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February 06, 2005
Neener, Neener
Just got attacked by a trackback spambot. It only got 2 in before I cut 'em off at the knees.
Comments & trackbacks are temporarily closed as a result. I apologize for the inconvenience, but I refuse to advise for a magazine subscription website spammer. Or any other spammer for that matter.
I would, however, be more than happy to send them an atomic bomb ping that would irrevocably fry their system. If that were legal. Which it's not, so don't do it.
The closing trackbacks scripts worked so nicely (once I got it in the correct folder) that I'm thinking about trying the 'no-follow script' when I get time.
Has anyone else installed that one, and if so, what do you think about it?
Posted by Rita at February 6, 2005 07:13 AM
Comments
I've put it in, and it works, though it doesn't actually repel the bastards: what it does is make their efforts useless, since the major search engines are instructed by "nofollow" not to index their links. Their goal - to get enough links to push themselves to the top of the query for online poker or whatever - will thus never be met.
Most of them, however, either don't realize this, or figure there are still enough sites out there that haven't implemented it that it's still worth the effort to spam away.
Posted by: CGHill at February 6, 2005 09:13 AM
But doesn't it also keep Google, etc. from picking up legitimate trackbacks/links?
Posted by: rita at February 6, 2005 11:28 AM
I would assume so, since Google presumably can't tell the difference between a legitimate TrackBack and one installed by a usurper. (Otherwise, no one would bother with the plugin.)
Posted by: CGHill at February 6, 2005 04:43 PM
Of course, if you already have TBs closed on the vast majority of the site, you probably don't need "nofollow" anyway.
Posted by: CGHill at February 6, 2005 07:48 PM