Fri 22 Dec 2006
Ok, so apparently someone posted in a Turkish forum (I’m deliberatly not linking to it) about my blog being a PR8 and now I’m getting all these comments that don’t really add any value to any conversations (most of them actually qualifying as spam in terms of content), but of course link back to their sites (mostly non blogs, some of them questionable), all from people in Turkey. One of the commenters said something like: “your stats were going to change, you’re getting popular in Turkey” – something among those lines. Even though I don’t understand the language, the title of post in the forum in question has the words “search-engine-optimization” and somewhere in there a “PR8″ is mentioned (along with the link to this blog), so I’m assuming this is all an attempt to get linked to from this blog in order to increase their PR.
So, if that’s the case, here’s a message to them: all comments are moderated. I’m deleting them all, so you’re wasting your time and mine. The comments area in this blog is not meant for this purpose and I will not allow it. This is also spamming. Comments are open to those who intend to make a real contribution to the conversation.
If you’re Turkish and posted a valid comment and I deleted it, my sincere apologies. I’m checking each link individually in order to avoid this mistake, but it’s possible that one or two valid comments get accidentally deleted in the process. On the flipside of that, if I accidentally approved your spammy comment before I realized this was going on, it won’t be here long.
I guess I won’t be very popular in Turkey after all…
December 22nd, 2006 at 6:50 pm
Patricia,
I had the same problem with my blog. I realized that I must have “hit the big time” when I started getting upwards of 50+ spam comments every single day. Turning on the comment moderation was my only recourse, so now I just log in and check the comments as often as I can for real people who are wanting to participate.
On that note, I have purposely NOT listed my URL with this blog comment, simply as my way of sticking out my tongue at the Turkish spammers.
Have a great weekend, Patricia!
December 22nd, 2006 at 7:20 pm
I installed the math spam plugin for wordpress, and since then, I’ve only had 2 or 3 spam comments.
ed
December 23rd, 2006 at 6:02 am
Well, your blog got so much attention lately from Turkish users because there is a seo contest going on r10.net (the biggest webmaster forum of Turkey) and someone published your blog’s link there and let them know it was a PR8. And right after you got flood of Turkish webmasters’ spammy messages of course (: That’s why..
Cheers,
Gökhan
December 24th, 2006 at 12:01 pm
WordPress will add a [rel="nofollow"] to all the links in the comments and in the comment author link.
This will make sure, google does not consider them worthy just because they are in your comments.
This is just FYI, and I still believe you should delete unnecessary comments.
Thanks and in case we don’t talk soon, Have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.
Sadish
December 26th, 2006 at 2:01 am
Sadish, thanks for the tip! I didn’t know that. And apparently, neither do the Turkish spamers. lol
January 13th, 2007 at 7:04 am
Unfortunately I’ve moderated my blog too, and all I get is spam so don’t even read them.. On a few of my site’s blogs I just disabled comments completely.. it is out of control
January 15th, 2007 at 11:36 am
I started using the “Challenge” plug-in which is just a simple math equation, and my comment spam has dropped from 30 – 40 new messages each day down to only 2 or 3, so I’m pretty happy with that.
Here is the URL for the plug-in:
http://lordchaos.dominatus.net/wordpress-plugin-challenge
January 15th, 2007 at 5:22 pm
Hi, i’m italian so excuse for my bad english… Does exist a wordpress plugin that automoderate comments? I can’t moderate it manually…
January 16th, 2007 at 11:25 am
Paty!
I’ll practice my English reading your English Blog!
=)
January 17th, 2007 at 11:25 am
Here is the link to all of the WordPress plug-ins from their site:
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/
There are hundreds (maybe even thousands) to choose from, and you can do a keyword search for specific types of plug-ins.
January 19th, 2007 at 12:42 pm
Indeed, those spammers suck. I get at least 100 or so spams a day!!!
January 19th, 2007 at 4:35 pm
Oh, look who decided to drop by for a change: ladies and gentleman, my ex-husband/current best friend, Marcelo.
Yes, spammers suck. Even though, apparently, this isn’t about the PR thing (I wasn’t aware of the [rel=â€nofollowâ€] thing at the time I posted this), these are spams regardless, so in here, they get nuked, period!
