February 8, 2006
More complaints about TypePad’s TrackBack system’s handling of spam - cannot ban by IP address
In my continuing rant on TypePad’s horrifically poor system for managing comment and trackback spam, I wanted to post the following complaint:
Why is it that we are unable to ban trackbacks based on a specific IP address the same way we can with comments? Why is it that when viewing trackbacks through the TypePad Control Panel, we cannot even see the IP address of the offending spammer? I know TypePad has this information because every time it sends me an email letting me know about a new trackback that has been submitted, it includes the IP address that the TrackBack was sent from.
So what gives? Here I am manually deleting tons of spam from the same bunch of jerks, all because TypePad hasn’t implemented a simple ban trackbacks based on IP option?
(And all of you spammers - don’t bother. All you’re doing is aggravating the crap out of me, but your comment and trackback spam will never see the light of day on my blog. Everything is moderated - do you see any spam on here? No. SO LEAVE ME ALONE!!!)
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February 9, 2006
Anil said:
https://www.typepad.com/t/app/control/protect
February 10, 2006
Emily from How to Blog said:
Anil,
The URL provided refers to IP banning for COMMENTS, not TRACKBACKS, which was the point of this post. If that page’s IP banning covers both trackbacks and comments, then it should say so. Furthermore, if this is the case, IMHO the user interface for managing trackbacks should mirror the comment managing method of displaying the IP associated w/the trackback and giving the user a one click option of banning that IP.
February 12, 2006
Anil said:
Hi Emily, the page does say “banned from commenting or from sending TrackBack pings to your site.” but I’ll work to see if we can make that explanation clearer.
In general, we don’t encourage IP banning because it’s a fairly unreliable and inexact way of blocking unwanted content on a site. We’ve made it available because (obviously) some users want to do so, but you can end up blocking legitimate TrackBacks without preventing spammers from just changing addresses.
If you’d like, you might want to update the title of this post, since it’s inaccurate. And in the future, feel free to either file a help ticket using TypePad’s built-in help system, or shoot me an email, and we’ll be glad to clear these things up or explain them better when you’re posting about feature requests or concerns.
At any rate, deleting junk using the “delete as junk” button should report the spam to us in a way that lets us just manage it without you having to deal with it at all, which is what most TypePad users want.