I’ve spent the past two hours clicking at least a thousand little tiny boxes. All so that Fanatical Apathy could live another day…
This is a cry for help. HELLLLLLLP!
You may have noticed, if you cruise my archives, that my Comments sections have begun to fill up with Comment-spam. And in the past few weeks, it has intensified to the point where I no longer have enough room on my (rented) server for my site. Literally thousands of ads for Levitra, offshore casinos, and Hot Lolitas have pushed me and my available capacity to the brink. In the past week there’s been a particularly vicious bombardment, resulting in warning messages from my web host.
The solution, of course, would be to upgrade to a newer version of the MovableType software I use to publish this here site, and then engage the nifty spam blockers that the new software apparently includes or allows. Sadly, I don’t have the expertise to install the new stuff, nor does my new job afford me the time to acquire the expertise.
So I’m reaching out. Asking. Begging. I don’t want to discontinue the Comments sectuion; it’s my favorite thing about the site. So… Is there anyone out there who can help Save Fanatical Apathy? It’s an extraordinarily stupid thing, I realize, a silly, annoying thing, but it’s actually threatening to destroy the site I call home.
Hopefully,
Your Incompetent Webmaster
Fanny Roborat
18 comments
Erica
July 6, 2004 at 1:25 am
1Do you have MT Blacklist installed? That should take care of most of it. Looks like you’d need to upgrade to a more recent version of MT first (2.6+).
Oops, except it looks like you can’t get that directly from Movable Type anymore. Maybe someone out there has the 2.661 package available for download?
Linkmeister
July 6, 2004 at 3:19 am
2Well, even before trying to find MT 2.6 you can insall the plugin called “Close Comments.” It allows you to set an age limit, so posts older than, say, 21 days (that’s the default) will no longer be available for comment. It’s a damn snap to install, and the instructions are easily followed. About the hardest thing you have to do is create a plug-ins folder on your server to load the module into.
Jerry
July 6, 2004 at 6:30 am
3What a drag! This is far and away my favorite ‘blog! Commenters are erudite and witty, contribute constructively, and are even (gasp!) reasonably respectful of dissenting opinion.
I know nothing about ‘blog software (visited the Movable Type site and didn’t come away much wiser) but can’t comments be limited to registered users? The community here seems small enough to make that practicable. Or am I dreaming?
Seems some other ‘bloggers are here. I really hope you can solve the problem.
Fry all spammers until crispy, and serve ‘em up in a lovely cassarole with lima beans. They can all go Cheney themselves.
Murray
July 6, 2004 at 9:14 am
4Limiting the comments to 21 days would have killed the July 31 2003 comments column that is still going with over 250 comments, although it has gotten clogged up with spam.
I don’t know the first thing about what needs to be done, but I’d be glad to offer an added incentive to any one who can. A free deluxe bicycle tour in the spectacular mountains of PA. That or an untouched for 35 years fondue set, (avocado).
bj delacruz
July 6, 2004 at 9:28 am
5There is a tool that requires someone to enter in a code from a randomly generated gif. this at least slows down the bot posters.
Of course there should just be a simpler way of deleting comments. Dunno if that is in the new 3.x MT.
Mary
July 6, 2004 at 9:29 am
6I don’t know nothin’ about loadin’ no servers.
If there is no one else, I am willing to teach myself and do it. I have this weekend free.
rh
July 6, 2004 at 10:31 am
7Hmm… the comments so far suggest:
* upgrade, and/or
* install plugins
Both require some rolling-up-the-sleeves and putting-on-your-sys-admin-cap actions, in which you seem reluctant to engage.
I can think of just two more options
* be a part of the unwashed masses and join blog services hosted by 3rd parties like blogspot or livejournal — leave the maintenance headache to others. The disadvantages are the lack of autonomy and possible hassle of moving everything.
* consider alternative software packages. Maybe another blogging software may be easier to install and manage. After some recent upheaval over the new MovableType v3 release, some people moved to WordPress. I’ve not tried it, so I can’t comment on its ease of use.
One question though — you wrote “I don’t have the expertise to install the new stuff;” what do you mean by “the new stuff?” Does that refer to “nifty spam blockers” or the newer version of MovableType? How was the current incarnation of Fanatical Apathy installed?
Although you may be hesitant, I recommend biting the bullet and upgrade to the new version (as you’ll have to do eventually when the machine dies). *climbing onto my soapbox* Investing some time to gain experiences in the upkeep of your computer is an immensely worthwhile thing to do.
