Wriging

I was thinking about this recently as well. Honestly, the idea behind my blog is that people can read and then discuss what they think or what they've just read. That being said, I've decided to leave the comments open.

Things could change if I run into issues with spam and whatnot.

I think the operative question here is, "are these comments causing any harm?" If the answer is no, then why mess with it? A lot of people land on old posts via Google search, and if a post is relevant enough to click on it may be worth rehashing. Just because a commenter may not have anything insightful to say doesn't mean s/he shouldn't be allowed the opportunity to contribute to the conversation. Plus it takes like 2 seconds to delete spam.

I used to close mine and then the plugin stopped working. I'm currently looking for a plugin that works to close thema again. I prefer them closed because usually I am so over the post after a month I don't want to address it again - that and old post can collect spam.

I think that one should avoid closing the comments as long as possible.

Sure, if you get very much spam on old posts so that it's very difficult for you, then you don't have a choice.

Thankfully I don't get much spam (or possible spam) since I installed the Bad Behavior plugin. To have both Akismet and BB is awesome protection.

I do love that "Bad behavior". I installed it a week or so ago and it has helped immensely, not only that it prevents the people who were checking my site from website grader a few times a day for weeks from doing so.

I do use Bad Behavior and Akismet.

That settled about 95% of all incoming spam. It's the manual spam however that can't be filtered out that easily. Those are the ones that get through.

But I guess that Jensized said is true. A lot of the comments even if they are spam are harmless. I can either ignore or reply to them anyway. I just think that the ones that can't even type right are a problem. At least comment quality wise.

Hmm, maybe I'll try Bad Behavior. I was getting a lot of spam on older comments and closed them on posts older than 30 days. But that feels a little draconian to me.

I suppose it would depend on the type of blog you're running. If the articles you write are meant to provoke thinking and stir up discussion it'll be an injustice to your community to close comments, regardless of the hassle of dealing with spam.

Personally I would never close comments, even for old posts. Part of the magic of blogging is comments and receiving opinions other than your own ... so I can't imagine ever shutting off the part of my blog that lets me know what my readers/friends/pet trolls are thinking.

I try not to close comments on old posts - you never know when someone is going to stumble across and old post and have something valid to say. Case in point, an old friend I haven't spoken to in years stumbled across an three-year-old post just last night through googling something random. He left a comment and then sent me an email to say Hi! If I'd closed comments as a rule after six months or so, he wouldn't have been able to do that and we'd still be out of touch (which would be sad).

That being said, I do keep track of all the comments that slip through Akismet and into moderation (all comments from people who haven't commented before or that have links in require moderation). If I notice a particular post is getting lots of hits from spam bots, then I will close the comments on that post if I think it is unlikely someone is going to want to comment on it in the future.

It's a judgement call. Yes, spam and 'false positives' are a hassle, but I would rather the hassle than real people be denied the chance to comment.

I actually, after reading the posts in this thread, decided that I wanted a lock on posts that were 14-15 days (Half a month) old. It was what cooper said that really changed my mind:

I am so over the post after a month I don't want to address it again

Hit the nail on the head with that one.

I wanted a lock on posts that were 14-15 days (Half a month) old

I guess it depends what you want from your blog. But also how often you post. For example, I only post twice or three times a week and my front page displays the last ten posts. If I was to follow the half-month rule, then a portion of the posts on the front page wouldn't allow comments from readers.

So you could argue why have so many posts on the front page? Most of my regulard readers aren't that tech savvy. They don't use RSS. They only visit once a week or so. By having more on the front page, there is more for them to read without having to delve through archives and the like. Keeping more on your front page also means that random visitors have more to grab their eye - a casual surfer is NOT going to click a "next page" link unless they are already three quarters hooked on your content.

And can you really dismiss older posts so easily? In this day of deep-linking with search results from Google finding everything and anything, regardless of how long ago you posted it, you can never underestimate when something from the archives is going to become relevant again.

I guess my own experience of working on a slower cycle with lots of old posts getting resurrected - with valuable contributions I might add - makes my spidy sense tingle when you talk of shutting of conversations after only a little time.

At least stick a caveat on your locked posts explaining what you've done and why, so people can email you if they want to say something!

(The whole idea of shutting off comments runs contrary to the whole point of blogging in my mind. If you don't want it to be part of a wider conversation and to have feedback, why post it in blog-format in the first place? Sorry)

I have at least one post every weekday. My content builds up fast and, like cooper said, I don't really want to go over things again. Not to mention, I don't really get many comments on my old stuff anymore anyway.

I think if people completely turned off comments, it would be defeating the idea of blogging.

