Spam prevention

[watervole]

 I'm getting a lot of spam on old posts in my live journal.  It's not yet a problem on Dreamwidth, though I don't know if that will hold true for the future.

I'm tempted to make the journal friends-only, but I don't want to cut anyone out.

Basically, if you read this regularly and I haven't friended you, it may be worth asking so that you don't get cut out if I do get too pissed off by the spam.

Comments

[kerravonsen]

Yeah, I'm getting spam on old posts too.

But making future posts friends-only wouldn't stop them making comments on old posts would it? Or would it? If so, how?

[watervole]

I thought there was an option to set the entire journal friends-only?

[kerravonsen]

I don't know - that's what I was asking you.

[kalypso]

A friend who was having a similar problem has tried introducing CAPTCHA on anonymous comments (see privacy settings). Assuming they are anonymous - it's also possible to ban those altogether.

[watervole]

No, they're not anonymous.

[espresso_addict]

You can set DW to only allow comments from your access list, which would mean readers could still read, just not be able to comment.

[thebobby.livejournal.com]

I only rarely get lj spam, I'm obviously far less interesting!

[watervole.livejournal.com]

Ah, but you have less posts to get spam on...

[rockwell-666.livejournal.com]

ITYM "Fewer"... ;-)

[undyingking.livejournal.com]

Have you got it set to allow comments only from registered users? That cut out most of my spam, although there are still a few.

[kerravonsen]

I'm getting spam from registered users. Presumably people who are registering accounts solely for the purpose of posting comment-spam.

[watervole.livejournal.com]

How do you do that? (though most of it is from people with LJ accoutns)

[undyingking.livejournal.com]

Go to this page: http://www.livejournal.com/manage/settings/
and on the Privacy tab, on the item "Enable comments: allow comments from" set the dropdown to "registered users".

It doesn't stop spam from LJ accounts set up for the purpose, but at least you can get those blocked and banned as they post.

[julesjones]

My recent tidal wave of spam comments is almost all from one-shot spam accounts automatically created to run a giant spam shot until blocked by LJ. Setting to registered users only doesn't work on those. Reports elsewhere on my flist are the same.

[rpdom.livejournal.com]

I believe you've got me set as a friend on Dreamwidth, but not on here.

I prefer Dreamwidth, but I do read and post to both.

[rockwell-666.livejournal.com]

I'm getting more than I was, although "more" in this case being defined as "one every few days" rather than "one a month" so it's not a major problem, just a nuisance when I see someone's commented and find it's a spammer.

I just mark it and hit "Delete as Spam". Of course if you're getting lots of it that's another matter.

[reapermum.livejournal.com]

I've been reading you for years, mostly because your allotment tends to be ahead of my veg patch because of geography and your folklore.

[watervole.livejournal.com]

I hadn't realised that I hadn't friended you already! Now done.

I'm glad you enjoy the posts.

[reapermum.livejournal.com]

Thanks.

[green-maia.livejournal.com]

You can keep your entries public while setting comments to be friends-only - that way everyone can see your entries, but only people on your friendslist can comment - it completely eliminates spam, but doesn't take your journal out of the community.

[watervole.livejournal.com]

That sounds like exactly what I want. Do you know how to go about it?

[green-maia.livejournal.com]

Go to Account Settings: Privacy

http://www.livejournal.com/manage/settings/?cat=privacy

Go to "Enable Comments" - there is a drop-down menu that allows you to enable comments from:
-everybody
-registered users
-friends
-nobody

Click on "friends" and save.

[rockwell-666.livejournal.com]

That's useful, I've just changed my settings! :-)

[watervole.livejournal.com]

Thanks, now done!

[jthijsen.livejournal.com]

I've been following your posts for a while and don't really read dreamwidth. I do enjoy your posts.

[watervole.livejournal.com]

Consider yourself friended. How can I turn down a happy reader?