

Danny Sullivan: How Link Spammers Killed My Wife’s Web Site - yarapavan
http://daggle.com/link-spammers-killed-wifes-web-site-1446#

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maukdaddy
Sorry to be blunt, but stop bitching and fix the problems. I don't think this
type of give-up attitude goes over well on HN.

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mattmaroon
What's even worse is I've used Drupal just enough to know that stopping link
spamming is as simple as installing the right plugin. I haven't done it in
years, but I'd bet it's even better now since there's almost certainly an
Akismet plugin.

*Edit: just typed "drupal ak" in Google which auto-completed and took me to just such a plugin. I'm sorry, but if you can't figure that out, you have no business on the web.

~~~
GiraffeNecktie
In fact, Drupal founder Dries Buytaert has a side-project called Mollom for
eliminating comment spam. And of course it integrates very nicely with Drupal.

Sounds to me like whoever they hired to do the site didn't have much of a
clue.

~~~
pbhjpbhj
They quite clearly said they couldn't be bothered to spend money on it as it
wasn't earning anything.

 _She could, if she wants, get this latest huge barrage of spam cleared out on
Boudica and improve spam filters going forward, if she choses. She’s currently
debating this. It just may be, as I explained above, that this was the thing
that tips her toward closing the site, something she was already considering
because of low usage._

In a way it's probably not a bad thing if low traffic me-too style sites are
discouraged a little - if there's something worth keeping then for the cost of
a meal for two you can hire someone to install a captcha (or whatever) and
strip out the spam. If the content isn't worth that then, does the web need
it.

The story sounds more like the tale of someone who didn't have time or
resources to do anything with there not-especially-unique website and then got
annoyed because it attracted more bad attention than good.

The link-spam is an excuse, IMO, to close the site and not lose face. Sure
it's annoying, sure it shouldn't happen (like people putting flyers on your
windscreen), but don't lose sleep over it.

~~~
GiraffeNecktie
I just wanted to note that Mollom is free for small sites and takes no more
than ten minutes to install (maybe two minutes if you know what you're doing)
so yeah, I agree, it's more of an excuse for closing a small site.

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mikegioia
I see his gripe with it. There's nothing more irritating then seeing a whole
bunch of spam comments on one of your sites. The worst is the compliment spam
that is so hard to filter.

But what it's taught me is to be a better developer, and to learn new anti
spam techniques. I feel bad because the site probably meant a lot to her. He
should have helped her out more.

~~~
jacquesm
> He should have helped her out more.

I fully agree with that. I would do that for strangers, not doing it for your
wife seems rather rude. It would take less time to put a 90% solution in place
than it would take to write that blog post.

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cschneid
Who defines good content?

Obviously blatant link stuffing on non-related topics is spam.

Obviously on-topic paragraphs of text on-topic without links is not spam.

What about on-topic posts with a link back to my affiliate sales on on-topic
products?

What about on-topic posts with 5 links back to my affiliate sales page? (check
out my favorite 5 workout videos on a post about womens health).

How substantial does the content need to be? "I really enjoyed this post, and
I think that you are right on about XYZ. I read this book <amazon affiliate
url>".

Basically, the problem with web spam is that the obvious stuff slaps you in
your face as obvious. The gray area is really wide in some cases.

Also, the whole post was predicated on the fact that people have an obligation
to provide you value when you put up a web form. That seems pretty
presumptuous. I decided to send an HTTP POST with my content. You decided to
post it up to the world.

~~~
eli
That's a good point, but the vast majority of spam on my sites are clearly
junk. If there were some easy way to stop all the obvious spam but left all
the grey-area stuff, I would be overjoyed.

How about this: any comment posted by an automated process and not a human is
spam?

~~~
pbhjpbhj
If it's a human cut-and-pasting? Or someone employed to workaround strong
captchas? Spam for sure.

~~~
eli
Sure, and that's a growing problem. But 500 identical or nearly identical ads
for fake viagara? I'd bet good money there's nobody pasting that into boxes
over and over again.

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eli
I just wish the spam bots were smart enough to identify sites that add
nofollow to links. If that worked, it would be such an easy fix.

~~~
skolor
That would be true, except (in theory) the purpose of spamming isn't to put
links out on websites, its to put links out on at least tangentially related
sites, so that you can game the search algorithms better.

That means it doesn't matter if its no follow or not, you're still getting
benefit. You may not be getting a direct benefit to your own site, but at the
least you're hurting a "competitor".

~~~
eli
I don't quite follow -- I thought a nofollow link doesn't enter into the
search algorithm at all?

~~~
sokoloff
It doesn't (on search engines that "matter"), but if I sell say titanium
hammers, there's still value to me putting link spam to my site on a
construction blog.

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Confusion
Well, there are thousands of people out there whose sites aren't being killed
by link spammers, so I think he should scratch his head and look home.

------
Mz
"If Boudica had been more successful, doing the work would make sense. But it
has remained small, and the link spam attack will probably tip her over to a
decision she’s already been debating, of whether it makes sense to continue
working at it."

In other words, link spammers didn't kill the site. They just pushed a
decision she was already contemplating.