Plus, I get a lot less spam now, which is always a plus.

Well in retrospect, here is the deal. I do not get many comments at all, probably. It's usually 1 or 2 on average and with an almost regular posting, those posts get shucked away pretty fast.

What's left is that the people who do comment and I have checked this usually have sites that correspond to spam (money making sites, porn links). The thing is, the comment seems to fit the post in the first place. The best example of that is this post that I've pretty much allowed to be hit by these spam comments and it's not the only one.

Take a look at the comments after 2008. Check their links too. All of them are splogs. Yet their comments seem...entirely valid in the case of the post, albeit redundant. What do I do with it? Remove the links or the comment itself? Or close the comments entirely?

I have at least one post every weekday. My content builds up fast and, like cooper said, I don't really want to go over things again. Not to mention, I don't really get many comments on my old stuff anymore anyway.

Like Cas says, it all hinges on what you want from your blog. I've people coming to Novelr and reading everything - Post 1 to Post x, and leaving comments on great swaths of them. I only suppose that I write advice and analysis, and this resonates with online writers (they're either eternally grateful or completely pissed at my conclusions).

Kami: Delete them. Then put on bad behavior and Akismet. My rule of thumb is, basically: if you even think about whether it's spam ... it's spam.

Like I said, Bad Behavior and Akismet are already on. Manual spams are always hardest to deal with. The reason why I started this note was because I want to know if there is a long term solution to making sure old comments aren't bombarded with spam. Short of dealing with it on a constant basis.

Oh, sorry Kami. =/

I can't think of anything automated that would do this for you, but I don't mind dealing with manual spam (or I'm forced to, since I never close comments). Maybe looking at it from a different perspective makes it easier: it takes less energy for you to delete it than it does for them to post - and write - it. So they're suffering. Which is ... good, right?

@Kami - it's a dilemma, and one I get a few times a week (nothing like your regularity I'll admit). Personally, I prefer them all to sit in moderation. That way, I can ponder quietly and, most often, if I am still on the fence I'll strip out the link and let the comment through. If anyone comes back to me about it, (1) I'll know they are not spam! and (2) I can point them at my comment policy which states I will strip out links to blogs I think are spam.

Other short-term solutions? Instal a captcha? (Though I am not a fan of them) Do some of the other anti-spam tricks like moving your comments page from /comments.php to /completelyrandom.php?

That's an idea Cas. The reason why I don't want to sit them in moderation is the same reason why I don't install captcha in the first place. It makes it hard to comment and I don't want more reason for people not to comment.

But maybe I'll add it in my comment policy that I reserve the right to strip away any splogs in the links. If it's manual anyway, Bad Behavior and Akismet takes care of all the automated ones, so I still can keep the comments without any harm on the whole quality.

If you find a solution I'd love to know it Kami.

Either way my old posts will have comments off again on old posts as soon as someone makes me a plug-in which works as someone has offered to do. People read old posts all the time at my blog even with only one post on the front page often going back a long time, only every so often does anyone email me to say they wanted to comment on a year old post but couldn't, and when they do that I just email them back the reason I have them closed.

I totally detest captacha, and at some points have had to do the moderation thing but it seems people prefer to see their comments immediately at times sort of immediate gratification.

If you find a solution pass it on.

I've had the same issue. Here's what I've done:

1) Don't close down the comments on old posts, unless you're getting a ton of spam there.

2) If they're short replies like "I agree!" I usually delete them. They add no value to future readers.

I've had posts that some of these replies make sense for and some which they don't make any sense for. My guess is that someone's trying to make sure their IP is not on any black lists OR that they're trying to weaken your spam protection by forcing you to flag certain comments as spam, therefore giving your system "permission" to start flagging false positives. It's the same technique used by some email spammers when they send you a page out of Mark Twain's "A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court", they're trying to make the spam system ineffective by loading it up with messages which could be real content. Once the spam filter starts flagging legitimate comments, then you're pretty much screwed.

I hope that made sense. I'm trying to regain my cognitive faculties after two very, very stressful weeks.

I used a plugin today to close the old comments down mainly because most of that content is outdated to me. I made a list of some older topics that I can revisit - good way to have backup content for rainy days when I can't think of anything to write about. :)

Gnorb: I suspected that as well and when they start spamming the hell out of my posts. I start deleting them off and putting them on the blacklist. But it looks like there is another way. It's like Godsend. Just when we're talking about this, there seems to be a solution to the problem with spams looking like legitimate links.

How to successfully spam blogs (and how to fight back)

I think I'm going to try it out and see if I still get anymore of those manual legit looking spam.