User>Driven

It took over a year of blogging, but I've finally gotten the attention of spambots. I removed about 3 dozen spam comments and references posted to the site over the last 24 hours.

I apologize to everyone who has been or will be kind enough to offer their comments on my posts or make references to them on their own sites, but the spammers have forced me to turn on moderation of comments and references for unregistered visitors.

This means if you are not registered and logged in, you won't see any comments or references you post right away. Assuming they are legitimate, they will appear when I have a chance to review and approve them. I get email notification when you post things, though, and I will try to turn them around quickly, usually the same day is my hope.

Registered users can post without my review and approval. Take a moment here to register and this doesn't have to concern you. You'll also get the benefit of email updates on (legitimate) posts to any page you subscribe to on the site.

I wish there were a better solution to spambots. Better yet, I wish the people who create them would just stop. The posts are so obviously absurd I have a hard time believing they pay for the effort involved. I imagine they must work to a degree, though, or no one would employ them. The lousy thing is the damage they do to free expression.