Author Topic: Dealing with user spam (Read 7409 times)

ShazamImages · « **Reply #25 on:** August 06, 2013, 15:59 »

Quote from: cathyslife stockphotos.com on August 06, 2013, 15:20

i keep getting all these weird changes to my website. I thought i was done with the setup.

This might happen if your host has to reload your website from a backup. In other words, if the server crashes and they need to rebuild it from scratch, they will most likely rebuild it from backups. And the backups might not contain the most recent changes that you made.

cathyslife · « **Reply #26 on:** August 06, 2013, 18:03 »

Quote from: ShazamImages on August 06, 2013, 14:12

Quote from: cathyslife stockphotos.com on August 06, 2013, 09:52
Quote from: djpadavona on August 06, 2013, 09:13
Make sure you install Askimet. Askimet catches on average 40 to 50 spam comments per day for me.

Yes, i deleted 172 spams a couple of days ago. Which brings up a question...on each of those spams, to the right, was one of my photos, as tho the spam is a comment on a photo. But i have been turning off comments and pingbacks in the image upload window. Can anyone explain why? Is there another setting somewhere i have missed?

I took a look at your website and didn't see anywhere to add a comment. So I then did a Google search and found this:

https://www.google.com/search?q=site%3Acathyslifestockphotos.com+comment&oq=site%3Acathyslifestockphotos.com+comment&aqs=chrome.0.69i57j69i58.2844j0&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8

When I click on your link above, the first item is a minipic...when I click on that, it is on a page by itself. Why and how can I fix that?

cathyslife · « **Reply #27 on:** August 06, 2013, 18:17 »

Quote from: ShazamImages on August 06, 2013, 15:59

Quote from: cathyslife stockphotos.com on August 06, 2013, 15:20
i keep getting all these weird changes to my website. I thought i was done with the setup.

This might happen if your host has to reload your website from a backup. In other words, if the server crashes and they need to rebuild it from scratch, they will most likely rebuild it from backups. And the backups might not contain the most recent changes that you made.

Sounds logical but they have not reloaded my website from a backup. My site looks good...the couple of things I did over the weekend are there. That doesn't seem like it's the issue.

Weird goings on... an example. When I do a google search of site:cathyslifestockphotos.com I don't get anything like you are getting, with title with Royalty Free Content in there. The items in my search are exactly as they should be. Screenshot attached. I went through 10 pages of search and they are all correct. And what are those Metadata Sheets from?

I just don't think this is a bluehost thing.

cathyslife · « **Reply #28 on:** August 06, 2013, 18:23 »

I am sorry I have hijacked this thread.

I have done searches with Firefox, Safari and Chrome, and all look as it should. Do you think this is a geographical search thing? You know, how different people in different parts of the country/world see different things? I don't get it.

I will start a new thread so that this can return to the original issue: dealing with user spam.

Leo Blanchette · « **Reply #29 on:** August 06, 2013, 21:20 »

Its about time I jump in:

OK - here's what it is. Hopefully everyone finds this extremely helpful.

Spammers will kill you when your popular, but right now you can be happy to see them because your obviously easy to find.

Still...

http://wordpress.org/plugins/disable-comments/ <--- solve-all

Another one:

http://wordpress.org/plugins/bad-behavior/ <--- good, but must be set up properly.

There's still more which will make you almost invincible, but I am afraid more threads will pop up about customer buy issues being blamed on Symbiostock, so I don't go in great depth.

As you know spammers are using automated software. So left on autopilot their software keeps hammering your site and will melt your server.

Symbiostock sites are unique in two ways:

1. They sell images, and have LOTS of pages and tags.
2. They are easy to find.

This translates to lots of database use, which your host will kick you for if you go overboard, and ask you to leave.

http://wordpress.org/plugins/wp-super-cache/ <--again, must be set up properly to avoid customer complaints.

The spammers will drive you "overboard" easily with their redundant and persistent "hits" on pages as they try to leave comments.

If your ready to "lock down" do it right, because you don't want to shut out buyers or paypal.

In the meantime, its another gauge to see your doing well ... a sign of health.

klsbear · « **Reply #30 on:** August 06, 2013, 22:28 »

Quote from: djpadavona on August 06, 2013, 12:08

I turned off photo comments too, but I get them everyday and can't make the comment box go away. The blog page doesn't work correctly either. I have my Page of Posts set at maximum 6 posts shown per page, but it shows all 30+. The Related Posts widget seems to be incompatible too, which is shame because that is a great widget which I've always used on my blogs.

I had the opposite problem on my blog - I searched everywhere trying to turn on comments. I finally found the checkbox on the Quick Edit option. Try going to the Quick Edit option for photos and do a bulk edit. You'll see the check box to turn on and off comments. I found that was over-riding the other comment box options.