Rodent Regatta

For the last few days I’ve been hit very hard by comment-spam. I’m considering my options at this point.

Jay Allen has provided a couple of different insights into how to maintain your blacklist and why IP banning is not effective in fighting spam.

Options at this point include changing weblog tools in hopes that another tool will not be as hard-hit as Movable Type. There’s the possibility that MT 3.0 is more secure from comment-spam with TypeKey. I don’t know that, but I assume it’s an improvement. I could turn comments off completely for this weblog, but I’ve learned far too much from people who read and contribute.

• * * UPDATE * * * To his everlasting credit Jay Allen has tailored my MT-Blacklist file. It’s optimized, streamlined and much more restrictive. For any of you who want to replace your file, here’s mine. To those of you accustomed to commenting, you should be aware that we may get some false positives. You’ve got some other ways to reach me, so let me know if it’s too tight.

Last night and again tonight I’ve returned to my computer to find dozens of comment-spam messages. Tonight’s messages were of the most despicable, foul and filthy kind. Only someone with absolutely no purpose in life could do this sort of thing. I don’t care whether they are Nigerian, Chinese, Iranian, American or some other nationality. They are the lowest form of being. They are the lowest common denominator in the world of filth. They are the reason censorship is justified.

I wish MT-Blacklist could proactively catch this junk. Rather, it will only now prevent comment-spam from these particular fools acting under these particular identities. Nothing stops them from selecting new IP addresses and new domain names to assault the Internet. Woe be unto the first one of these maggots that I meet face-to-face.

Know this. Before I continue to provide a forum for these deviates to deface, I’ll turn off comments and trackbacks completely. They are cowards with no sense of worth whatsoever. They’ll not take what is mine!

I’ve banned their IP addresses and made sure they are now in the blacklist. Their comments have been deleted. As I plan the migration to Textpattern, I’m going to find out exactly how that tool deals with comment spam. More when I know it.

Textpattern and WordPress are weblog tools based on MySQL and PHP. You might have read some of Shelley Powers’s articles from the LAMP series. LAMP stands for Linux, Apache, MySQL and PHP. The use of Linux and Apache on web servers is well-established. Clearly, this is the open-source approach to web-oriented development. Just as clearly, there will always be a religious debate about Microsoft’s alternatives to these four components.

Now, as weblog tools become capable content management systems (CMS), it is clear that this LAMP architecture is, and will continue to be, a significant enabler of future web services and web-based applications. No matter how effectively Microsoft competes, open-source advocates will keep these technologies alive. Some believe they will thrive.

Outstanding hosting, built around LAMP and optimized for LAMP-oriented content management systems, is not really common. It’s easy for novice users to get baffled by the various control panels, terminologies and specifications in the hosting world. If a change occurs at the host and the change isn’t communicated, your next visit to your host will present surprises. The key word in all of this is ”outstanding.” Outstanding providers of products and services are simply rare.

I’ve used only two or three hosts. My current host is Hosting Matters, but I originally signed up for Bloggerzone, which was later folded into Hosting Matters. I like the tools they provide and the help I’ve been able to get. I’ve recommended HM to others.

As of this morning, Dean Allen’s TextDrive service still has spots open on the VC200 list. Dean talked to some venture capitalists about raising money to start a host for Textpattern. Instead of taking that route, he decided to make an offer to charter customers. For $199 you get a rich set of hosting features for life. By signing up approximately 200 customers at $199 for a service optimized to LAMP, he raises the $40,000 needed to cover a couple of years of operating expenses.

The VC200, having helped launch the service, will get their hosting for life as part of TextDrive’s ongoing marketing budget. It’s an incredible deal. He starts a company with no debt. Two hundred or so customers get an outstanding host. Everybody gets to learn together about the future of hosting, web design, development and technology.

If you’re still looking for an outstanding hosting service, take a look.

The TextDrive offer is drawing lots of attention. Dean Allen (of Textism fame) clearly has honorable principles and high expectations for being able to offer classy service and support. $199 for a lifetime of hosting is simply too good to pass up, particularly when you read in the forums that cheaper storage and bandwidth is likely to sweeten the introductory offer for the initial 200 customers over time.

Somebody help me understand why this is not the deal of deals. If you are in the market for a host, TextDrive looks awfully attractive.