I have a humor website, Web Pickups, that I post to on a regular basis. Recent posts draw in the auto commenting software. Not to say that the software doesn’t find older posts to bother, just that the newer posts are at the top of the list.

Some times I think that I should post these comments on the blog for the comedy value. I doubt that my real visitors would get the joke. Many of these auto comments are so far off topic that they have some comedy value. Like comments about the wonderful article and the great writing style on a post that only contains a picture.

Many people that use this auto commenting software do not learn how to use it or set it up. They also are not aware enough of keywords to target the comments properly. I occasionally run across a blog that does not hold comments for approval, but most blog owners that care leave at least the default process in place.

The default handling for comments, and the options, are under the discussion link in the settings panel of the admin area. The default is to hold a comment unless the commenter has a couple of comments that have been approved. Another default setting is to hold comments with more than two links in the post body. My comment policy states no links in the post body, and I enforce that most of the time. Of course, auto commenting software doesn’t read the comment policy anyway.

Going through the Web Pickups Blog comments is almost refreshing at times. I have allowed a few of these comments when they are well targeted. I did that more before I had much experience and realized that most of these comments are not written directly by a real person. The blogosphere would be a better place without auto commenting software just as the email inbox would be a better place without email spam.

I have put up several new blogs recently and have been spending more time clearing the comment spam from the queues. This blog is still the champion but several others are peddling hard.

I have also been paying a bit of attention to my server logs since implementing a new program on some of these blogs. There is some debate in my mind if that program is working, but I have not yet given it a fair trial. I think that the strategy will work in the long run if I keep with it, but I have some question about the short run stats. All of that is for another post, possibly on another blog.

What I have noticed by checking the server logs is that most of my comments do not come from site visitors. It became apparent that the bulk of the comments were posted directly to the comment page without the poster coming in through the front door. I first thought that there must be a list somewhere of the urls deep-linking to comment pages, and, more or less, that must be the case, but the list is contained in auto-spamming software packages or harvested by automated url harvesters.

Having seen hints in places around the web and coming to the realization that this auto-comment spamming was going on I spent a bit of time today with my friend Mr. Google. With his help I found several options ranging from free (with email opt-in) to around fifty dollars. There was one forum thread that ran to 34 pages before it was locked.

There may be a place for this software, but most users don’t take the time to target the result properly. The comments placed by these softwares will only be on topic by the sheerest of luck. With the example that I saw you fill out a copy of the WordPress standard comment form and turn the software loose. The software posts the same post to all of the urls on the list. The software does not care or know if the comment is relevant.

I have seen, and see on a daily basis, the same post on multiple blogs. I first thought that people were just pasting the posts in but to do that they would have to enter the blog through the front door, find the post, go to the comment page for the post, and fill in the comment form. The server logs would show that they entered the site through a landing page and then proceeded to the comment page. Checking for the existence of this class of software cleared the mystery. The people that will use this software are unlikely to put the time in to find blogs on their subject and to produce comments that, while being general in nature, are at least on topic for the selected blogs. I recently read an article on traffic building in which the author stated that the process of blog commenting could not really be successfully automated. I agree with his opinion.

Are you plagued by auto-comment spam on your blogs? You could enter this conversation with a real comment.