The ES Designs Manila server continues to get bombarded by requests to post comment spam to sites on the server. Fortunately, measures that I have taken to block these comment posts appear to be working. Very few new spam comments have been added since they were implemented.

At the same time, removing spam comments from the server has greatly improved its speed and reliability.

Here is a brief rundown on the changes that I have made to deal with comment spam.

I have removed spam comments on a number of sites. In one extreme case there were over 24,000 spam comments on one site. The large number of spam comments was the primary source of slowdowns and server crashes. I modified the server code to actually delete comments, rather than just flag them as deleted. I implemented a "Check All Comments" feature, to streamline comment deletion for managing editors.

I modified the comment code to implement a comment blocker. The comment blocker checks for certain oft used phrases and does not allow comments with them to be posted. In some cases the comment blocker applies to a specific message, so no new comments can be added to that message (applied to active sites with old messages that were getting comment spam). In other cases, the blocker applies to all new comments to the site (applied to inactive sites where there have been no new posts in a couple of years).

And finally, I implemented a challenge question that should stop automated comment spam posts. It asks a user to answer an arithmetic question before a comment can be posted. Depending on how well the challenge question works, I may be able to relax the comment blocker.

How can you help in this effort. Monitor the sites that you are managing editor on and remove comment spam as it shows up. Also, Let me know about inactive sites that can be disabled or deleted (these are often the targets of comment spam, since no one other than search engine bots actually looks at them).

Thank you for your assistance in this effort. I am confident that with the comment spam problem under control, the server will perform much better than it has in recent months.