Improved Spam Catcher

Hey Gang,

So tonight we had a slight spam spike but we quelled the attack. We have added some extra anti-spam support to our system. We are now using Akismet, Antispam, and a new improved in-house spam catcher. We are continuously making improvements to our spam catcher to avoid further issues. If you are still experiencing any spam shoot us a message @ help@disqus.com .

Sorry for any inconvience,

Giannii

Community Manager

View Comments

Giannii on November 21st 2008 in disqus

  • I aggree you.
  • wallace530
    great post sir..
    thanks for sharing. really helped a lot here.
    --------------------------------------------------
    Ugg Boots | Uggs
  • reklam
  • Hope it catches spam well. I love disqus by the way.
  • Hope it catches spam well. I love disqus by the way.
  • Hope it catches spam well. I love disqus by the way.
  • Hope it catches spam well. I love disqus by the way.
  • i agree you
  • thanks i agree you
  • i agree you
  • thanks i agree you
  • Thanks for the explanation, It's good that there are constant updates or explanations provided to put us users at ease on certain issues. Especially for those who relies greatly on the comments system.Anything goes wrong they will definitely go wild about it.Great job.
  • Annie
    Thanks for the explanation, It's good that there are constant updates or explanations provided to put us users at ease on certain issues. Especially for those who relies greatly on the comments system.Anything goes wrong they will definitely go wild about it.Great job.
  • ryanlow
    Are the spam under control now?Would you all mind to share like what type of comments are rated as spams so that we can avoid falling into the spam category?My friend has been commenting recently and was being treated as spams.
  • Annie
    Thanks for the explanation, It's good that there are constant updates or explanations provided to put us users at ease on certain issues. Especially for those who relies greatly on the comments system.Anything goes wrong they will definitely go wild about it.Great job.
  • Ryan Low
    Are the spam under control now?Would you all mind to share like what type of comments are rated as spams so that we can avoid falling into the spam category?My friend has been commenting recently and was being treated as spams.
  • jonaw
    A good anti-spam support is essential as users who are badly affected by it, will definitely not hesitate to change their comment systems immediately and hence the bad reputation. I am new to Disqus and felt that spams are of moderate rate or close to none. Worth the praise by other commenters.
  • jonaw
    A good anti-spam support is essential as users who are badly affected by it, will definitely not hesitate to change their comment systems immediately and hence the bad reputation. I am new to Disqus and felt that spams are of moderate rate or close to none. Worth the praise by other commenters.
  • Thanks! Spamers have no chance now!
  • ezditto
    Anti-spamming software is really important. I hope I don't experience it that often
  • ezditto
    Anti-spamming software is really important. I hope I don't experience it that often
  • Duple Ang
    Agree to what replica has said. Glad that you have taken a step up in maintaining it.
  • replicaloh
    It's infuriating to receive spams every now and then. Good to have it improved.
  • replicaloh
    It's infuriating to receive spams every now and then. Good to have it improved.
  • Jasmine Lim
    spams are annoying. It's good that you are having it under control now.
  • Brian Ashton
    nice article dude
  • Cathleen Ross
    When we were writing The Power of Nice, we uncovered many facts on how nice behavior can benefit your life.
  • Spam is really a nuisance. Keep watching over them and outsmart them.
  • it would be nice to have an option to add nofollow as I'm getting a lot of worthless comments just for spammers to add their links.
  • Yes, good riddance to spammers!
  • Jeanine R Brown
    Excellent, entertaining, useful reading, Thanks !!
  • Rif Chia
    Automated spamming is the problem which we are trying to overcome. Disqus has worked pretty well for us.
  • i agree you
  • Good riddance to spam.
  • Good, we all hate spammer and scammers etc etc
  • Good, we all hate spammer and scammers etc etc
  • thanks for your commnet
  • We are already seeing improvements in our spamming problems since implementation of Disqus on our blog. In the past, we receive spam comments every single day but since Disqus came into the picture, we manage to reduce it to once every few weeks.
  • We are already seeing improvements in our spamming problems since implementation of Disqus on our blog. In the past, we receive spam comments every single day but since Disqus came into the picture, we manage to reduce it to once every few weeks.
  • i think so too
  • i think so too
  • Spams are irritating. Is there other good anti-spam systems ? Thanks for the update.
  • Spams are irritating. Is there other good anti-spam systems ? Thanks for the update.
  • Spams are irritating. Is there other good anti-spam systems ? Thanks for the update.
  • yeah... say good by to spammers karma. get participate with discussion. comments... errrrr disqus with a smartest way...
  • yeah... say good by to spammers karma. get participate with discussion. comments... errrrr disqus with a smartest way...
  • joemel
    Can I use it already? I should try that to find out if it is effective.
    female libido supplements
  • oh, you're right. Azkimet really works it prevent spams but it also prevent the ability to do comment.
  • It's probably not working correctly because it's locally hosted. Give it a shot live and let us know if there are any problems.
  • This is a check of the XSS filtering this system does. So far I have found lots of holes in the comment system. Lets see if it works on this site too.

    Hacking tests to follow (not cracking).

