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MovableType (which powers this blog) offers instant feedback, trackbacks, and conversation continuation which is generally unparalleled by most other web design software.
This rapid feedback also places huge holes in this software, which is highly susceptible to spam. Automated bots scour the web to find sites like mine and leave a comment which says irrational garbage. The signature usually contains some type of optimized link which goes to a porn or drug website. These links are viewed by search engines as legitimate third party votes and parse PageRank to the SPAMMING site.
Recently Mike Grehan wrote about the sour effects of this type of software in a piece called "PageRank Lunacy."
So far they have came out with MT Blacklist, MT flood protection, comment redirects, and now they are promoting PGP verification.
My solution to comment spam (as posted on their site)
"what if the posted url only became an active link and links in the comments only became active after they were confirmed by a blog admin?
the comments could still show the same and frequent contributors could also be given a pass of some sort to not require every post be confirmed
this would still allow the open and instant feedback, but would rot away all of the value of comment spamming."
I think they could redirect the links using java and then pull the java off when the comment is confirmed or the user is authenticated. Currently the value in comment spamming is only in how search engines interpret these links. If that value is removed then the comments will no loger appear.
I am not a programmer by nature, but I think that this is the best current solution, and that it would be easy to implement.
It prevents the parsing of PageRank to SPAM comments and allows the system to keep its fast feedback loops and functionality.
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