Spam Comes to Book Blogs

[Allan Russell]

If it isn't bad enough cleaning it out of your inbox, it seems they won't leave you alone even on a social network.
Usually when I get an email saying someone has left a comment on my page, or sent me a message it is a fun moment. Unfortunately tonight the comment left on was:

"Hi,
Kind regard,i am Anita,tall,slim,fair,and a very good girl....."

Pure unadulterated spam. How disappointing, upsetting and infuriating!

Is there any way we can nip this sort of thing in the bud before it gets out of control and damages a great network?

[Donna Lea Simpson]

Report them to Tricia! I have been doing my best to help her with what I call 'ghost' members, those who only join to leave ads for baldness cures, or e.d. cures. Do the same! Report her to Tricia and Tricia can, if it is warranted, remove her from the membership.

[Deborah]

that's really funny because I was just talking about this on twitter this morning. it seems that there are a lot of fake accounts being made.

[BJ Davis]

Glad you are mentioning this. I've been hit hard since joining Book Blogs.

[BJ Davis]

I forgot to mention that they are also calling me, saying that I applied for various things!!!! Does anyone else have this problem? NEVER GIVE YOUR PHONE NUMBER OUT TO ANY BLOGGER!!!!

[Anysia]

I was just mentioning this on Twitter yesterday too, only I was talking about the discussions that are SEO garbage (they were promptly removed by Tricia when I pointed them out). I did not realize that messaging spam was happening too. Hmm.

I have my Ning site (different topic) set so that only the front page is viewable to non-members rather than the whole site (the other option is making it altogether private). I'm not sure if either of those settings cuts down on this type of spam or not. There are other options like turning on approval for new members but that makes a lot of work for the moderator. I'm not sure if it's possible to have more than one moderator on Ning or not.

[Allan Russell]

It is such a shame that the so-and-sos can't leave anything or anyone alone.

The only saving grace is, as Ninon says, the pleasure of meeting new people and sharing ideas makes the nuisance worth while. (not that I have had much of an issue on this site, but on other services I use it is a massive problem.)

By the way, Tricia has responded very promptly and the "member" in question has been banned.

Thanks for all your hard work Tricia.

[Donald James Parker]

I got the same message from a girl with the same picture but a different name on about five ning networks. Are they trying to sell pictures of themselves nude or something. I've never followed the links to find out. One of my upcoming novels is going to address pornography so I'll be hitting the subject so I should understand it a little better with my mnd but not with my eyes.

[Stacy-Deanne]

I have been dealing with a porn site spamming my website guestbook. I have to clear it out at least once a week and this is getting to me, big time. I think porn spam is the worse!

[Joana]

Ugh. I hear you. The comments my blogs get regularly sadden me. A handful of normal comments and about 200+ spam comments regularly. I actually have a pet blog and some of the spam comments people leave on that one disturb me. My poor cats, they've been violated online! x_X

[Stacy-Deanne]

ALLLLLLLLAN! You are SO right! I don't get a lot of spam in my Ning boxes but I get Ning spam in my personal email!

It's not just Book Blogs itself. It's Ning! Ning is horrible with spam. What's so bad about Ning is that once you start joining certain Ning networks it opens an entire connection to all the Ning sites! This is bad because you start to get invitations from everyone and their mother. I can't tell you how many site invitations I get and unwanted newsletters. I usually am not one that gets very upset with spam like some people though. I just delete it or block it as it comes in but I do get pissed off at people (authors and book publicists, I have to say), that sign me up for their newsletters without my permission! This is especially bad with self-published authors. I get newletters from people I never even heard of. That does get to me. I don't even bother to report it to anyone. I used to report spam all the time but no one does anything about it. I think spam is just a way of Internet life and no one's gonna do anything about it. All the adminstrators for these sites say is that, "We're sorry, thanks for letting me know and we'll look into it." Yeah right, LOL! Thank goodness for the spam block option through email.

Best Wishes!

http://www.stacy-deanne.net

[sumthinblue]

There is a great plug-in at Wordpress called Akismet - It's worked perfectly for me so far.
Before I installed it, one of my blogs got bombarded by pharmaceutical spam! I had to delete over a thousand messages!

[Anysia]

Akismet is installed by default. How did you have a WordPress blog without it? (or Have I misunderstood something)