One drawback to a WordPress plugin.
Back in November, I wrote a post about a new plugin I’d installed on my two main blog-based sites: Maria’s Guides and An Eclectic Mind. The plugin is called CommentLuv and it automatically retrieves and displays a link for the last post a commenter added to his or her blog. Here are some examples from the post I wrote about CommentLuv, where I invited people to try it out.
The idea behind CommentLuv is to encourage people to comment by automatically linking back to their blog. I think it’s a great idea — when used by people who have real content to contribute in comments.
On the surface, CommentLuv is extremely attractive to spammers who keep blogs. Not only can they include a relatively normal looking comment with a link to their blog when they enter it in the Web site field of the comment form, but they also have an automatic link to their most recent work. Two links for the time it takes to post one, right? And that second link can give readers an idea of what their blog is all about by including the title of the most recent post.
What these people don’t seem to realize is that the CommentLuv link is created with a “nofollow” attribute. So if they think they can improve search engine optimization (SEO) by adding links to their sites on the sites they comment on, they’re wasting their time. The links are not recognized by Google or any other search engine or automated tool.
But what I’ve seen lately is a number of the same people coming back, again and again, to post comments like “Great post! I’ll keep checking in.” These comments usually appear on recent posts and, with some commenters, they appear several times a week. This gets past my spam prevention software and ends up on my blog.
While most people wouldn’t mind the added comments with their apparently complementary content, this isn’t content. It’s spam. There’s nothing being contributed to the site other than two free links for the commenter. So I delete these comments regularly.
Now I’m not suggesting that you avoid CommentLuv. I still think it’s a great plugin. But I do want users to be aware of its attraction for spammers. On a popular blog, installing CommentLuv could add about 10 minutes a week to your spam maintenance routine — after all, you have to manually decide whether a comment is legitimate or posted solely to attract hits for the commenter’s blog. Adding a regular abuser to your blacklist might be a good course of action.
Want to learn more about WordPress? Check out WordPress 2: Visual QuickStart Guide by Maria Langer and Miraz Jordan, published by Peachpit Press. It’s available from Amazon.com and in all major bookstores.
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11 responses so far ↓
1 Matt Ellsworth // Jan 2, 2008 at 6:29 pm
personally i like the plugin. I find it adds some more personalization to the comments. you are correct about the nofollow - however some blogs use a dofollow plugin that removes the nofollow both the comment link and the comment luv link.
Matt Ellsworth’s last blog post..Godaddy Cash Parking Case Study - Part 2
2 Slevi // Jan 10, 2008 at 12:23 pm
I don’t make use of the plugin myself, mainly because I didn’t really find a nice way of integrating it into my blogs design. But outside of that I don’t think the plugin is too bad, since you’ll get comments like those already anyways for various other reasons.
In example having a dofollow plugin or people just wanting their link in their name, etcetera.
Slevi’s last blog post..What’s your excuse to blog
3 roger // Jan 31, 2008 at 6:03 am
but some people are not just interested in the seo aspects and just want to get more people to see their last post :) and get more click’s to their site, i have it installed on one new site and think it’s great especially for a new site ok if you get a few spammy comment’s whatever at least it get’s the REAL readers thinking that your site is popular!
4 Alejandro Reyes // Feb 12, 2008 at 1:30 pm
I’m DEFINITELY going to use this plugin on my blog.
i think personalization is the key as matt said earliear!
Alejandro Reyes’s last blog post: Ranking 1st in Google or Dominating the Search Engines?
5 widarta // Feb 25, 2008 at 3:08 pm
Is CommentLuv plugin fetch the rss of our blog ?
And if true, what rss fetcher used by this plugin ?
The best rss and simple rss fetcher i think is simplepie.
easy to modify for what we need.
widarta’s last blog post: PSPad Editor
6 Chauncy // Mar 29, 2008 at 3:28 am
Spam is the reason we invented “delete” buttons :)
Chauncy’s last blog post: Merry International Earth Hour Day
7 Jan // Apr 18, 2008 at 10:47 am
I am not so familiar with the web but having just started a new site i found this plugin and i do hope it bring me some benefits.
Jan’s last blog post: What to Look for in an Affiliate Program before Joining
8 Junior // May 14, 2008 at 1:26 pm
I think this is one of the best or if not the best plugin created for wordpress at the moment. It will surely give you a traffic boost.
Juniors last blog post..Google Adsense Profits Mixed In With Affiliate Marketing
9 acakadut // Jun 12, 2008 at 12:19 am
I just tried this plugin on my blog. well, spammer or not at least this plugin can improve our blog “activity” ;)
acakaduts last blog post..XToMe 1.0.2.120
10 allan // Jun 24, 2008 at 6:34 am
Yes my blog got spammed to death, just like you say. They keep coming back and posting so much, its unreal and unmanagable. I got rid of commentluv. I don’t luv the commentluv no more.
11 Andreas // Jul 27, 2008 at 8:45 am
Great article or as we say in Austria:- endlich einmal ein lesenswerter Artikel!
Andreass last blog post..SEO Plugin für Wordpress
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