Amy, I feel for you and the comment spam thing.

But before you come down on this real estate sap like the CGI version of a Left Behind fan's wet dream, I think you should consider the alternate hypothesis that his buddy or disgruntled client thought it would be a real hoot to post this guy's name, phone number, fax, resume, etc., on the blog of a woman who revels in carrying out holy jihad againt anyone who ever slights her.

Just becuase the IP address was in Wisconsin doesn't prove it was him. It could have been his next-door neighbor or officemate. Maybe this guy parked his SUV across two parking spaces, and this is someone's revenge.

That's the reason I didn't post the guy's name and I stated the truth throughout -- he says he didn't do it, and I have no proof he did -- just my suspicions. Believe me, it was tempting. And frankly, there was just too much personal information here, in my opinion, for it to be a scammer. Also, the guy was extremely uninquistive on the phone as to who I was. I mean, a woman wakes you up at 3am and accuses you of posting on her site -- do you not ask "What site?" and maybe write it down? I wrote a dialogue polish on a feature film (never made) that helped me finance syndicating my column. I don't write features at all, but I just hear language in my head -- down to the rhythm of speech -- in a way most people probably don't. In other words, I am pretty good at sussing out whether the people are speaking the truth based on how they speak and what they say.

And PS I just spent the past half hour deleting comments spam, and I still have piles to go. And I'm on deadline for both Hustler and my column.

> a woman wakes you up at 3am and
> accuses you of posting on her site

After struggling all the years struggling on the phone to deal with New York offices for financial chores and so forth, the PST zone finally delivers a blessing: REVENGE!

> I just spent the past half hour deleting
> comments spam

Above and beyond the call. Eventually you'll get bored with this and give it up, our hearts will break, and I'll need a new site to use as a morning crossword puzzle.

This blog commenting thing has been going on for a few years. I don't understand why better, more-flexible software isn't available at competitive prices.

No, I'm addicted to this and all of you, and I was actually sort of worried that you'd all left me, as I didn't have many comments for the past few days!

And Gregg, who's been working very hard lately, is going to fix this, as he always does, in the next few days. It just all of a sudden became a huge problem.

Movable Type 3.2 was supposed to be a better solution for spam, but for a lot of people, for some reason I don't understand, it doesn't stop spam like the old MT Blacklist did. It seems like you can put back Blacklist with a code change, or use a plug-in called Akismet, but Gregg is the arbiter of all things technical, and I'm just the lucky beneficiary.

Part of the reason spam deletion is so time consuming, by the way, is that I have to select for key words within the spam and delete by separate spam batches. I do this so I won't delete any real comments. So far, this has happened only three times in about the past nine months, but I hate for it to happen at all. At least in one case, Deja's, I was able to rescue it after she said something. Norman's comment and Ben David's were lost, which I feel terrible about.

I don't have anything like your traffic so don't know from comparable experience : but do have logs of traffic stopped by Akismet - a download I use on my Wordpress blog. It's kept separate for review.

Ezra Klein has been going through the torments of the damned with spam comment lately. He sounds like he's having a good hair-tearing party, too.

Re: the idjit,there may be a possibility someone may have turned this guy's computer into a 'bot.

Amy,
I'm not a techie but my hubby is, and he says that there are software solutions to end your predicament. They may not get rid of *all* spam.,but at least if you're wide awake at night, it will be for good reasons, not filtering spam ;)

Thank you so much. I had them in the last MT installation. This one's worse at stopping spam. My boyfriend is going to deal with this in the next few days.

And thanks, Opit...we're looking into Askismet -- it works for MT now, too, besides just WordPress. Also, I believe the old MT Blacklist can be made to work with a line inserted or omitted in the code.

I get about 10,000 visitors a day now (much more, actually), but with all the spam I'm getting, I think 10,000 are real, and the rest are from people selling penis enhancers.

A typo in that last para?

The number of regular posters seems small enough that we could hold a very select party if we were all in the same place and time. At a guess, I'd say we are just a few tens of people.

BTW I picked up a copy of "Free Advice" the other day - autographed by your three good selves. (Will it be worth a fortune one day? I hope so!) It's a good read. I'm leaving it where my 18-year-old daughter can find it.

I recently got spammed by a fellow in France who's biz with his wife is to teach French via the telephone. Of course his phone # was there so I gave him a call. His brilliant suggestion to his sending out spam was for me to remove all email links in my own site. Arrogant & clueless, what a cocktail that Brit was.

Hilarious. Like saying "I wouldn't steal your TV if you didn't have one."

Actually, Norm, that's no typo. Many lurk, only a few comment. I've gone from 400 people a day when I first started blogging to 10,000 a day...and counting!

PS And thanks for buying the book!

Just a small correction. The quote from "Mommy, Dearest" is "DON'T FUCK WITH ME, FELLAS!"

Hi Amy,

Love the picture of the bumper core yard. I see good money sitting in that picture. The Grand Prix bumper in the foreground brings good money to people that repair and resell them.

As for the comment spammers, bring em to their knees, and kick em when they are down. If they move again, kick harder.

test

Advice Goddess

Whomever is "testing" so they can spam me or do some malevolent shit, I'm the wrong person to do it to.