The Pharyngula spam queue is…empty! It has never been empty since the move to FtB, so it’s a noteworthy event.
Just so you understand, the filters catch obvious spam — people selling shoes, for instance — and also banned commenters and comments that use racist/sexist slurs and comments that have more than a certain number of links. They’re held in a queue for 30 days, and if I don’t approve them, they’re destroyed at the end of that time.
What this means is that it’s been 30 days without some jerk trying to leave abusive comments on the site, or some banned user testing the waters to see if I’ve spontaneously decided that their previous behavior was forgiven (I do not forgive). Maybe they can learn!
I’d check to be sure the spam filter is functioning correctly first. As someone in IT, I can tell you that if something suddenly starts working right then it’s probably just working wrong in the other extreme.
@Alverant:
“Wow honey! The car sure gets great gas mileage all of a sudden! We’ve driven 100 miles and the needle has barely strayed from the F!”
“Are you sure it’s not just that the gauge is busted?”
“Honey, why do you have to rain on my para…awww shit! We just ran out of gas!”
Yeah, that sounds more like something’s broken.
It’s hard enough to believe that UCE spammers would suddenly stop trying to sell you things, and even harder to believe that the obsessive trolls would suddenly all learn their lesson. But both happening at once? That definitely would be a miracle, the kind that could not be explained by natural processes.
If it is genuinely empty, then you must be doing something wrong!
There is only one thing in life worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about.
Sounds like it’s time to desecrate another Jesus cracker.
;-)
There is no rational explanation for this phenomena; it is INDEED A MIRACLE! HALLELUJA! Pass the wafers, more wine!
Can’t you see the Hand of God when the light shines so brightly and more bullshit?!
Mabus really cannot access a computer?
Some genius has made a font that, as an inherent property of the font itself, replaces overused corporate and internet buzzwords with a black bar reading “bullshit”. No code or additional processing required – the font simply can’t display any blacklisted phrase. Although if you copy and paste into some place with a different font, you’ll see the original text.
http://www.sansbullshitsans.com/
They also documented how they did it, and it doesn’t sound too hard to make a version with a different list of banned phrases. It sounds like a fun way to frustrate trolls, if every time they tried to type “feminazi” it came out “bullshit”. I’d be willing to do the work if there was any interest in actually using such a font here…
My initial response would be to agree with Alverant – something seems wrong.
That said, do you want me to go sign you up for something heinous?
Perhaps the spammers are just getting more subtle… unlike how un-subtle my new penis is. The growth I received from these pills is amazing!
What happened to Comma?
Quick! Somebody write something in Spamish.
Oh. And what’s the difference between “Notify me of follow-up comments by email” and “Notify me of followup comments via e-mail. You can also subscribe without commenting”. (Those are two of the tickybox choices that follow the Reply box.)
Did the 30 days get changed to 30 minutes, or 30 seconds?
Hey, PZ Meyers. I like your post. You know what I like even more? Making 2000 dollars a week working from home. For real, my best friend told me about this website and I’m making more money than I could dream of from my living room couch! And did you know a house wife really made doctors mad when she discovered THIS AMAZING TRICK to lose 50 pounds, regrow all your hair, and increase the size of your penis by 5 inches? CLICK HERE TO FIND OUT!!!
@9: Spouse and I (who both survived over 30 years in Big Tech) just spent several minutes laughing ourselves silly, typing in stuff like we heard in dozens of corporate pep-talks over the years. Thank you for making our day ;-).
I’m pretty sure it’s still working just fine. rq’s link-loaded posts show up there every day, waiting for me to approve them. It’s only empty of real spam and abuse.
It’s gonna be huge, when Spamgate finally breaks.
Sans Bullshit Sans is a wonderful idea.
Did someone say Spam?
http://youtu.be/cdpsfBsN_Dg