Without constant vigilance, we open our machines and ourselves to harm’s way. (I also thought this article from Slate was interesting: http://slate.msn.com/id/2102856/) *getting down from soapbox*
So in case if you opt to upgrade, here’s an addendum to Erica’s post.
The background is that there is a sigificant change in the user’s license between the earlier versions and the most up-to-date version (v3). In v3, the free version allows for only one author keeping up to 3 blogs; there was no such restrictions in the earlier versions. I don’t know whether this restriction impacts Fanatical Apathy, but for the rest of us cheapskates, the “good” version is v2.661, the one right before v3.
Both v3 and the earlier v2.661 are downloadable from the company website, though they sort of obfuscated the path to downloading v2.661. See
http://www.jayallen.org/journey/2004/06/the_mt_2661_rebellion
for step-by-step instructions on how to navigate through the downloading process to obtain v2.661.
Tiffany
July 6, 2004 at 11:31 am
8Adam-
I can help set up both MT 2.661 and Mt-Blacklist, having recently encountered a similar problem myself. Drop me a line if you need my help.
Take care-
Tiffany
Tiffany
July 6, 2004 at 11:32 am
9Post-script: I have MT 2.661 archived here, so it’s not a matter of tracking it down.
lovable liberal
July 6, 2004 at 11:45 am
10They can all go Cheney themselves.
Glad to see this usage springing up all over!
tess
July 6, 2004 at 1:01 pm
11lovable liberal:
oh my-cheney-god . . . cheney is now synonymous with a sexual act? so now every time a frat boy cheneys a girl, i’m going to think of cheney? ew, ew, ew!
why can’t we associate him with something else? like santorum?
Stumax
July 6, 2004 at 1:02 pm
12Adam -
Downloading and installing MT 2.661 is surprisingly easy, yet it may not solve your problem. I still get comment spam from time to time and *nobody* reads my blog - not even my fiancee. (Not that I’m bitter about it.)
However, this post at Gadgetopia claims that simply renaming your comments script and updating your mt.cfg file can take care of most of the spam problem.
http://www.gadgetopia.com/2004/06/22/MTCommentSpamFix.html
Hope this helps. I really enjoy your blog.
aaron
July 6, 2004 at 1:38 pm
13Ouch.
Well, I will obviously be of no help, since you actually helped me do this crap at MY site a few years ago, but I figured that I could still try to lift your spirits a little with some messages from a few of your beloved readers who I happen to have recently spoken to.
“Humberto” wants to let you know that he feels for you, he loves your website, and thinks it’s a shame that an amazingly clever liberal satire website like this could fall victim to such a stupid thing. He also wanted me to ask you if you were interested in an unbelievably low fixed-rate home equity line.
“fn” thinks maybe the problem could have something to do with a certain talented performer’s…shall we say…UNDERperformance? He/She knows of a great place where you can get really really good HERBAL “viagra.”
And finally, “Stacy” reccomends that you try a tech support website that she and her co-ed friends run. It’s called “teens caught on cam” and focuses on common technical problems encountered by webmasters.
Hope this helps!
Paul
July 6, 2004 at 2:16 pm
14As a bit of an amateur weblackey myself, I think Stumax’s suggestion above seems the best and easiest, and I also suggest, since, as the gadgetopia website says, the spambots will probably eventually be able to parse the comment posting form’s source code to find the name of the comment cgi script, to create several dupe copies, both above and below the code for the actual comment posting form.
This would be done by copy-pasting a number of copies of the comment form, with false entries for the form’s target (the URL of the cgi script) within and tags. This will tell the visitor’s browser not to display the code within those tags, but will likely be enough to confuse any crawling spambots.
The only drawback is that it will make the source code slightly larger for a visitor to download.
Of course, this is not a failproof method, but it should stem off the growing tide for at least a small while longer.
Any questions regarding this (esp. if I’ve made myself unintelligible, as I have a habit of doing) can be directed to paul@baumgart.us .
Paul
July 6, 2004 at 2:22 pm
15It didn’t display the tags very well in my posting above, I meant:
“Post a Comment” form with reference to
non-existant comments cgi form
Paul
July 6, 2004 at 2:23 pm
16Bah, I should be more generous with the preview button. I meant “…reference to non-existant cgi script…”.
Evan
July 6, 2004 at 6:08 pm
17I’m sure they’d leave you alone if you’d just buy some damn Levitra already.
Dee
July 6, 2004 at 7:23 pm
18I have absolutely no idea what anyone is talking about.