Spam And Bears

Herb’s Blog, Herbdate 22135 – 706:

It appears that whenever someone likes something on your blog WordPress sends out an email saying something to the effect of, “Herb liked your post, ‘why clickbait titles work and why you should use them all the time.’ You should go and see what they’re up to.” Then it picks a few random posts as suggestions. I guess this is kind of nice but some of the links go to older posts. I had changed my comment settings a while back to include the closing of comments on posts older than 14 days. I had done that for the spammers who seemed to want to always leave their marking on certain older posts. Akismet always caught them but I don’t know what they hope to gain. Do they get some sort of credit from their criminal overlords if they leave a link that may never be seen?

Changing that setting has changed the amount of spam I have been getting (I DON’T LIKE SPAM!) in my spam folder and making it easier to fish out legitimate comments. I’ve loosened it up a bit to 32 days and will see what happens. I like comments, as I’ve said many times but I DON’T LIKE SPAM! Well, I suppose I could stand some spam and eggs every once in a while.

In other news, I am sure that the bear that has been around is the large male. Here are some pics of what I found this morning. At first, I was afraid he had hit the neighbor’s car with one of the cans but it didn’t. When I get some money sometime I’m going to get a trail-cam or some other sort of camera and take some video but until then I’ll post the images of the aftermath.

27 Comments

    • Oh, the real fun was when we didn’t have the bear proof cans and the trash would be strewn all over everywhere. Nasty mess.It’s no fun to clean up and it’s bad for the bears. Or did you mean reading spam (I DON’T LIKE SPAM!) comment? Believe me, you don’t want to imagine it.

  1. I don’t think spammers care whether anyone sees their comment and link or not, it’s more about gaming Google. If the spam post gets through then your site is linking to their site and, if they do it enough, then they improve their Google ranking.

    I have my own site to close comments after four weeks for the same reason as you. It keeps the spam comments down to almost none and makes it very easy to spot legitimate comments.

    • Wow. Thanks for that info. I never realized that. I sure don’t want to be linked to any of them. Yeah, I think about a month sounds right. People that might legitimately want to discuss an older post can always email me.

  2. I will normally get about 2-4 Spam a day until they come up with a new scam routine and then I go up to 40-60 per day. I thank goodness we have that Spam folder to catch them!!!

  3. I hear you, Herb. I love Spam and cheese sandwiches, but hate getting it in my spam folder. However, I’ve found a few, not many, but a few legitimate comments from legitimate bloggers that were accidentally sent to my spam folder. As for the bear, from the mess, it looks to be a pretty big one. Did you hear on the news that some park rangers found a bear feeding on human remains a few days ago? Please be careful!

    • I looked it up. That’s pretty gruesome. Wild animals are not pets and people should never let them have human food and absolutely never feed them in hopes of luring them into the yard to see their “cute antics.” Not just bears but any wild animals. If a person is truly an animal lover they won’t do this.

      • I hear you! I’m scared of bears so you don’t have to worry about me feeding them. But I’ve heard of others doing it and I think it’s just asking to become the next meal! No thanks!

  4. I don’t ever want to close my comments because I hate it when I visit someone’s post and feel the need to share and their comment section is closed. Yes, sometimes I link to my old, old posts and I want people to be able to comment.

    However, recently, I’ve been struggling with an increase in Spam levels. I wonder if there are certain trends and what creates them.

    Share some honey with the bear.

    • It’s a hard decision in a way because I know WP sends out links to older posts when it sends emails and I’d like people to be able to comment on those too. I waffle on these kinds of decisions sometimes.

  5. I just put that thing where I have to approve comments the first time a new person writes something, then they’re good to go after that.
    Also, bears getting into your stuff is way more exciting than possums or raccoons.

    • It will be more exciting when I can afford to set up a camera outside. I don’t intend to get closes enough to take very good pictures while he’s out there. He’s supposed to be afraid and run away, but, I think discretion is the better part of valor in this case.

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