)
January 26th, 2007 at 7:36 pm
Hi Manpie, i’m italian too, from Scalea and you?… i just receive 30/40 spam mail a day and in my site someone post spam comment that i have to delete manually… there isn’t a way to block them… beacouse they find even new way to spam…
Mmh wordpress is cool
Maybe i will try it!
January 28th, 2007 at 2:17 pm
Unbelievable how much attention means for the people so that they do spam. One of the most annoying things all over the web.
By the way thank you very much for the open designs you offer. My Blog is made of one of yours. It is not yet interesting so please everybody leave it alone.;-)
February 2nd, 2007 at 6:39 am
i guess turkey spam is not that popular ;p
btw, nice site template
it has got my favourite green.
February 16th, 2007 at 9:21 pm
Be sure to use Akismet plugin – that cuts out lots of the spam on your blogs. Also, since you closed comments on the ‘who reads my blog’ post, I am in UK and fell into your site after thinking the theme looked pretty elsewhere. I am also interested in people who read my blog and find it fascinating to see a theme/plugin used by others that I wrote.
February 23rd, 2007 at 9:30 am
You can keep the PR stealer’s at bay by using a no follow rule in your code..even wikipedia had to do it after everyone just wanted there link there so that they can get higher PR..btw i am a first time visitor and damn impressed.
February 26th, 2007 at 7:06 pm
Im sorry for Turkish spammer.
February 27th, 2007 at 2:22 am
[...] Here is a story about a site that got great PR, but then some website in Turkey put up a post that said this was a good blog to leave comments on pointing back to your website to boost PR. So now the poor operator gets loads of spam from Turkey. Not that it matters where it comes from, spam is spam. [...]
February 27th, 2007 at 4:58 pm
[...] I discovered this when I stumbled across an article entitled PopulaR in Turkey? on the Vanilla Mist blog. This blog has a very high PR, and attracted a lot of spam comments as a result. But as explained in this article, the spam does not help the spammers at all! [...]
February 27th, 2007 at 5:11 pm
Thanks for that article, it sure explains a lot to me. I have to admit, it will make me more disciplined in the comments I leave. It is easy to engage in “comment noise” – not spam exactly, but low-value comments that have the advantage of pointing back to my site.
I think that as people begin to understand rel=nofollow, comments will decrease in number, but increase in quality. At the same time, bloggers will be motivated to write quality content because that is what will prompt others to legitimately refer to their blogs.
After reading your article yesterday and having a think about it, I wrote my own take on how rel=nofollow will effect the blogsphere, when and as it is understood. If you care to read it, use the link above.
I must say, that at first when I read your article about nofollow, I was a bit miffed that commenters are not rewarded for commenting. But then when I thought about it, it is the author who should be rewarded for writing a good post by getting comments!
March 3rd, 2007 at 1:45 pm
LOL. I wish I was popular. It’s like being in school all over again. Now even the foreign exchange kids flock over to the popular students.
At least back then, I had someone to talk to. Even if I did not understand the language.
March 23rd, 2007 at 9:15 pm
Well i think you can easily tell it is a turkish website just by the domain exension or sometimes the domains name.
I wish you luck though with your script of stopping their spams.
March 25th, 2007 at 1:21 pm
Hi, Patricia
I am using your beatiful theme “Connections” in my blog.
I want to know if is possible in this design to put post by title, not only by date.
Thnks for the answer. Sorry my english. Greetings from Argentina,
March 29th, 2007 at 9:23 pm
Hi,
I was changed the template and work very well, and traslate at spanish. If someone wants this, can post in my blog and send the new template.
Bye
April 3rd, 2007 at 12:27 pm
Comment spam is the biggest problem as the blog becomes popular and gets a higher PR. Try to use some spam blocker as moderating will become more and more difficult
April 3rd, 2007 at 11:58 pm
thanks.
my site using your theme.
April 6th, 2007 at 6:11 pm
Your theme is great. So, thx u.
But, Turkish spammers are not more famous than Polish spammers
April 9th, 2007 at 2:07 am
Hi Patricia,
I’ve started my Blog on July 2005.
I then downloaded your theme and adapted it.
Thank you very much.
I have put a link to your blog from the very beginning.
April 9th, 2007 at 2:08 am
Hi Patricia,
Commenting from France
I’ve started my Blog on July 2005.
