August 2, 2005
Trackback spam a nightmare for TypePad users, while WordPress anti-spam filters and plugins make for smooth sailing
That’s it – I’ve had it! Even though SixApart introduced comment and trackback moderation for TypePad, it still does not diminish the termendous amount of work I stilll need to do sorting through legitmate trackbacks amongst the hoards of trackback spam. Effective immediately, I am now turning off trackback functionality on all of my TypePad blogs and you can thank the spammers for it.
This brings TypePad’s usefulness as a blogging platform down for me, as I consider TrackBacks to be an critical feature of blogging and connecting the strands of the blogosphere.
As I’ve mentioned before, handling trackback and comment spam is where WordPress really blows the competition away. WordPress is smarter than TypePad in recognizing spam and filtering it into a seperate queue for moderation, where I can scan through the hoard and do a ‘mark all as spam’ and get back to what I was doing. It’s almost effortless.
Six Apart – where are your spam filtering tools? You guys can do better than this. Until TypePad can recognize that trackbacks that talk about donkey sex, incest, child porn, and rape are pretty darn likely to be SPAM and put it in a seperate area labeling it as such, I must turn off my TrackBacks on TypePad. And that’s a shame for both me and the blogging community. 
Oh and while I’m griping, I’ll now add that I just realized that TypePad’s Configure tab only gives me the option of turning off trackbacks for new posts. I now ALSO have to manually go through each and every post I ever created and edit the post, and then uncheck the checkbox that says ‘Accept TrackBacks’. There is no tool for mass editing acceptance of TrackBacks on older posts. Shoot me now.
For those who are still wondering, I’m still torn between whether I prefer TypePad over WordPress, and when time permits intend to write a comprehensive comparison of the two (each has it’s own pros and cons, and is better or less suited for certain tasks/people), although WP is leaping ahead now that the TrackBack spam has become such an enormous problem in TypePad, despite the addition of new comment and trackback management tools…
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Comments
August 4, 2005
Taylor Davis said:
Have you ever investigated or reviewed blogsome.com? It hosts Wordpress for free…its seems pretty good in that you get to use Wordpress, but don’t have to go through the hassle of setting up your own site, although I just moved my blog there from blogger.
I’d be interested to see what you think of it in comparison to typepad/blogger.
August 7, 2005
CT said:
WP’s spam controls are ok. Like any comment/trackback filter, it’s best at preventing previously-identified stuff; but if a new culprit comes along, it can wreak havoc (albiet short-term).
Whenever I get a trackback attack (and that’s pretty much the only way the spam comes in anymore, I guess comment-bots have lost their effectiveness), it’ll persist until I add the referring URL to the WP blacklist. That kills it. Curiously, the moderation trap of 2 or more hyperlinks doesn’t seem to be do much — plenty of trackback get through, they simply don’t have hyperlinks in the body of their messages. Again, the whole thing is constantly evolving. You pretty much have to check in on your blog daily — if you neglect it for a week, you’re bound to come back to a few hundred spam postings.
August 8, 2005
anonymuis said:
so why don’t you move to Word Press as you wrote Word Press is smarter?
Jonathan said:
Smooth sailing on blocks of ice over here….. weeeeeeee. I haven’t seen a spam comment, pingback, or trackback show up on my blog in the past 6 months, maybe even a year. Thanks to DrDave and ioerror with some very impressive plugins to Wordpress I have been able to simply blog and not have to worry about spam =)
August 9, 2005
the english guy said:
So when are you moving over to WP, girl? *tempts you with the dark side*
Stacey said:
If you are using WordPress, be sure to include the Spam Karma 2 plugin. It’s a life saver!
August 17, 2005
Bill said:
Emily, I wound up going with Typepad for my blog based on your 2/26/05 post and other research. I am happy with it so far, but I have not started to promote it with legitimate trackback pings, blogrolls or RSS yet.
Should I wait till TypePad has WP type Trackback filters working before I promote my blog? I sent TypePad Support a question on your complaint post. But, after all, SixApart invented the Trackback, I think. I’m sure you’ve seen this info on the subject ( http://www.sixapart.com/pronet/comment_spam#recommendations ).
I just visited the SixApart HQ in San Francisco, and met with fairly new TypePad Support Director in the lobby (this could be a “support” issue). If you e-mail me, I will send you his contact info, as I know he is already working on improving the service from the TypePad Manual perspective. I got the feeling that he wants to hear all legitimate, constructive suggestions. While he doesn’t make the final decisions, maybe he can influence the ones who do?
August 26, 2005
Kent Brewster said:
Datapoint: I had to deal with my first blast of trackback spam today. Wordpress was very easy to upgrade, and the anti-spam plugin I chose worked right off the bat. I’m still getting trackback spam, but it’s going into my e-mail and not onto my blog.
October 5, 2005
Richard Silverstein said:
Let me 2nd a few comments above. Yes, you should seriously consider moving to WP. I can’t remember the last time a trackback spam got through my spam filter. Plus, at most I get maybe 1 spam comment per month that gets through said filter. I bet that sounds good to you TP folks out there?
And yes, any WP user really should be using SpamKarma2 &/or Bad Behavior. THe only caveat is that SK2 turns off your WP default comment moderation features so you can’t force comments into moderation (unless you use Peter Westwood’s SK2 hack which is terrific).
August 30, 2007
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September 1, 2007
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