How to restore spam filtered comment to the blog?

[grayprog]

I have seen in the database that a comment has been blocked because the user didn't enter captcha. The comment was not spam. How can I easily restore the comment?
How can I see/manage blocked comments without direct database control?

[garvinhicking]

You cannot restore the comment, because it has not been saved in the database.

You can only look up what was entered if you enabled the spamblock logging to "serendipityspamblocklog" DB table or a file.

If we would store every invalid comment, your comment table would very soon get swamped...

Regards,
Garvin

[Hathor]

This comment got through today, and I don't understand why:

best online poker at http://www.lasvegaspokerfair.com/ -
<p>When you look for the best online poker on the net, then you need not look further than this site, where you will find all the great games that you want</p>

Shouldn't poker automatically be blocked?

There are some improvements I'd like to see in S9 in regards to spam blocking. Maybe an additional plugin would help, like SpamKarma for WordPress, which allows you to see every attempted spam comment, recover them if you want, set how many days want it to wait before automatically deleting them, etc.

I'd also like the ablity to reset ALL comments to requiring moderation or not. I've been experimenting lately with NOT requiring moderation, since delaying the posting of comments makes conversation difficult. But if comments like this get through regularly, I'll have to go back and find every entry I've made that didn't require moderation, and change that on each individual post.

[garvinhicking]

Hi!

What was the username of the commentor? "poker" is only blocked for usernames. Before serendipity 1.0-alpha2, the plugin did not support comment BODY filtering.

You can sett all comments to require moderation with the s9y configuration for "Default: Allow comments" to none. Then set the spamblock plugin to auto-moderate after 1 day.

Enabling captchas or auto-moderation for entries with comments older than 7 days works pretty well for me...

Regards,
Garvin

[Hathor]

Just got another one. Sigh. But when I went to delete this one, I realized you've made some improvements since the last alpha version. I can now block individual users (that'll be a help) and URL's. I've lowered the number of links people can include before getting moderated and/or rejected, so we'll see if that helps. The emergency shutdown thingie is good too, though I hope I never need it.

What was the username of the commentor? "poker" is only blocked for usernames. Before serendipity 1.0-alpha2, the plugin did not support comment BODY filtering.

Body filtering should help a lot. None of them are using spammy names anymore. They use common first and last names now.

You can sett all comments to require moderation with the s9y configuration for "Default: Allow comments" to none.

Are you talking about under "manage users"? That doesn't reset OLD entries that were orignially posted to "allow comments", and make them stop allowing comments, does it? I guess it would have roughly the same effect if combined with what you suggested next.

Then set the spamblock plugin to auto-moderate after 1 day.

I've gone with 10 days for now - that'll plug that particular entry I'm having trouble with. I'll bring it down more if needed. I just don't want to discourage REAL comments.

Enabling captchas or auto-moderation for entries with comments older than 7 days works pretty well for me...

I think the captchas does stop a lot on the front end, but the entry that got these two poker comments today had just gotten a real comment from a valid user, which sort of opened the floodgates. I'm stunned how quickly the spammers found that entry as one they could comment on, and they're taking advantage. But I think the ability to create a blocklist of words in the BODY of the comment will help on this. That would have prevented both these comments from getting through.

[garvinhicking]

Hi!

Body filtering should help a lot. None of them are using spammy names anymore. They use common first and last names now.

In the latest alpha, we have comment body filtering. )

You can sett all comments to require moderation with the s9y configuration for "Default: Allow comments" to none.

Are you talking about under "manage users"? That doesn't reset OLD entries that were orignially posted to "allow comments", and make them stop allowing comments, does it? I guess it would have roughly the same effect if combined with what you suggested next.

Right, I was talking about that. And yes, it doesn'T affect old entries - but you catch those with the setting below I mentioned (auto-moderate after 1 day)...

I've gone with 10 days for now - that'll plug that particular entry I'm having trouble with. I'll bring it down more if needed. I just don't want to discourage REAL comments.

Yeah, that'S the whole problem of spam. The more methods you apply to block spam, the more barriers you raise for real comments.

The only solution against spam is a human one: We need to change our attitude for the contents of spam. If people wouldn't buy advertised stuff or scams from spam messages, the spammers would have no reason for that.

However, that's a long road to take. I doubt humanity is ready for that yet.

Best regards,
Garvin