How to deal with bloggers who are trying to sneak onto the top commenators list
The top commentators list is a great way to reward those who contribute to your blog. However, it can easily be abused and before you know it you are rewarding terrible commentators instead of those who are taking the time to write good comments to your posts.
In the last two months i have noticed this happening on Blogging Tips around the second week of the month. Someone turns up around this time, leaves very short and poor quality comments on over a dozen posts and then never returns to the blog. In doing this they have got their blog in the top commentators list. This has annoyed me no end but i’ve been a little lazy and i’ve not taken action.
With July slowly approaching us i want to try and get something set up as soon as i can. I’m sick of seeing bloggers taking the time to write really good comments and replies to my posts here only to see them pushed off the top commentators list by someone who spends 10 minutes spamming the blog. I am considering expanding the top commentators list so that more commentators can get a link back to their site however clearly this wont resolve the problem. Infact, it could just make it easier to get onto the top list and might attract more spammers.
I have looked around for a good plugin to try and help me with this but i have yet to find anything as yet (if you know of any please let me know 
). For the time being, if i find someone blatantly trying to get into the top commentators list by making lots of poor comments i am going to edit their name of some of their comments so that they dont push the good bloggers off the list. Perhaps not the best solution but one which i will have to use until i find a better one.
As i said before, any tips or links to help with this would be greatly appreciated and if i do a follow up post ill obviously link to anyone who does help me with this. Its in all of our interests to keep spammers off of our top lists
thanks,
Kevin
Mani Karthik | June 28th, 2007 at 3:42 am #
Kevin, i think the time frame should be shortened. Make it top commenter in a days time , that way least you can make the spammer to visit the blog daily.
Wudnt be a prob for other genuine commentators to go past him after all he spends only 10 mis or less on the blog.
Kumiko | June 28th, 2007 at 5:19 am #
If you want to reward those who contribute to your blog, why not just personally choose a “comment of the month” or something like that?
Kevin | June 28th, 2007 at 6:37 am #
mani - i think daily is too short. perhaps weekly would be a bit better.
kumiko - its always an option but its not a route i want to go down as id have to spend a lot of time monitoring comments etc
Rob Schultz | June 28th, 2007 at 7:39 am #
How frequently do you find this occurring? I read your blog (and others) all the time through my RSS reader and when the moment strikes I’ll jump on and comment, sometimes on several posts, then be quiet for a couple of days or even weeks thereafter.
Do you think it’s possible that they’re blitzkrieg posters (like me) or just there for the notoriety?
Kevin | June 28th, 2007 at 7:45 am #
perhaps some are however the 2 that are referred to definately were not. The person made 15-20 comments within hours and then didnt make another comment again. I was referring to those who just comment occasionally
Tay | June 28th, 2007 at 10:57 am #
Kevin,
Sorry this is happening to you! Of course there’s always going to be some people who try to cheat the system… I hope you find an easy way to correct the problem.
Wallace | June 28th, 2007 at 11:59 am #
hey,Kevin,
i suggest you cancel the top commentators plugin,
do you see this spammer “A video a day” at JohnChow blog?
it is terrible…
shypys | June 28th, 2007 at 1:00 pm #
I think a plugin for this can be made or you can (have someone) edit the top commentator plugin for that can be made. This would search for all the comments for a user and would allow them to be added to the top commentator list only if atleast (total comments/5) are more than 15 words long.
I think it’d be easy to make(although I cant do it as yet - but I’m continually learning though).
Ask someone at DP maybe.
Brian Aldrich | June 28th, 2007 at 3:22 pm #
Ask shoemoney, his site is automated where fake top commenters are automatically blocked.
Matthew | June 28th, 2007 at 5:47 pm #
you could try the link love plugin
http://www.allpassionmarketing.com/software.html#linklove
?
GoddessCarlie | June 28th, 2007 at 8:40 pm #
Maybe just add these people to the top commentator ban list (like how you can get rid of yourself from the list)? It may take a bit of effort if there are a few people doing it, but might be worth it.
Jonathan-C. Phillips | June 29th, 2007 at 1:04 am #
I have the same problem Kevin. some people post only on “dofollow” blogs. Well 2 things you can do:
if you use akismet, spam those comments! I believe akismet keeps track of this, and these spammers will eventually get [insert whatever swear here]. Of course you have to be sure before you do that. but “nice post” comments to me don’t add any value.
remove the url from their comments, as simple as that. if you get an e-mail asking why you removed the url (happened to me many times) you can reply and tell them they look like spam, but only half-way there.
and you can also remove their names from the top commentators list.
Kevin | June 29th, 2007 at 1:16 am #
matthew - thanks for the link however thats not the problem i have. Im not referring to dofollow etc, i was referring to people who spam their way onto the top comentators list
jonathan - yeah id have to be sure, definately. I think that would be a good option if they were blatantly trying to sneak their way on with spam tactics
Beth | July 2nd, 2007 at 5:40 am #
I simply rely on Akismet and “spam” those who comment more than 7 times within a 24 hour period. I chose 7 because I can sometimes write 5 new posts within 24 hours and I don’t want to discourage people from commenting. The Top Commenter plugin is a good tool, although I have noticed lately spammers are commenting on front page posts just to get their URIs listed.
Sean | July 4th, 2007 at 6:08 pm #
What about some how building a karma system into the comments. If any comments is under a threshold of like -2 or so, then the comment doesn’t count towards the top commentators spots.
Which then could open up a new list, the top karma’d commenters.
cooliojones | July 8th, 2007 at 3:48 am #
Hopefully I won’t be experiencing this problem anytime soon. I know I comment a lot, but in every one the comments are definitely relevant. And you gotta think — it takes only a few minutes to think of a good comment! Why waste time being obvious about why you are really there? Be genuine, and that karma will follow you.
Todd | August 1st, 2007 at 10:54 am #
hah i’m the kind of person who comes along to a blog once a week and will comment on like 10 posts, mostly because I only check most blogs once a week… hopefully I wasn’t a catalyst for the removal!