I wasn’t sure what to call this blog post but recently I have noticed someone leaving comments on my blogs that don’t seem to make much sense in connection to the post they are commenting on.
In return I have gone to their blog. When I put my cursor over the blog name it comes up with error window, but if I click on it then I’m taken to their blog.
I have found it weird that the person, I’m not naming them, leaves comments all the time. If I don’t respond sometimes they leave comment after comment. Like they have forgotten that they have left a comment in the first place. I do realise that a lot of you leave comments on most of my posts, which I love, but your comments actually make sense.
Then I get comments that seem so irrelevant to the post I have published. It leaves me confused and I never quite know how to respond.
The other day I got a message that was so out there. I really was completely confused and my response, I think, showed that. Then I got a run of comments that made even less sense. I ended up deleting them all.
This got me thinking. Is this person real? Are they using a bot to leave their comments? I know there are bots that leave spam comments, but this is the first time I’ve seen one that seemed like a geniune person.
I don’t actually know if it is a bot, but it seems like it could be and my money would be on it being one.
So how do you stop this sort of thing? No idea.
I have now installed a new plugin, Advanced Google reCAPTCHA. It is free and is meant to help a lot with getting rid of spammers or bots.
So I thought I would open up the discussion with you all to see if any of you have had the same thing happening. What do you think about it? Would you prefer real people leaving comments?
Let me know your thoughts.
Photos – Blue Lotus Water Gardens
The photos are from the above place. The Monochrome Madness photos were also from there, but thought I might show some colour ones.
Below is a gallery of photos, if you click on one of the images you will get a larger view and then you can scroll through them all.
Whew and I thought it was just me! LOL Out of the blue, many daily comments making no sense @ all. But then just as suddenly they stopped. A great day that was! 😉
No not just you.I’m glad they stopped, mine haven’t completly, but they are so weird. Thank you for sharing.
I don’t get a lot of comment trolls and have handled them before by editing their comments, which they don’t like. Bots are a different issue. This “commenter” might be a bot or possibly someone with some sort of issue. Years ago I experienced a commenter who clearly had some problems; sometimes the comment made sense, other times not. The person stopped coming by, so I don’t know what happened to this individual.
I’ve sometimes had issues following the link to someone’s blog. Seems to be a WP difficulty.
They’re also on IG stories, too many of them.
Just moderate all comments all of the time. This way, their comments cannot become live on your blog.
That happens to me too so I remove their comments or block their site🥰
Not sure, Leanne. I had someone out of the blue commenting on my photos. When I replied with a thank you they went on about me thanking but not following their blog in a really unpleasant way… I left it a that.
Love the softness on your photos, it really works well.
These are stunning flowers…also yeah, bots have been up to that sort of thing for ages. And now we’ve got AI joining in on the party…fun times we’re living in, aren’t they?
I have comments In my spam ? Leanne there is something in your Spain folder everyday. Hope all goes well 🙏 Anita
Perhaps it’s time for an old solution to a new problem? Bots will only ruin your experience if you let them. Accept the inevitable and enjoy.
I guess reporting the spam could train the filter that wp has. Whether that would be effective enough you would know only after a week or two.
There! I got distracted from your lovely photos/
I am all for “botnotical” solutions! I have found that sometimes people may comment on a post, but it is evident they have not really read the content. I will be interested in hearing what people say!
Those comments end up in my spam folder. I never interact with those I am unsure of and this post is proof not to especially when they sprout drivel.
As a start, SPAM the sender. Don’t accept the messages. They have hooks and some are more than mere spam, they are also SCAMs. Be really really careful. There are crooks and conmen all OVER the place and they are smarter than we are.
YES, but they’ve been destroying it for years. I guess some people are just noticing?
Spam? AI? Or?
I turned comments off on my self-hosted site. Have you taken a look at Akismet spam catcher, made by WordPress?
It feels as if an overwhelming portion of my days are consumed by the seemingly never-ending task of purging spam from my blog. This relentless wave of unwanted solicitations also seems to flood my email inbox at every hour of the day. Somehow it bypasses every single spam filter I use, and it is never ending. 🙁
I’ve encountered the same thing with someone who I agreed to follow after she posted some very nice comments. After that, I was inundated with unusual postings and links so I unfollowed her but she continues to, occasionally, post comments to my blog that are, as you’ve described, odd and seemingly not in sync to what she’s commenting on. Very strange!!
GORGEOUS photos here, Leanne. Wow!!
I get very few comments. Maybe that’s because no-one reads my posts. 😉
As always, your photos are fantastic, Leanne! And, I’m not a bot! I’ve never experienced this bot thing and don’t know how they work. I hope this stops, Leanne. Some people are just rotten aren’t they!
Dear Leanne
beautiful pictures. They seem completely different from BW. With colour they radiate more feelings, with BW they radiate more mind (what I prefer).
We haven’t experienced these bots but we have one visitor from Russia who likes nearly every comment the minute it’s published. Hanne-Dina is always very quick to delete strange comments. It’s mostly advertisement in our case. We noticed it has to do with tagging. When we used the tag ‘healing’ f.e. we were flooded with spam. When we stopped using this tag everything went well again.
The Fab Four of Cley
🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂
I would say that it sounds fake. Or if it’s not fake, it’s an abusive individual and I’d report the site to WordPress.
I certainly would want a real person leaving a comment. How else can we strike up a conversation if the reply is nonsense. BTW, I like your layout for the blog. I am still trying out some designs.
Your lotus flowers are beautiful, and show up so pretty with the dark background.
I’ve gotten a few comments that I think are real people, but I get that message that their gravatar ? can’t be found? I don’t know. Mostly I’ll jut say, ‘thank you’, and that’s the end of my responding. 🙂
Forgot to say the photographs are beautiful. I especially liked the one at the top.
I did once have some a series of strange comments on my blog that almost made sense. I responded but thought maybe they were just a strange person. I do sometimes have people liking a comment I have made on your blog (like a recent comment) where I think they are just trying to get noticed. This time it came from (Mens Fashion & Style by Mthobisi). Hadn’t thought they might be bots.
Suspecting and fearing the inner-workings of my own mind, I’m never certain any comments I make are relevant to the post. I doubt I’m a bot.
The problem is annoying, though; and it’s likely, based on the description you gave, you’re dealing with a spam machine of some kind. Which sucks.
Hello Leanne, Gorgeous photos as always! Thanks for bringing up the dreaded bots. I have my comments set up so that I approve the first comment someone makes, then they are automatically approved after that. That is one barrier against bots. If the comment doesn’t make sense, I don’t approve it or mark it as spam. But I agree, the bots are closer and closer approximations to human. Shudder. Good luck weeding them out.
Oh, the lotus images are gorgeous, I can almost feel those petals!
I don’t get many comments (not a big blog or as active as yours) but I do notice more bloggers are using AI to write posts (I follow a lot of RV bloggers since I live in my camper) and they are all cookie-cutter same as far as tone and voice goes. Some might write their own opening paragraph but the rest is just drivel and as a writer by profession (tech and marketing), I find this so sad.
Beautiful photos, as always! I guess it’s a bot. I’m only using Akismet plugin, but my website doesn’t have many visitors at all, so probably doesn’t matter, anyway. 😅 Whichever social media platform you’re at, bots can never be eradicated…
The amount of spam I get is ridiculous, Leanne. I go to the Spam folder every day, don’t even bother to ‘check’ to see if anything is legit and delete it. Only once did I ask a fellow blogger to please get with the WP Happiness Engineers because someone kept commenting on a comment I had left on her blog. She finally had to delete the entire post and that solved the problem. Good luck!