New Spam Tactics: Yes, You May Be Next!!!

I was half tempted to just disable pingbacks and trackbacks in my Wordpress "Discussion" settings altogether, you can also do this with GASP and just auto spam all your trackbacks as well if you don't care about them. Seldom are trackbacks anything but another site spewing your content via RSS, in a few cases another blogger gave real credit but this is true for larger blogs and less true for smaller blogs.

Currently all my trackbacks are set to go to pending if I haven't approved them previously, so I have to spam/trash or approve each and every trackback manually. I get about 20-25 trackbacks on my blog per day and only about 2-3 are valid ones.
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I'm well aware of the spam tactics people use on the top commentators widget (assuming you're addressing the WordPress version).
Trackback spams, though? Gosh, I thought I fixed that already in the TCW? The widget is suppose to only count Comment types and ignore the rest, whether they're pingbacks or trackbacks.

Trackback spam is not new, not by s long shot. But since it's human, GASP will not detect it.

To those banning trackbacks...have you notice a drop in people linking to you and your posts?

Not a smart move.

Hey Ivin,

I don't think that trackback spam is something new, because I know that there are programs which do this for some time now.

There is no real solution for now, especially because there are lots of people who rely on trackbacks to announce other bloggers that they were mentioned in their posts.

So, until something that can fight this kind of spam is coded, manual approval is the best way.

Ivin and Justin thanks for the great article.
I know trackbacks have become a problem recently. I've noticed this especially since Google's latest update. I am going to try Simple trackback validation like you suggested.

I think there are plugins you can use to reduce trackback spam Ivin, although I can see your dilemma. The only thing I can think that you can do is to moderate every trackback...

Sorry I couldn't be of much help!

You talking about this Dragonblogger or authopublisher? I removed the top comm widget when I posted this post. I'll have to figure another way to see get the winner.Nobody's participating, so I might cancel the entire thing.

Long long long ago I put a cap on the comment system. Nothing gets on my blog without me approving it. Blogspot now is able to detect and select "spamments" which it places in a seperate file. They haven't been wrong once in the last 6 months!

Your blog is great and I don't think you need to bother showcasing recent comments. Your articles are good enough that people and searchbots will find them'

I implore thee, banish they comment widget!

Hi Ivin.

I've recieved a large amount of these trackback spams too. I decided to disable trackbacks and pingbacks alltogether. In my blogs lifetime, I received less than 200 real trackbacks from other bloggers.

/Jannich

I was half tempted to just disable pingbacks and trackbacks in my Wordpress "Discussion" settings altogether, you can also do this with GASP and just auto spam all your trackbacks as well if you don't care about them. Seldom are trackbacks anything but another site spewing your content via RSS, in a few cases another blogger gave real credit but this is true for larger blogs and less true for smaller blogs.

Currently all my trackbacks are set to go to pending if I haven't approved them previously, so I have to spam/trash or approve each and every trackback manually. I get about 20-25 trackbacks on my blog per day and only about 2-3 are valid ones.