About

I love it!!!

Akismet is a collaborative spam filter available for WordPress blogs. The “collaborative” aspect comes from collecting information about what Al, John, Carly, Janice, and every other Akismet user thinks is spam, and using those marking to filter the stuff from infecting other blogs. I love it! It works very very very well. Catches lots of stuff and flushes it before I need to bother. Akismet silently prevents 100-250 spam comments per day for my blog. It actually holds them in a queue for inspection, but I find it so accurate that I never inspect. I just delete the remnants occasionally.

[Hey, all you Blogger users…. Take note and lobby Blogger to implement real spam filtering instead of those damned CAPTCHAs. CAPTCHAs serve mostly to move the burden away from the provider and to the users, and are a total barrier for many people with disabilities. And don’t argue with me, like one idiot did, that it doesn’t matter because people with disabilities shouldn’t do woodworking.]

However, the best spam filters aren’t very successful for certain targeted marketing that’s based on keywords. Here’s a recent example. It was a comment on my post about Woodworking Appliances. Some robot scanned a bunch of blogs for the word “appliance” and added the following comment, with a link, of course, to their product.

Hi , thanks for the posting. Nice. There are many ways to get rid of hair issues, but first know that bad hair is usually the result of unclean hair and scalp, it is also due to the use of excessive hair product, which usually grab on to your hair making it heavy and dry. Chemical hair products also clog hair pores killing the health of your hair.

BZZZZZZZZZZZZZZT!

There are similar comments that most likely were not done by a robot, but by a person taking the time to search out relevant posts. Had one just like that a couple of days ago on the post talking about other woodworking choices. A small boat builder (sounds friendly enough) posted a message and a link to his single page web site that exists only for selling small boat building lessons.

BZZZZZZZZZZZZZZT!

For that stuff, I use a second WordPress filter called WP-SpamFree. I have mine setup to email me a copy of every comment (which I allow to be posted without moderation). Within that email are three tools: Trash It, Spam It, and Blacklist the sender. Each of them is a one-click tool. Poof!

My policy

If you come here solely to advertise, your comment will get the Spam It treatment, and your IP address will be blacklisted. It takes me less effort to do those two actions than it does you to post the comment in the first place.

Retired, grandpa, house-husband, cranky, computer geek, galoot, neanderthal, wooden boat fan, boat builder, fine scale modeler, artist.

After 40 years in the Information Technology industry, I’ve retired and have turned to more leisurely pastimes. My other blog Access-Matters reflects my most recent professional work, enabling web technologies for People With Disabilities. While I’m still very much interested in that field, I’ll be content to sit on the sidelines and watch for now. There’s lots to watch, such as will Target win or lose the lawsuit brought by blind people who have difficulty shopping the Target web site? Will technology continue to evolve quickly enough to make things like the Target lawsuit frivolous and irrelevant? Will the hoards of web developers ever learn anything about accessibility?

When the weather in my boat shop is warm enough, I’ll be building small, human or wind powered boats. When the shop is too cold, I build fine scale models of small boats. Other times, I travel with my best friend and spouse of over four decades. Occasionally, I sit and draw.

Oh, by the way, galoot and neanderthal are endearing terms for woodworkers who prefer using hand tools, especially restored antiques, instead of electrified high powered spinning knives and blades.