SPAM in Moderation…

I didn’t have much experience with blogs when I started this.  I tried to read up on some of the basics before starting and WordPress recommended that I use moderated comments.  Wow!  I have been amazed at how quickly this blog was found and assaulted by Spammers.  This blog is hosted on our ECC website, so it’s not like we’re out in some public arena.  Still, I get spam comments nearly every day.  Occasionally one is creative or at least makes a minimal effort to look like a real comment – Something like, “I like your site.  –  Eric” before adding a link to something inane.  Others are nothing more than a jumble of words or letters followed by multiple links to porn sites, cheap drug sites, hair growth sites, hot stocks and wild claims on how to increase your proportions, whether your male or female…  In 2004, the Federal Goverment tried to curb spam with the CAN-SPAM law.  (Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography And Marketing)  While I’m impressed with the catchy acronym, I can’t see that the $11k fine and other requirements of the law have had any effect on my inbox.  If you’re interested in more on this law try here:  http://www.ftc.gov/spam/

An article I read recently cited a study by an internet security company that claimed that their research showed that Indiana was ranked #7 in unsolicited email with a whopping 88% of email messages being unsolicited junk.  Our neighbors in Illinois must be even more gullible as they were ranked #1.  A rather dubious honor…

The original SPAM created by Jay Hormel came to being in 1937.  According to their website, “After more than seven decades in the marketplace, the SPAM® family of products is still the tasty, high-quality kitchen staple made of 100 percent pure pork and ham that the world has come to know and love.After more than seven decades in the marketplace, the SPAM® family of products is still the tasty, high-quality kitchen staple made of 100 percent pure pork and ham that the world has come to know and love.”  Mmmmmm… Mmmmmmm…!!!  Anybody familiar with email (and apparently blogging) hears “spam” and thinks first of the annoying avalanche of unsolicited junk that clogs our email inboxesevery time we open them.  I’ve been using the spam-blocking options available from my email provider as well as after market add-ons as a secondary defense, but still end up with a phenominal amount of trash.

Internet Spam may have gotten it’s name from the Monty Python Troupe and their skit about a couple trying to order breakfast, but finding that everything offered on the menu has spam in it.  The wife loudly proclaims, “I don’t like Spam!” while a chorus of vikings drown out all conversation with their chanting song, “spam, spam, spam, spam…”  Still a hilarious bit thirty years later!  And wholly appropriate!  Unfortunately I don’t know how to embed the video here, but you can find it on You Tube by searching “Monty Python Spam” and for a while anyway, you can link to it here:  Monty Python Spam Skit

If you find a miraculous way of dealing with spam, let me know.  Until then, I hope you’re not offended that comments will be moderated and I will continue to have to deal with SPAM in moderation…  <pun intended>

Kevin

UPDATE:  I’ve added a plugin from Askimet that has made a world of difference in the amount of spam I’m having to handle.  I only installed it this week, 1/5/09, but I’m impressed so far!  It’s a free program and the installation into my WordPress blog program was painless.