Some people are of the opinion that a reader and/or commenter should be completely unaware of the anti-spam measures that bloggers put into place. However, sheltering the readers from the problem of spam is like sheltering a child until he comes of age and then releasing him into the wild to fend for himself. Readers shouldn’t know of spam and it shouldn’t be their problem too; but it is.

The Reason Spam is a Reader’s Problem Too

1. A Reader’s Comment May Be Moderated

One of the reasons a reader’s comment is moderated (besides potential censorship) is because of spam. LegalAndrew reiterates a point from the Blogopreneur that moderation is the number one killer of blog conversations. This point alone has forced me to reevaluate the position of RA Project and the moderation of first-time comments.

2. A Reader’s Comment is Rejected by a Spam Plugin

On my personal blog, several readers personally e-mailed me saying that they were unable to comment and couldn’t figure out why. I had a combination of Spam Karma and Bad Behavior running in the background and I was virtually spam free. However, the thought of commentators being blocked from commenting was irritating. I tried adjusting my Spam Karma settings ad infinitum to no avail. It seemed that my most frequent commenters were the ones being blocked. The last message I want to get across to my readers is that the more you comment, the more you get blocked by my spam filter.

I had Spam Karma and Bad Behavior installed for several months and there’s no telling how many comments I lost because of it.

3. A Reader’s Comment May Be Flagged As Spam

When a legit commenter’s comment is flagged as spam, it is known as a false positive. Akismet is highly effective at flagging spam, but every once in a while a legit comment gets marked for destruction.

Having a comment being marked as a false positive isn’t a bad thing necessarily. All the blogger has to do is to wade through the Spam box and dig the comment out. However, this isn’t really practical when there are thousands of pieces of spam. It’s like trying to find a jewel at a garbage dump. The legit comment might literally be lost in the filth of spam.

4. Spam Free-For-All

Some bloggers don’t have anti-spam measures in place and just let spammers take over. Shame on those bloggers. And shame on the hosts that allow spam blogs.

What is the Solution to Spam Then?

If I could figure out the solution to spam I would be a multi-billionaire by now. Spammers are adaptive, capable, and smart. A solution that works today may not work tomorrow. I plan on going over some anti-spam techniques for WordPress in a later post.

Conclusion

It would be nice to keep our readers sheltered from the ugliness of Spam. Unfortunately, it is pretty much impossible to keep our readers from experiencing spam’s negative effects.

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