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Comment Spams Straining Servers Running MT

Posted by michael on from the critical-mass dept.

dJ phuturecybersonique writes "Netcraft reports that 'Comment spam attacks on Movable Type weblogs are straining servers at web hosting companies, leading some providers to disable comments on the popular blogging tool. The issues are caused by bugs in MT, forcing publisher Six Apart to recommend configuration changes while it prepares fixes.' More..."

3 of 186 comments (clear)

  1. Netcraft confirms ex-MT users love WordPress by IO+ERROR · · Score: 4, Informative
    There are many reasons to use WordPress instead of Movable Type.

    First and foremost, it's free (speech and beer) and distributed under the GPL.

    Second, the actual developers of the software actually participate in the support forums, so if you do have a question, it's likely to be answered very fast by someone intimately familiar with the software.

    Third, it's a lot less susceptible to comment spam, especially after applying a few plugins and hacks. I've never received a single one, and that's not for lack of spammers trying.

    Fourth, it's very easy to customize the look and feel of the site without knowing any PHP. HTML and CSS is about all you need to know. Knowing PHP helps a lot if you want to really customize it, but it isn't a requirement.

    Finally, they've already included a Movable Type import utility, so those of you who are sick of MT for this and many other reasons can move over with little hassle.

    Signed,
    A very happy WordPress user and occasional contributor.

    --
    How am I supposed to fit a pithy, relevant quote into 120 characters?
  2. challenge the user by lseltzer · · Score: 4, Informative

    We had a similar problem on our ziffdavis.com blogs (like my security blog) and we think we have solved it with with one of those graphic field challenges to the user (enter the value in the nearby graphic).

  3. Reusable Proofs of Work by yerdaddie · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I myself run an MT blog and have been contemplating moving to wordpress to dodge the spam bullet, however temporarily.

    It occured to me thought that what would really fix this is to push the load onto the spammers by building a Reusable Proofs of Work (RPOW) system.

    For those who are unfamiliar, RPOW is a proposal to stop mail spam by asking the sender to do a little "work" that would make sending a lot emails computationally too expensive.

    As I'm in the last throws of my PhD I'll have to delay on this one, but maybe the lazy web can help out on this one, so the same thing doesn't happen to wordpress or whatever blogging monocultures exist.