I've noticed more EDU domains hosting splogs and other questionable spam pages as well, is this something you've seen more of?
Jonathan Bailey
· 1 year ago
I've noticed it some but the controls on EDU domains pretty much make it so that those are cases where someone has hacked into an established system or is misusing a site's resources. Those are still fairly rare but, yes, they are becoming more common as loopholes and workarounds are being discovered. This is because EDU domains have a high trust in the search engines and are located in very unique IP ranges so they can pass on a lot of search engine juice to other sites.
Jeremy Steele
· 1 year ago
Yeah... we can thank those darn SEOers for causing that little problem... Good to know I'm not the only one noticing it. Thanks.
Voyagerfan5761
· 1 year ago
Good news: The site my blog is currently hosted on is becoming slightly less spammy.
Bad news: Spam overall seems to be becoming more and more of a problem.
I'll take the good news, thank you. :-/
Jonathan Bailey
· 1 year ago
Voyagerfan: Just think of it as butter being spread on bread. It was concentrated in one part and now they're spreading the joy around. Somehow that doesn't feel gratifying...
Forrest
· 1 year ago
I've noticed a lot of .edu spam myself lately. Whether it's true or not, there's a perception that they get special loving treatment from search engines
But that's a drop in the bucket compared to the flood of comment and trackback spam I seem to attract. Today a comment got past Akismet from a sex blog on a legit seeming domain. The comment itself was questionable, so I had a look at the site. What's interesting, to me at least, is that the text wasn't just stolen from somewhere else, like a lot of the trackback spam I get; it was pure gibberish. Almost certainly created by "content generator" software. This is a lot less irritating than someone stealing my work ... if it would just stay out of my corner of the network, I'd be happy.
Personally, I've read reports suggesting as many as 93 % of the blogs hosted on blogspot are spam. This always seemed a little shrill ... again, with that perception, I'm not surprised they're cracking down and causing a mass exodus.
Jonathan Bailey
· 1 year ago
Forrest: Reading the comments from the black hat seo types, there does appear to be at least some benefit from having an edu domain.
You are right though that the vast majority are coming from other domains. I'm seeing a lot of items from Weebly, Google Groups and your usual Blogspot crowd. It still seems that the "soft" targets are the ones being targeted the most because it is still a battle of quantity over quality.
I seriously doubt that the number ever got up to 93% but you are right that the perception was/is there. Right now, other than Voyagerfan, I can only think of a few blogs that are hosted on Blogspot that I would consider popular and legitimate. Even among the legitimate bloggers, it seems to be favored by sex bloggers due to the lack of adult content restrictions.
It truly is the perfect site for spam isn't it?
Voyagerfan5761
· 1 year ago
Spreading butter around is usually a good thing because it gives a more uniform taste to your toast. Spreading spam around just makes the world a more annoying place to Internet. I am happy to be considered one of those "few blogs that are hosted on Blogspot" you consider legitimate. (Does 1,400 visits a month count as popular? I'm not so sure... But I appreciate the compliment. :-) )
If Google were to spend more time actively looking for splogs, or make it easier to flag a blog as spam (the navbar, with its button, is altogether too easy to hide), or even tighten the ToS so splogs are less legitimate under the rules of the hosting site... The world would probably be a better place for it.
All the more reason to get myself a real domain name, I guess. If I do that, I can start putting other services on it as well; custom domains seem to be the latest trend in free amenities.
Google Groups does seem to have a large amount of spam going on, too. It's gotten to the point of being ridiculous.
PS: Yes, I know it's been days since the last comment, but the comment tracker I use has apparently been slacking on its checks lately... Grr...
Jonathan Bailey
· 1 year ago
Voyagerfan: To pass on some immortal advice from my father, just take the compliment and run, lets not argue numbers! I have no idea what is considered popular anymore. I'm certain many readers of this site have blogs that are far more popular than it.
There are a lot of things Google could to to make this problem easier, but at this point it's going to require a major shift in how Blogspot operates to have any major impact. I don't see that happening any time soon.
But yes, a real domain name, a real WP/MovableType install and a good professional layout, rather than one of Blogger's defaults, will go a long way.
Google Groups is insane. I've hit a point that I just ignore anything from groups.google.com. I haven't seen anything legitimate there in months.
Out of curiosity, which comment tracker were you using? I use co.mments.com myself...
Dr. Mike Wendell
· 1 year ago
Only 1 questionable on wordpress.com? That seems low to me. I found just under 100 on Sunday in about an hour using Goolge's blogsearch and a few common terms typical of splogs. (ie Make money fast, the domains that cj.com use, etc.)
I've reported them but as of right now, they're all still online.
Jonathan Bailey
· 1 year ago
@Dr. Mike Wendell - I've read and replied to your original post so I don't have much to say. However, those were the honest results of my test. I've never said that there is no spam on WordPress.com, just that it is far lower than on other sites, such as Blogspot.
I doubt that there is a way to run a free blogging service without having a spam problem...
All Comments
Bad news: Spam overall seems to be becoming more and more of a problem.
I'll take the good news, thank you. :-/
But that's a drop in the bucket compared to the flood of comment and trackback spam I seem to attract. Today a comment got past Akismet from a sex blog on a legit seeming domain. The comment itself was questionable, so I had a look at the site. What's interesting, to me at least, is that the text wasn't just stolen from somewhere else, like a lot of the trackback spam I get; it was pure gibberish. Almost certainly created by "content generator" software. This is a lot less irritating than someone stealing my work ... if it would just stay out of my corner of the network, I'd be happy.
Personally, I've read reports suggesting as many as 93 % of the blogs hosted on blogspot are spam. This always seemed a little shrill ... again, with that perception, I'm not surprised they're cracking down and causing a mass exodus.
You are right though that the vast majority are coming from other domains. I'm seeing a lot of items from Weebly, Google Groups and your usual Blogspot crowd. It still seems that the "soft" targets are the ones being targeted the most because it is still a battle of quantity over quality.
I seriously doubt that the number ever got up to 93% but you are right that the perception was/is there. Right now, other than Voyagerfan, I can only think of a few blogs that are hosted on Blogspot that I would consider popular and legitimate. Even among the legitimate bloggers, it seems to be favored by sex bloggers due to the lack of adult content restrictions.
It truly is the perfect site for spam isn't it?
If Google were to spend more time actively looking for splogs, or make it easier to flag a blog as spam (the navbar, with its button, is altogether too easy to hide), or even tighten the ToS so splogs are less legitimate under the rules of the hosting site... The world would probably be a better place for it.
All the more reason to get myself a real domain name, I guess. If I do that, I can start putting other services on it as well; custom domains seem to be the latest trend in free amenities.
Google Groups does seem to have a large amount of spam going on, too. It's gotten to the point of being ridiculous.
PS:
Yes, I know it's been days since the last comment, but the comment tracker I use has apparently been slacking on its checks lately... Grr...
There are a lot of things Google could to to make this problem easier, but at this point it's going to require a major shift in how Blogspot operates to have any major impact. I don't see that happening any time soon.
But yes, a real domain name, a real WP/MovableType install and a good professional layout, rather than one of Blogger's defaults, will go a long way.
Google Groups is insane. I've hit a point that I just ignore anything from groups.google.com. I haven't seen anything legitimate there in months.
Out of curiosity, which comment tracker were you using? I use co.mments.com myself...
I've reported them but as of right now, they're all still online.
I've read and replied to your original post so I don't have much to say. However, those were the honest results of my test. I've never said that there is no spam on WordPress.com, just that it is far lower than on other sites, such as Blogspot.
I doubt that there is a way to run a free blogging service without having a spam problem...