My Blog is under Attack
My readers noticed that my blog disappeared several times. Here’s what’s been happening. Spammers were sending tens of thousands of comments a day, which crashed the server several times. My hosting provider doteasy.com couldn’t handle it and took down my blog. They asked me to install CAPTCHAs.
Installing CAPTCHAs became a big issue. Since I started my blog in 2008 I’ve never bothered to update the WordPress software. As a result, all the CAPTCHA plugins I tried to install wouldn’t work. I had no choice but to update WordPress. After so many years, this would surely not be a simple matter. So I decided to hire someone to help. It took me a month to find Brett Mellor, but finally he updated my WordPress software.
Updating such an old database starts with a backup. We didn’t want to back up all the tens of thousands of spam comments, but we couldn’t sort through them, because my hosting provider was blocking the user-friendly access to my blog. We were forced to delete all the new comments. In the process, I’ve lost some of the legitimate comments as well. I apologize for that. If you do not see your comments, please resubmit.
In addition, we had to re-number all the categories, so the old category links no longer work.
I was paralyzed by all the stress of not only losing access to my blog, but also not knowing how to solve the problem. This prevented me from writing for three months, and for this I apologize as well.
Now my blog is updated and CAPTCHAs are installed. I’ve gone from 50,000 spam comments per day to 500. However, my hosting provider still complains about unusual activity and spam comments.
Your brilliant suggestions are very welcome.
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Dan Goldin:
Have you tried disabling the built in WordPress comments and installing something like Disqus? I have it on my blog and it’s been working great for spam blocking.
12 October 2014, 1:55 amФилип Петров:
Try the akismet plugin.
16 October 2014, 4:08 pm