Fringe is back on the air after being spammed out of service. Given that spammers target older comments by a ratio of 8 to 1, the consequence is that I am now in the process of retiring all comments older than 30 days. I’d like to keep those threads open, but I’d rather have my site remain on the up and up.
Thanks goes to Greg Piper who graciously put the word out about my site’s temporary demise.
UPDATE: I have installed a hash system process on the comments. Basically, the site forces you to preview your comment before submitting. When you do so, an approval hash is generated, thereby allowing your comment to “go through”. It’ll still be moderated by me, at least until Six Apart puts out a new release of MovableType, which should hopefully fix the bug that allows spammers to use the site’s commenting system to, in effect, shut down a shared hosting environment (such as what Fringe is on).
This should prevent auto-spamming, though only time will tell. Initial reports for this system are positive, though it wasn’t the comments themselves that was the problem, but the DOS-like attempts to post spam comments. Even though none of them went through, the attack was enough to cause my host to suspend my site. That’s so not cool.
Did I mention I hate spammers? But moreso, I think I hate the people who make spamming possible–the idiots who’ll click on every phentermine, viagra, cialis, porn, or consolidated loan link they see if they think they can get something for nothing. Rubes and putzes, all of them!