A guy named Jay Allen created a plugin for Movable Type called MT-Blacklist. This plugin automates comment spam removal and made my life as a blogger much easier. I was so impressed with it I even donated some money toward this free plugin -- not a lot of money, mind you, but what I could spare at the time. Pretty regularly, I'd go to the newly updated list and add in the latest additions, and I love that my efforts were also contributing to the MT-blacklist clearinghouse. A true community tool.
Only, I noticed a few weeks ago that the list was not being updated -- that it stopped being updated as of October 9. So I wondered what was going on.
Jay's MT-Blacklist plugin was one of the winners the plug-in contest that MT ran when it decided that maybe they should reward the people that made MT functional enough to be able to charge a lot of money for MT instead of giving it away for a $20 donation. Which was cool. Eventually, MT got around to offering Jay a job. Also as it should be, since droves of people would've abandoned MT long ago if not for Jay's plugin.
Jay took the job, which involved a move from Budapest, Hungary to San Francisco, CA. Hence, no blacklist updates. I was surprised at this, since I assumed it was all automated, but I guess it has to be moderated for some reason. I don't speak CGI, so I don't know what the deal is.
I tried to find out when blacklist updating will resume, but to no avail. I hope it's soon. It's a service I would subscribe to for the MT installations that I am not planning on moving to pMachine or ExpressionEngine (I am migrating neurotwitch to pMachine one of these days, just as soon as I have a few spare hours to work on the design. And all the new blogs I've built since June have been on the pMachine/EE platform).
At any rate, since I needed an updated blacklist, I created one based on two blogs I tend (this one and westportnow.com) and merged them, cleaned up extraneous stuff, and have a list updated as of today. You can download my list here. It has 3,036 entries as of today. (Egad that's a depressing statistic -- all those slimy spammers, particularly that bob idiot ... )
And if anyone finds out when MT-Blacklist updates will resume, please let me know. (Or even if it's not going to resume ... which is what I fear.)
Posted by Lee at October 24, 2004 12:07 PM"Jay took the job, which involved a move from Budapest, Hungary to San Francisco, CA. Hence, no blacklist updates. I was surprised at this, since I assumed it was all automated, but I guess it has to be moderated for some reason."
The collection and parsing is automated. The posting of the spam domains is not and will never be for reasons that may be obvious if you think for a second about what malicious users could do to such a system.
By the way, in case you haven't noticed, the latest MT-Blacklist patently de-emphasizes the blacklist as a first line of defense. The Max URL and old entry comment moderation should take care of most of your spam. Since the spam is force moderated, you don't even need to worry about it until you feel like going in and batch deleting all of them via the Comments tab in the admin interface.
If you are getting repeatedly hit by a certain spammer, putting that domain on your list will kill their efforts outright, but these actively spammed domains are really now the only ones you need on your blacklist.
I now realize that this may not be obvious to everyone, so I will post something to the Comment Spam Clearinghouse blog. Thanks for the reminder...
Posted by: Jay Allen at October 26, 2004 07:28 AMJust learned about you, and clicked over here from Jay's site where I'd just posted (probably in the wrong place) a concern that I've had two hits, now, from an apparant spammer at email kingcool@yahoo, whose URL is an "mvcube . com" I never go to these thing for fear of cookies, viruses, or spyware, not to mention encouraging them in any way, so I've no idea of what he is peddling. But my concern: My MT email about "you've got a comment" truncates just under the mvcube URL, and I don't have the "de-spam here" line, so I can't auto eliminate, or put it on my blacklist, etc. I can go manually delete, but...!!!Let me add, I'm delighted to read your attitude, etc. I, too, paid Jay a little, and take pride in forwarding the offending spam so as to help the community (not to mention world and all bloggers, by fencing in some of those scum).
By the way, it's strangely consoling to hear that "bob" scumbag is a standout nuisance to someone other than me. Since he's obviously running a business, why doesn't someone smarter than I go find him and hack HIM down? Surely, there has to be at least one virus writer or hacker who really is (as they like to claim) just in it for the challenge rather than to simply do evil, who is willing to attack the bad guys instead of the merely innocent...If anyone should ever want to set up a list of scum worthy of such attack, I'll send a few names or URLs their way! Like that one porno who creates a new variant of his 13 or 14 types of porn and hits you anew with a couple of hundred at a time (my record from that one was nearly 600 one day, pouring in at such a speed I was watching them blink in (well, my MT alert emails) as I raced ahead to blacklist the latest category! Such fun. It spoils the net so much, and discourages bloggers, and eats up far more of my time and "energy" than my blog, you'd think some geek (like the rather liberal "protect our freedom" fellows at slashdot) would attack THEM!Ah well, I'm vented for now... Cheers, and thanks... I will come get YOUR list and lay it on mine, next day or two...