A few weeks ago I opened a single blog post to comments. I wanted to see if I get the usual comment spam tsunami.
Weirdly, I’ve only had four spam comments. Which was a real surprise compared to last time I gave it a go.
Why no comment spam?
Is it because the post itself didn’t attract spammers’ attention? Or does only having one post open for comments put spambots off because they’re less likely to fly under the user radar? Maybe I didn’t meet spambot criteria for some other reason. There’s only one way to tell.
Comment spam experiment stage 2
On a mission for useful clues, stage two of my little experiment involves throwing open the doors to find out:
- if I attract more comment spam
- whether some of my posts get spammed more than others
- if so, which posts attract the most attention – it might mean something and it might not, but it’ll be interesting to find out
Why bother?
I’d like to open more posts to comments. But I don’t want to spend hours every week checking thousands of crappy comments just in case something genuine has slipped through my spam catcher. It’s a value decision based on the cost of my time versus the marketing benefit of the occasional good quality comment.
In an ideal world my posts should attract enough meaningful feedback from real people to make all the rubbish worthwhile. In the real world, with spam being what it is, the numbers don’t always stack up. We’ll see. Here goes – I’ll report back.
Update Sept 2014: It took a few months but the trickle eventually grew into a flood. Perhaps it took spambots that long to find my site? Luckily the WP Akismet plugin means comment spam isn’t an issue, I just delete it all in one click. Plus, it’s interesting to see what people are spamming about…
