August 31, 2007

Help, SixApart

Okay, so I got the fresh installation done. I'm trying to figure out the template tweaks that need to happen. And now the comments are bleeding BROKEN. I'm actually getting an Internal Server Error now when a comment attempt is made. Grrrrrr. I've done some checking on the Movable Type site, and can't find the issue.

1) I am sure there is a permission mis-set somewhere. I need a list of what all the .cgi file permissions are supposed to be.
2) I need a good look at what my freaking comments template is supposed to look like. I've followed this and thought that would fix the issue. Bah.
3) I did have it semi-functional for a while last night, but it was telling me that there was an error due to a cached page. I deleted cache. I did a force-reload. Same error, no more detail. I disabled the happy NoHarvester plugin, thinking I had done something wrong with that.
No joy.

ARGH!

Movable Type, I think you should hire me to do your manual writing. Seriously.

Posted by Red Monkey at 12:28 PM | Comments (1) | Blog | Stumble

August 30, 2007

Spamments

Comments temporarily closed again.

I had 1700 spamments in 24 hours. There was one real comment that got trapped in the spam filters and particularly since it was from a new commenter, I'm glad I took the time to wade through all 1700 spamments to find the gem. (Thanks Nim!)

I'm going to attempt to upgrade to MT4 today and tomorrow. Hopefully I'll have better luck getting the spammers filtered out, although I would LOVE it if someone who knew htaccess could help me figure out how to shut out these bots. I'm not sure how to figure out which ones I'm being hit by. I took the main list that's been floating around the internet for a couple of years, but I doubt that list was up to date.

*sigh*

I'll bring the comments back as soon as possible, folks.

Posted by Red Monkey at 9:11 AM | Comments (0) | Blog | Stumble

August 10, 2007

Comments Broken?

I reset comments back to the original settings after that last post. The spam box is still filling up ... but I can't seem to post a test comment. Can someone else post a comment?

UPDATE:
Okay, so apparently only I can't post comments to my own blog. LOL Thanks to those who tested the comments for me.

Posted by Red Monkey at 5:14 PM | Comments (2) | Blog | Stumble

Freaking Spam

200 spamments in 3 hours.

I spent 2 hours listing known bad bots in htaccess today. I'm still getting 200 spamments in 3 hours time.

I'm at a loss. I've switched preferences on the blog to continue to accept comments, but to send everything to moderation. (And I think the moderation template is screwed up ... so if you get there and it looks funky, I should care and want to fix it ... but I'm really tired of dealing with this crap at the moment, so I don't care.)

I don't have the time to be checking the spam filter constantly and deleting all these spamments. I'm begging anyone who's had any luck with blocking thru htaccess to email me and offer to help me out. If I can't resolve this soon, I dunno ... I might close the blog completely. MT 4 is due out soon-ish ... and they'll have member registration enabled ... I may upgrade to that and require registration to be able to comment. That might help, too.

Meanwhile ... this is the excitement of my day: COBRA still not activating my health insurance, so I still don't have the medicine that helps me breathe so instead of going outside, I'm staying in the house. I can't reach the site that delivers my paychecks because their site is effed up. (Attempting to hit the log in button which brings up the login screen leads you to a "We can't find that page" error ... otherwise I'd worry that my login information was bad - but I don't even get a chance to log in!) There is still no news on the job front.

Bah.

UPDATE:
Okay, so I set the blog to not immediately publish any comments. And that sounded good. Except that when I went to test it to make sure it was working right ... it wouldn't accept any comments.

EXCEPT THAT THERE ARE STILL SPAMMENTS HITTING THE SPAM FOLDER!!!!!!

WTF?

I have decided that today is not a good day and I hate everything and just thought I would share that with you. That is all.

Posted by Red Monkey at 4:43 PM | Comments (0) | Blog | Stumble

August 6, 2007

Temporarily Closing Comments

I'm going to close the comments down for the next five days or so. Sorry folks.

I am getting nearly 2000 spamments in about 36 hours time. And while very very very few of them actually hit the site, I do feel the need to go through the spam folder and make sure there are no legitimate comments which got accidentally stuck in there. After the Ghost entry for the Artsy Contest, for example, I had several comments wind up in the spam folder because the commenters left a link to their blog in their comments. Nothing wrong with doing that! But I get so much spam that my filters automatically send any comment with an URL attached to it into spam.

I'm hoping after 5 days of lock-down, maybe some of the bots will go away ... at least for a while.

Meanwhile, you wanna comment on something anyway ... use the contact button at the top of the page and I'll get it worked in as a comment. Sorry ... comments WILL come back, though.

(Stupid freaking r e d ... m o n k e y ... j e a n s ... i know this spam is because of them.)

Posted by Red Monkey at 12:21 PM | Comments (0) | Blog | Stumble

July 16, 2007

Stupidity Incarnate

First, I've said before that our local news sucks ... here's new evidence that the newspaper is just about as bad:

Receptionist needed for busy small animal

That must be one damn busy small animal. Good lord. First of all, it has employees. Second of all, it's busy enough to need a receptionist ... who is contacting this small animal so much that it needs a receptionist?

Next up ... my beloved spammers who simply refuse to leave me alone. They are the reason that posting a comment with even a single URL in it will get the comment sent to the spam filter. I get a minimum of 400 spam comments a day. I closed down trackbacks because of spammers.

Here are some typical spamments, playing on the vanity of the blogger:

This site is very nise and helpfull! Would you please also visit my homepage?

Nice site. Thank you:-)

Your site is very convenient in navigation and has good design. Thanks!

Great looking site so far!! I'm just starting to look around it but I love the title page...

Hi there! Just couldn't resist your guestbook! Would you please also visit my homepage?

Cool design, great info! Would you please also visit my site?

Hi! Very Good Site! Keep Doing That! Please visit my homepage too: LINK DELETED

Good site! Good resources here, I will bookmark!

This site is really superb!!! Thank you for you work!

Wonderful and informative web site. I used information from that site it's great.

I like it a lot! It very impressive. Good work. Thanks! LINK DELETED

I just want to say thank you for taking the time & effort for put this web page together!

And then ... then there are the truly special ones. New ones that now attempt, I think, to help me with my spam issues:

Hay!!! best link for you a long ago for you was not prompt who for you was engaged in a design ? I got to you from a search engine through a site spam polazil for you on the site of www.coyotethunder.com all klastno but it is necessary to go ... LINKS DELETED ... senks!!!

whether all for you well a design is just in a theme so all is good but as I looked for you problem with the spam of type of it spam polazil for you on the site of www.coyotethunder.com all klastno but it is necessary to go

I've no idea what this person's native language is ... but it sure ain't English.

*sigh* Were I a brilliant programmer, I would soooo be on this like a fly on ... ummm, yeah. Anyhow.

Damn spammers, anyway.

Posted by Red Monkey at 8:37 PM | Comments (0) | Blog | Stumble