Advertisement

Two Blogs and a Public Service Announcement

Discover how the Blogger spam filter incorrectly blocks real comments with multiple links, impacting genuine discussions.

Google NewsGoogle News Preferred Source

Newsletter

Sign up for our email newsletter for the latest science news

Sign Up

Advertisement

First up, here are two new(ish) blogs which have been consistently excellent since I started reading them:

Second, an announcement: Blogger has a spam filter for comments.

It's rubbish.

It seems to think that any comment containing more than one hyperlink is spam. Actually, all the spam I get contains one link, and hence makes it through, while the real comments with multiple links, which are usually interesting and sensible, get blocked. A Mr. "Generic Viagra" (no really) can leave 20 comments in 5 minutes with impunity, but more than one link, and you're

out.

I would love to turn it off, but you can't. Thanks Google. My comment policy is, as it's always been, that all comments except spam are welcome. So if your comment hasn't appeared, it's not that I've deleted it, it's the spam filter.

I check the spam folder as often as I can, and allow the proper comments through, but you might want to avoid comments with more than one link. Maybe split them into multiple comments. It's not ideal but, as I said, it's not my filter.

Stay Curious

JoinOur List

Sign up for our weekly science updates

View our Privacy Policy

SubscribeTo The Magazine

Save up to 40% off the cover price when you subscribe to Discover magazine.

Subscribe
Advertisement

1 Free Article