Ten Suggestions for Google’s Blogspot (Chris Pirillo)
Oct 21st, 2024 by Viviane
. . . Today, it’s the egofeeds that suffer - but what about tomorrow? I realize that CAPTCHA isn’t the perfect solution, but there might be some other options on the table:
1. Employ a blog spammer. Beat them shitless once they’ve been hired (hazing spammers isn’t illegal), but then employ them to help you figure out what all those asshats are doing. After they’ve told you the secrets, beat them shitless again.
2. Probationary Period. Only allow new users to create a limited amount of blogs. Say, only one for the first three months. Then, if that goes well, let ‘em create six. Then, if THAT goes well, let ‘em create six more. Offer carrots. “You’ve had your blog for a year. Happy birthday! You now have XYZ access!” Oh, isn’t that nice. Slap rel=”nofollow” on all outbound links for the first X months. I realize rel=”nofollow” isn’t perfect, and it’s not going to stop people from doing what they’re likely to do anyway. However, give spammers one less reason to come to you to do their dirty deeds.
3. Sponsor a Blogger. The “new” way to get a Blogger account is to be referred by someone else. Then, if the invited one screws up and starts spamming the blogosphere with bunk or copied content, revoke both accounts - the inviter and the invitee.
4. New banner button. You’re showing me ways to get my own blog at the top of every single Blogspot page. However, since I don’t have the Google toolbar installed *GASP* - I can’t report spammers! What’s stopping you from putting a “Flag” button in the banner, too? Let anybody report the problem, easily and quickly. NEVERMIND, I just saw it appear in the toolbar - and may have missed it before! Just flagged 10 out of 20 I visited… blatant problem children. Consider this point a note to all you do-gooders. (more…)
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Note to self: flag more spam blogs. I certainly come across boatloads preparing the Fleshbot roundup. And I encourage viewers to flag spam blogs. Why does this matter? Because I’d read somewhere that Blogspot should just be taken down until the problem is solved. I doubt that’s going to happen, but again, this is an occasion for me to ask, ‘where’s your remote backup of your site?’. Turn on BlogSend in your settings and email it to that spare email account (ask me again for a Gmail invite).
Good advice…thank you.