    Click me or Just let the script load without any help.
    <img src="javascript:alert('XSS');">
    <img src="javascript:alert('XSS')">
    <img src="JaVaScRiPt:alert('XSS')">
    <img src="javascript:alert("XSS")">
    XSS

  • Hmm... that is a relief. ;)

    However, JavaScript is NOT FILTERED out of comments from MY site. Why? Is there something I need to do to fix this?

    :Update:
    Tests were run from a "localhost" machine. The IFRAME that is loaded by the JS request doesn't seem to process comments. Why not? Is this only for localhost or once I put the site live will I still have the same problems?
  • i agree you
  • It's probably not working correctly because it's locally hosted. Give it a shot live and let us know if there are any problems.
  • Hmm... that is a relief. ;)

    However, JavaScript is NOT FILTERED out of comments from MY site. Why? Is there something I need to do to fix this?
  • This is a check of the XSS filtering this system does. So far I have found lots of holes in the comment system. Lets see if it works on this site too.

    Hacking tests to follow (not cracking).

    <b onClick="javascript:alert('hello');">Click me or Just let the script load without any help.
    <IMG SRC="javascript:alert('XSS');">
    <IMG SRC=javascript:alert('XSS')>
    <IMG SRC=JaVaScRiPt:alert('XSS')>
    <IMG SRC=javascript:alert("XSS")>
    <A HREF="javascript:document.location='http://www.google.com/'">XSS
  • serrena
    how can i usubscrive to your blog i hate it
  • serrena
    how can i usubscrive to your blog i hate it
  • Wow, the image's pretty scary. I guess the Disqus team will fix it eventually.
  • thanks for your supports
  • I see, that makes more sense as to why it wasn't a feature launched from day 1.

    Not that I like *not* having one, but I appreciate the details. Being a programmer myself, knowing why something doesn't work like you think it should is always nice ;-)

    Thanks
    --Kyle
  • You can definitely enable Disqus on every post, including old ones.
  • <quote>So you want to explain to me how this is a "work in progress" rather than "oh, right... here it is!" situation?</quote>

    Sure. This is how Disqus handles spam: we filter contents ourselves then pass them through a few different anti-spam providers. This requires a little more finesse than what you wrote above. Otherwise, I agree, it's a seemingly minor addition.

    The issue is around improving our handling of comment states in our system for future development. This is being done right now, as well as working in an improved interface that makes it clear for most people.

    I can go into more detail, but I hope this provides some insight.
  • thanks
  • thanks for your supports
  • thanks
  • thanks for your support on this, I did a few messages but I easily removed them and blocked them, with a great plugin like this it wont take long to build a great whitelist...
  • thanks i agree you
  • thanks for your support on this, I did a few messages but I easily removed them and blocked them, with a great plugin like this it wont take long to build a great whitelist...
  • "working on it"?

    How long does it take to make a link, some quick JS, a small script that changes what's most likely a boolean value in a db?

    You could do it in under 30 minutes, and even have a rollover image setup for it.

    So you want to explain to me how this is a "work in progress" rather than "oh, right... here it is!" situation?

    --Kyle
  • Hi guys, sorry for the offtopic. I was wondering: Is there any chance to edit comments, like the spam ones. Let's say that a person leaves a spam comment. What I want is to modify his comment, by eliminating the link, and to write something in his comment like "edit by admin: Spam is not allowed on this blog" If this service doesn't exists yet, I think it would be a great job to activate it. It is very usefull for an admin.
  • Is there any way to add "nofollow" tag, incase a visitor leaves his url in the comment ?
  • it would be nice to have an option to add nofollow as I'm getting a lot of worthless comments just for spammers to add their links.
  • Hi guys, sorry for the offtopic. I was wondering: Is there any chance to edit comments, like the spam ones. Let's say that a person leaves a spam comment. What I want is to modify his comment, by eliminating the link, and to write something in his comment like "edit by admin: Spam is not allowed on this blog" If this service doesn't exists yet, I think it would be a great job to activate it. It is very usefull for an admin.
  • Is there any way to add "nofollow" tag, incase a visitor leaves his url in the comment ?
  • I'm getting hammered by AdultFriendFinder - I keep adding them to the Spam filter, and they keep finding a way around it. Anything you can do would help!
  • CaptainDigital,

    I just checked both of your sites and it seems pretty clean. Have you been deleting them manually? Also which site is receiving the spam?

    Giannii
    Community Manager
  • i agree you
  • I've been deleting them manually, on a daily basis.
    www.captaindigital.netis getting the brunt of the spam. Interestingly,
    the spammers are hitting
    older posts almost exclusively - not the new stuff (I try to post to my
    blogs on a daily basis).
    Here's a question for you - even though I've got Disqus installed on both,
    some of the comments I get are on the blog comments - not through Disqus. Is
    there a way I can force EVERYTHING to go through Disqus?

    Thanks!

    - Brad
  • You can definitely enable Disqus on every post, including old ones.
  • I've been deleting them manually, on a daily basis.
    www.captaindigital.netis getting the brunt of the spam. Interestingly,
    the spammers are hitting
    older posts almost exclusively - not the new stuff (I try to post to my
    blogs on a daily basis).
    Here's a question for you - even though I've got Disqus installed on both,
    some of the comments I get are on the blog comments - not through Disqus. Is
    there a way I can force EVERYTHING to go through Disqus?

    Thanks!

    - Brad
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