About locked comments

[kayshapero]

Final update - I'm unsticking this message because the discussion appears to be over. 

If you dig around in my old posts for some bizarre reason, you'll note that a number have had comments locked. This is because the anonymous idiots who like to post spam to any LJ journal they find an address for have gone from single posts to strings of 5 or 6 at a time, all of which while blocked from anybody else's view I still have to go delete because they'll collect in my backups. So hereinafter, when I have to do that I'll be locking further comments unless it would block an ongoing discussion. (I probably won't lock the lot proactively - I've been ON this thing for ten years) It's got nothing to do with the legitimate content. Though I'd like to hear from anybody in here who also uses Dreamwidth if they're having the same problem. I'm seriously considering moving if this keeps up.

I'm making this post sticky so I don't have to repeat it - right now (November 2, 2012) comments are open - we'll see how long this prevails.

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UPDATE: The posts I'm talking about are all from anonymous sources, never LJ members. I already screen them. Screening does NOT delete a post, it just marks it so nobody but the user can see them. The user still has to delete them by hand to fully get rid of them. Thanks for the suggestions, though.

OK everybody - please, please PLEASE read all of this carefully FIRST before making the nth suggestion to try things I Have Already Done, or will not help with the problem as I have actually stated it. OK?

Comments

[cloudchaser-s.livejournal.com]

That's been happening to me too, especially in posts I've made to communities.

[lemmozine.livejournal.com]

I had this problem. I changed my settings to allow comments from friends only. Problem solved.

[kayshapero]

See my comment to kk1raven. If I could set it to delete anonymous posts rather than screen them I'd probably do that.

[lemmozine.livejournal.com]

I'm talking about the setting directly above the screen setting, in which you can set it to allow only friends to comment.

[kayshapero]

That lists
"journal default" (allows whatever you set things for in the options area which are pretty much what these sections list),
"disable" (no comments at all),
"locked" (no more comments allowed - which I'm using now if it's an old post and it gets hit),
and "don't notify" (don't tell me if there are comments).

It only affects what appears to people who read it. The posts are still there and still gum up my backups to LJarchive.

[lemmozine.livejournal.com]

No, it's accounts/privacy/enable comments. The options are everybody, registered users, friends or nobody. Pick either registered users or friends for the default and you will not get any anonymous comments. I don't know if it will wipe out past comments, but it will work for future comments.

[kayshapero]

OK, I'll let you know if it works.

[kayshapero]

About half an hour after I set enable comments to registered users only, a new screened anonymous comment turned up to this post. This may just mean that the updates take a long time, but it doesn't look promising.

[lemmozine.livejournal.com]

It may not work on past posts, of which this is one because it was posted before you changed the setting, but it should work on future ones. The past posts don't change settings when you change the default, but the future ones do. I don't know if there's a way to change the setting for past posts - I looked at it to see, and if you edit, the same options don't seem to come up. There's an allow comments button that can be used to shut them down altogether, but no reset for enable comments. Which seems weird to me - what's the difference between enabling and allowing?

Maybe we really should all collectively abandon LJ for Dreamwidth.

[kayshapero]

I'm going to continue my current habit of locking down comments in old (year or more ago) posts since I assume all legit comments have been made already, and see what happens. If this selection protects future posts it's still an improvement.

As for Dreamwidth - it's not the first time I've seen someone come up with a new LJ equivalent, and I've had at least one of 'em shot out from under me (which at least proved that my lifetime membership was a REAL lifetime membership - it lasted until the journal died) and seen a couple more vanish without participating. So I'm not dropping LJ. It'll have to get impressively worse, first - thus far the thing DOES seem to survive if despite itself on occasion.

Digging out an old icon from LJ Wars Past (the fanfic debacle).

[kk1raven.livejournal.com]

I rarely make public posts in my regular journal here or at Dreamwidth but haven't had any problems with my other Dreamwidth journal which is all public posts.

Have you considered changing your settings in LJ to screen posts from non-friends?

[kayshapero]

The problem is thus far exclusively anonymous posts; I've not gotten any of this from LJ members of any sort. I already screen anonymous posts. It's just that screen does not equal delete so I STILL have to clean them out by hand before I run LJ archive or they get into my backups. There IS no auto-delete anonymous posts setting. And 5 or 6 at a time is a Bit Much.

[kk1raven.livejournal.com]

I'd agree that that is a Bit Much. Actually, I'd go for more than a bit much. Do you get legitimate comments from anonymous people? If not you can set LJ to only allow comments from registered users. That allows comments from LJ users, validated open-ID users and people using Facebook logons.

[kayshapero]

a) yes, sometimes I do - there's a service that posts if someone references the post elsewhere which identifies as anonymous (though there's an identification within the post). Thus, it comes through screened so I can see it, but don't have to inflict it on everybody else. Also not all of my friends subscribe to LJ. Of course I might just cancel the service and warn non subscribers elsewhere, if I could have it delete all anonymous posts but -

b) No you can't - you can set LJ to screen comments not from registered users, or not from friends, or whatever. Those posts are Still There, just not visible to anybody but you.

[kk1raven.livejournal.com]

Regarding b), I can set my LJ to only allow comments from registered users and if I can, I don't see why you can't. Unless they've changed something recently, that means exactly what it says it means - comments from others are just plain not allowed. It doesn't delete anonymous posts. It doesn't ever allow them to be made to start with. That is a separate setting from the setting for screening.

[kayshapero]

OK, what is the exact name of the setting, is it in the old or the new editor or is it in the options area?

[kk1raven.livejournal.com]

"Enable comments" is what it is called. For me, it is right above the comment screening setting on the privacy tab in my account settings. I believe you can also set it for individual posts when you compose them.

[kayshapero]

The closest thing I can find in the old editor to "Enable comments" reads "Allow Comments?" The new one calls it "Comments" and is just above "Screening". I've got a paid account, fwiw.
OH - "Enable Comments" choices are "Journal default, disable, locked, don't notify", so I'm pretty sure it's not Enable Comments. And Comment Screening is what it's described as. "Comments" in the new one is just "default, disabled, no email".

[kk1raven.livejournal.com]

Did you try looking at the account settings rather than the editor? I'm not sure about being able to do it from the editor at all. I don't use the editor, old or new, to post to LJ so I don't pay a lot of attention to what it can do. I'm sure about "enable comments" being in the account settings for me though. That's not the kind of thing I'd expect to depend on which theme you were using so I think it ought to be there for you too.

[kayshapero]

I'm trying lemmozine's idea and will see what happens.

[sffilk.livejournal.com]

I've had the same problem as well. Most of the spam posts are anonymously posted, I've found.

[kayshapero]

See update.

[eric-hinkle.livejournal.com]

Sorry to hear that they've been hitting you too. I'm considering going Friends-Only just to cut down on the spam.

[kayshapero]

See update.

[ghostwolf.livejournal.com]

If they're not coming from LJ, you might think about dropping Dreamwidth. I personally think if the service can't keep the spammers down - or doesn't even try - is not a service I need, despite any advantages. And just FYI, Spam does not appear in the GURPS Advantages list...

[kayshapero]

They're not from Dreamwidth. They precede my involvement therein, and I've made maybe 3 posts there. I just have friends who use it so I go look from time to time and it's more convenient to have an account to log in from.

My guess is it's automated. The bot finds a livejournal base address (in my case kayshapero.livejournal.com), then ratchets forward through six character numbers point html in whatever algorithm suits them until a page opens, then uses the comment feature to drop a few posts consisting of lots of links advertising what are either sales of dubious knockoffs (Ugg boots appear to be popular), or trapped links - I've no idea since I NEVER click on them.