Banning the word "what"

Scott Manning
August 1, 2005 | Comments (7)

After getting more spam than I could possibly handle in one day, I installed a blacklist program on my website's commenting system. The blacklist program already had a list of 3000+ websites that are known for their spamming. I also had the option to get emails on every comment posted and then edit, delete, and/or ban more websites from those emails.

Over the course of a year, the spam has dwindled down. In fact, it's pretty much non-existent, but back in May, so were posted comments altogether.

Several months went by and I wondered why my site was getting zero comments a day instead of the 10+ it normally got. Then one day I attempted to post a comment.

I received the following message:

"Your comment has not been posted due to the following questionable content: what"

"Huh?" I thought to myself. I tried posting again and got the same result. I eventually tried rewording my comment so that it did not contain an instance of the word "what". The comment posted.

Now for the big question: Did I ban "what"? A quick look at the thousands of banned sites and terms and there was "what". I realized that I must have banned the word in a frenzy of cleaning out a high load of spam one day.

I checked the logs to see all activity on my website. Between the months of May and July, I found hundreds of the following log entry:

2005.07.13 04:37:19 xx.xx.xx.xxx Blacklist comment denial on: what

I had blacklisted one of the most common words in the English vocabulary. I scanned the log as I saw IP addresses attempt over and over again to post a comment using the horrible word. Most of them eventually gave up and probably said a much more offensive four-letter word in the process.

How many pissed off visitors were there? Around 200. Will they ever visit the site again? I wouldn't.

The damage may already be done, but the lesson has been learned the hard way: Pay the hell attention when adding entries to your blacklist.

Comments (7):

1) Posted by: jimb0
August 1, 2005 9:59 PM

Personally, I've gave up on actually fighing comment spam. Blacklisting is fine, but works to just a degree, you still have to clean it once in a while. Nowadays, having a randomly generated code that must be repeated is the best way to have comments -- if done right, there's no way spamming bots can get through it.

I switched my blog from MovableType to WordPress for just this reason. I don't have a blacklist on, but I haven't had any spam posted on the website anymore.

2) Posted by: rob
August 2, 2005 2:01 AM

What?!

3) Posted by: Maurice
August 13, 2005 4:50 PM

I've gotten a ton of comment and trackback spam on my site. I did a couple of things. I installed the Project Honeypot plugin, didn't work well. I installed the comment bayesian filter, which crashed my site. I banned a ton of IP addresses which worked to a fair degree, since it was many of the same machines being hijacked and used to spam.

But I recently installed the MT3.2 Beta and that's been awesome. It incorporates the bayesian filtering directly into the site, which is cool.

Another thing I'd like is to see some sort of trackback throttling.

That and of course, it'd be nice if I could throttle the spammers themselves...

4) Posted by: Scott
August 13, 2005 5:03 PM

it'd be nice if I could throttle the spammers themselves...

No doubt.

I seem to be doing okay with MT-Blacklist. Other than the "what" snafu, I have banned 100's of websites and after the first few months, the spam dwindled from daily to once or twice a month. Not bad considering.

5) Posted by: Usarian Skiff
August 20, 2005 12:32 PM

Your blacklist thingy also bans (me at least) from using the URL box when posting comments.

Hey, did you know your site is forwarding spam posts?
It's kinda wierd. I get a message from your site about a new post, but when I read it, it's spam. Then I go to the site, but it's not there.

Anyway, I love your site, Scott. Been enjoying it regularly for over a year now.

Usarian

6) Posted by: Scott
August 20, 2005 1:18 PM

Usarian, I've been trying to track this one down a while. When you receive the email, does it say which page the comment was posted on?

7) Posted by: Caty Tota
June 14, 2006 9:27 PM

You guys are the 42457 best, thanks so much for the help.