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June 6, 2005
How To Use The MT-Blacklist to Fight TerraBlog Spam
What is the MT-Blacklist?
In a nutshell, the "MT-Blacklist" is a list that you can add spammers to. It blocks future comments from these spammers by extracting and blocking the URLs that the spammers are advertising. It’s a spam blacklist clearinghouse.
How can I use the MT-Blacklist?
Here's how de-spamming your TerraBlog using the MT-Blacklist works:
First, you’ll need to receive email notifications when you have new comments on your TerraBlog. Take these easy steps:
1. Log in to Movable Type.
2. Click "Manage Weblog."
3. On the left you'll see a button that says "Weblog Config." Click it.
4. You should now see some stuff at the top of the page that reads "Core Setup | Preferences | Archiving | IP Banning"
Click the "Preferences" link. This takes you to the page where you can edit your blog's description and stuff.
5. If you scroll down, you'll see an option that reads, "Would you liked to be notified via email when someone posts comments to your site?" Select this option. You will now be notified via email when someone posts a comment on your blog.
6. When you get a spam comment on your blog, you can check your email and look at the emailed copy of the comment. Near the bottom of the email you will see a blurb that reads "De-spam using MT Blacklist"
There is a link right below this that will look something like “http://chattablogs.com/mt/mt-blacklist.cgi?__mode=despam&_type=comment&id=000000”
Clicking this link* will open up a new window that will take you to a MT-Blacklist page. This page lets you add to the list of banned URLs.
7. If it's spam, you'll generally want to just click** the button on this page that reads "Go forth now and do my bidding!" A careful read of this page makes the rest of the the interface’s options pretty self-explanatory.
*NOTE: Make sure you're already signed in to your blog account before you click the MT-Blacklist link in your email or it will take you to the wrong page — trust me.
** REALLY IMPORTANT NOTE: Make sure that the URLs to be added to the MT-Blacklist are really junk. Sometimes spammers stick normal URLs into their spam, so that when they're added to the Blacklist something like Google (for instance) gets added, too. Spammers are really tricky and evil that way, and should thusly be destroyed. ALSO, you'll want to make sure you trim away any unnecessary junk in the spammer's URL. For example: sometimes spammers will have addresses that look something like "poker.texas-holdem.com" or "blackjack.texas-holdem.com" and you can cut out the first part so that the URL will just read "texas-holdem.com" -- this saves a lot of bloat in the list.
Do your part in the anti-spam war effort! Use the MT-Blacklist! Onward!
Blog Guts | By Hugo Fitch | 4:59 PM
