The subject of blog comment spam has been talked about a lot recently…I haven’t had to worry since I don’t really seem to illicit many comments (::shrugs::), but I have actually received spam through my Contact page. Simon Willison has an interesting approach to block comment spam in which he redirects all posted links to eliminate the possibility of affecting Google‘s PageRank system. This seems to be a logical thing to do if the sole purpose of the spam you are receiving is to increase the Google rank of some site. But what if this isn’t the purpose? What if you just get hit with an advertisement for Viagra or such? It still seems like a captcha image is the best solution for blocking automatic submission of spam comments.

Disclaimer: Any viewpoints and opinions expressed in this article are those of Nicholas C. Zakas and do not, in any way, reflect those of my employer, my colleagues, Wrox Publishing, O'Reilly Publishing, or anyone else. I speak only for myself, not for them.