posted by: empire poker at 4:30 PM, January 19, 2005


i am spam

Posted by: lolita at 8:01 PM, January 19, 2005


Post a comment









Remember personal info?