I then downloaded your theme and adapted it.
Thank you very much.
I have put a link to your blog from the very beginning.
April 9th, 2007 at 3:34 pm
I am aswell using it and loving it very much, the template works deliberatly well.
April 13th, 2007 at 3:25 am
Wow thats insane…I wish I was getting famous in turkey rofl
hey just stopped by to say thanks, I love your connections theme very much. Just wanted to ask where you got that image up top? Is it a stock image?
April 18th, 2007 at 3:23 pm
Nice Blog! Love to be here.
Don’t worry about the Turkey thing. Everything will be fine.
Best regards,
Erwin
April 30th, 2007 at 7:39 am
hi,
awesome blog!
Actually inspired me to start my own blog and even did so at http://comparelinux.com using ofcourse your connections theme.
Not lets see how it goes!
Anyways, cheers man!
May 7th, 2007 at 8:42 am
i have a blog in greece… and i had the same problem .
now i use in my blog [rel=â€nofollowâ€] . But they don’t know and keep on to create spam comments.
May 15th, 2007 at 8:55 pm
I’ve changed my mind about rel=nofollow. In fact, I’ve removed the attribute from my website.
This does not change the amount of spam I get – most of it is bot-dropped, and Akismet cleans out most of that.
My original support for rel=nofollow was based on the theory that it will improve commenting quality.
I’ve decided that the only way to improve commenting quality is to delete comments that are there just for the sake of a link and give the rest link love. I have all of this clearly posted on my blog, so I don’t feel bad about deleting comments that are junk.
The plugin that I am using requires three comments before the attribute gets taken off to encourage return visitors (and avoid giving link love to commenters who are only there to drop links)
May 17th, 2007 at 6:28 am
rel=â€nofollow†actually doesn´t help the spam traffic from hitting blogs. Also some of the spam is autogenerated and that is why captcha and other spamfilters are useful.
May 18th, 2007 at 12:11 am
“rel=â€nofollow†actually doesn´t help the spam traffic from hitting blogs.”
No, it doesn’t, but at least if spam gets through, and sometimes it does, it won’t help the spammer’s pagerank.
However, “Mostly Technical” has a point. It’s something to think about.
May 20th, 2007 at 2:37 pm
Spam is a big problem on blogs and not only from turkish people. My blog is far from being as popular as this one but I receive about a 1000 spams every week.
The no follow tag is not usefull at all, I even have links with the no follow tag posted by the spamers and I don’t know about Google but other search engines still follow the links.
My solution is the akismet spam plug in. It does stop about 98% of the spam and allows me to find good comments much easier when it’s time to approve them.
May 22nd, 2007 at 10:05 am
dear Müller,
I have read your blog, I use your theme and just wanted know about you. But this post made me really sad. I am a turk and it really makes me mad to hear about our webmasters and their spamming action.
I hope, you will solve this problem in a kind and quick way.
sorry for my english.
June 1st, 2007 at 3:26 am
It is sad that they have linked to your site. No idea which web site linked to your site, but your blog is kinda boring anyways. Try to write better and keep it up to date!
June 14th, 2007 at 4:38 pm
Akismet works to prevent spam most of the time..and even when a spam comment goes through, you can flag it as being spam and any similiar ones in the future don’t get through.
First time visiting your blog – was contemplating adding the connections template, it’s really nice =)
June 26th, 2007 at 3:50 am
Hi there, it’s sad to see some people spoiling the reputation of others of that country. But I have visited Turkey before, and the people there in general are nice and friendly. I wish better systems could be put in place to prevent spam from getting sent out in the first place.
Cheers, Just a passerby from the Net
July 4th, 2007 at 9:03 am
The problem with the so called SEO wanna bee-s is the following: they do not know that your comments are infact nofollowed. So the best chance they have is to make you post a blog entry about them
July 4th, 2007 at 9:04 am
I am posting the second time, I got an error the first time.
The problem with the so called SEO wanna bee-s is the following: they do not know that your comments are infact nofollowed. So the best chance they have is to make you post a blog entry about them
July 6th, 2007 at 4:46 am
And where is your post for this year?
July 6th, 2007 at 4:50 am
It’s July now.
How more months we have to wait for a new post?
July 9th, 2007 at 3:23 pm
It would be nice to have you update this blog soon, would it not?
