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Possible Duplicate:
How can I prevent comment spam on sites which I control?

After bearing 1 year spammy comments with links in those in my 10 sites, finally I've disallowed comment posting with prefix of "http" or "https" ( with message that I'll add prefix http if needed).

I'm happy with the results.

But could it be hurting site or site visitors in any way? Any ideas?

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I would not have used a regex on http:// or https:// but I woudl rather try a solution such as Askimet. It is believed to be pretty good against spam comments. Or maybe Disqus like comments.

Can it hurt?

When trying to give a point of view, I generally confirm what I say, with a couple of links = yes. But if the progression of spam ratio has fallen, I could do with restrictions.

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There is another service called akismet. I recommend you to look at it too.

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    I guess you missed the first answer which recommends this solution? – John Conde♦ Jan 23 '12 at 21:31
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    Yes, you are right. I missed it. Still I write the name correctly and link to it. I think my post has in this case some value too. – Raffael Luthiger Jan 23 '12 at 22:19
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I've found the best solution is to move to the disqus comment system, that puts this problem in the hands of a much larger business who only earn money when they prevent this kind of thing.

Akismet is another good service that's worth a try.

Other options include automatically no-follow-ing the links in your comments - as this makes your site useless to spammers or disallowing a href in comments.

For the sake of other future readers, many people sell lists of thousands of websites which haven't applied no-follow to links in their comments section, allowing the spammers to easily and robotically spam your site. Everyone should apply no-follow in their comments it's very easy to do. While no-follow won't stop spammers entirely, it will stop you being included in the lists for sale.

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  • using no-follow won't stop any spammers, especially if you have a larger site where any link brings some visitors as well. You could either moderate comments manually, use an external service as askimet or write a simple filter that discards comments with certain keywords or domains. – iHaveacomputer Jan 24 '12 at 1:41
  • The problem is bots try to post each and every form like commnet/contact us with links in it. It is not related to dofollow/nofollow. Even nofollow does have some value. Pl keep in mind disallowing href in comments is exactly what I'm asking suggestion from you( ie disallowing http in comments). – AgA Jan 24 '12 at 4:53
  • @iHaveacomputer it will stop you being included in the lists and doing this has killed spam stone dead on a number of sites I manage. The newer robots check and won't waste their time. – toomanyairmiles Jan 24 '12 at 8:53

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