Genii Weblog

Does IBM Blog template come with spam control?

Tue 21 Sep 2010, 09:10 AM



by Ben Langhinrichs
My non-business writing blog, The Absent Minded Muse, is built using the standard IBM Domino Blog template, and it attracts a lot of spam.  Are there any add-ins, tricks, settings, etc. to control the spam, or do I have to build something in myself?  I find that I get lost when looking for documentation on the template.  Is there a wiki or some documentation somewhere to answer these sorts of questions?

Update: I finally decided to go to the source and searched Steve's blog, and I think I found the answer.  I will test and see how well it works.

Copyright © 2010 Genii Software Ltd.

What has been said:


910.1. Stuart McIntyre
(09/21/2010 02:32 PM)

Hi Ben, you just need to enable this - It's in the blog configuration document under discussion / validation / Anti Spam Check.

The Domino Blog template does a great job of controlling spam comments, across all of my blogs I get less than one spam comment let through per month.

As to whether the documentation should be better? Absolutely! Steve C does a great job of supporting this 'in his spare time', but it is part of the product and thus should be documented as such.


910.2. Ben Langhinrichs
(09/21/2010 02:37 PM)

Thanks! I found it just before you posted, and now have turned it on. I appreciate your quick response. The problem with the template is that there is just so much there, it is hard to find what you need.


910.3. Theo Heselmans
(09/21/2010 03:45 PM)

The comment anti-spam indeed works great. You just end up with a lot of those spam documents in the 'blocked' discussion view in the advanced section. I clean (read: delete) those docs every couple of months.


910.4. Albert Buendia
(21/09/2010 16:14)

Hi, the Domino Blog antispam method works like a charm !! But, you shouldn't delete the spam ip record addresses. You can provide / feedback / boost to the smtp "denied ip" section of the server domino document and benefit from the spammers. Hope to write a blog post about this. Regards, Albert.


910.5. Chris Miller
(09/21/2010 05:48 PM)

Yes the spam control works brilliant and Steve did an incredible job. I however moved to Disqus recently across all my blogs for a long list of reasons. But I did run for six years on the built in spam control and rarely had an issue at all.


910.6. Patrick Kwinten
(09/21/2010 06:30 PM)

can anyone exactly clearify what is considered as spam by that spam filter? Or how it should be set up (in combination with other parameters) ?

I receive a lot of complaints from users that normal comments are considered and treated as spam! :-(

a captcha function would be more appreciated.


910.7. Tanny O'Haley
(09/21/2010 09:32 PM)

The comment spam filter works by:

1. A link throttle. It limits each comment to a specific number of links. If a comment goes over the link throttle the comment is rejected.

2. Requires the contents of certain fields to be filled.

3. Adds a query string item to the submission url with javascript on submit that is required.

I've also hidden the subject field. The DominoBlog code fills in the subject with javascript. If a spam bot tries to submit a spam comment without the subject, since the subject is required, the comment is rejected.

This doesnt prevent an individual from manually leaving spam as long as there arent too many links which for me has been extremely rare.