July 18th, 2007 at 7:14 pm
I believe most of them dont even speak english so their pretty much wasting their time.
July 20th, 2007 at 5:16 am
It’s funny to watch these idiots make fun of the SEOers to try to distract you from seeing that they’re SEOing. Typical.
Nice blog =P
August 10th, 2007 at 9:37 am
it crazy turkish peoples
August 19th, 2007 at 4:14 pm
[...] PopulaR in Turkey? – 22.12.2006 [...]
August 23rd, 2007 at 10:57 pm
I have the same problem but not with the Turks, I’ve installed Bannage a WP plugin and manually banning IP’s that’s look spammy.
August 25th, 2007 at 1:24 pm
This will make sure, google does not consider them worthy just because they are in your comments.
September 8th, 2007 at 8:50 am
this is not about turkish people.. this is about webmasters who wants to make his page popular without working hard.. this kind of people could be found everywhere
October 4th, 2007 at 7:48 am
Why do spammers have to ruin everything for everybody…if it’s not email spam, its comment spam, or even telemarketing spam – in South Africa, there aren’t even any bodies where you can complain about it…
The person/company who can come up with a viable trust solution for all of the above will become rich!
November 1st, 2007 at 10:25 pm
Congrats anyway
I’m now a PR5 and i don’t see any changes to my blog project!
eheh
November 3rd, 2007 at 10:12 am
My website is rather small, but my spam ratio is well over 100/1. I am using SpamKarma (http://unknowngenius.com/blog/wordpress/spam-karma/) and it is really good. I don’t have to worry about spam as they are all blocked. Only one or two humans have posted spam. This may also just be because the site has little traffic (after all who cares about some raving loony mountain biking in Beijing
, but it should scale well, so you will have very few problems with a Spam Karma protected site as long as you don’t get targeted by human spammers (and even then SK has been good at blocking them or putting them in the moderation queue). hope this is useful.
November 24th, 2007 at 8:45 am
I have read your blog, I use your theme and just wanted know about you. But this post made me really sad. I am a turk and it really makes me mad to hear about our webmasters and their spamming action.
I hope, you will solve this problem in a kind and quick way.
sorry for my english.
greats from germany. slm thx
December 25th, 2007 at 5:23 am
LOL. I wish I was popular. It’s like being in school all over again. Now even the foreign exchange kids flock over to the popular students.
At least back then, I had someone to talk to. Even if I did not understand the language.
January 19th, 2008 at 5:37 am
i wis h i was popular too.excellent post by the way.
February 28th, 2008 at 11:20 pm
lol they are talking about this post in the turkish forum now. If you want the discussion translated just shoot me an email.
August 1st, 2008 at 10:36 am
Actually, there is some pluging for blogs to avoid this problem. They have spamlists and check your comments first.
September 27th, 2008 at 6:16 pm
wow i see this post is still very active, i posted on it 2 years go.
December 18th, 2008 at 3:39 am
The problem is not just sourced by Turkish people. You can see many webmasters from other nationalities that do the same thing.
December 18th, 2008 at 11:48 am
Hey you are right, i am turkish and i am boring our spammers too… but be carefull please spam doesnt has nationality.. Every country making spam comments. I can count my chiniese spammers, and show you the usa’s spammers commenters…
Be patience everyone will learn slowly..
December 30th, 2008 at 6:27 pm
@Can: I never said that spam had nationality or that Turkish people are the only people who spam. What I did say was that at the time of this post I was getting a lot of spam comments from people with IPs in Turkey, leaving links to websites in turkish.
There is a big difference between generalizing any nationality as spammers and identifying where the spam was coming from at the time this post was published. I don’t have anything against the Turkish at all. In fact I have met some very nice Turkish people. But that doesn’t change the fact that, indeed, the spam comments were coming from IPs in Turkey. And that’s all I said.
I thought I’d clarify that, as I seem to have been misunderstood.
January 7th, 2009 at 4:05 pm
I’m sorry for Turkish spammer.
A big cause is Google.
Because Google is not justice…
Google doesnot give a High PR for Turk Websites…
Respects…
February 2nd, 2009 at 1:13 pm
thats ashame for us
i am a web designer from turkey
u should use some of spam blocker maybe a membership requirement system.
greetings from turkey all