What Are WordPress Drive-By Comments

We probably have all seen them and the more popular your WordPress blog gets the more comment spam you can expect to get. Some are automated comments from spam scripts and some are just from Drive-By comment spammers.

For the automated comment spammers, a basic plugin like Akismet will probably do a decent job keeping your comments clean. There are other, more powerful or configurable spam plugins available if you need them and some undesirable comments are getting through. Keep an eye out though because some of them may get through because they look innocent enough. I have noticed a spike in comment spam from certain Adult sites so if the comment doesn’t seem like it makes sense on your post check the link to see if it’s from an adult content site. Seems as if a new comment spam script was released a few weeks ago. While these comments below look innocent enough, Akismet caught them because of the URL they were linked to was an adult site:

You rock. The World needs more souls like you.

Great post!! I just have to copy it .

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I am amazed at it. It is a good thing for my research. Thanks. ^_^

Some very interesting and insightful thoughts. I like this.

Great article! I’m loving your website;

Those are just a few examples of automated comment spam, now let’s have a look at what I hate even as much and those are Drive-By comments. A Drive-by commenter is someone out to just get links back to their site. They don’t really care about your post and more than likely didn’t even read the post. One of the worst drive-by’s is when the idiot asks a question based on the post’s title but doesn’t bother to find that the answer to his question is actually in the post. I usually just delete these comments but sometimes I will remove his link and then make an example of them by pointing out the answer is in the second line of the post if you actually read it.

Then there are the others that just post, things like “Thanks”, “Great Post”, or this one: “Great review, it makes a fresh change to find an informative blog. Very informative, thanks. Your site is bookmarked.” Bull Crap! The post it was on wasn’t a review of anything and the comment was either an automated script or someone going through a list of blogs and pasting the same Drive-By comment on all of them.

The only reason people are using automated comment scripts and Drive-By comments are because they do show up on some blogs, so stay vigilante and keep your WordPress blog free from the Drive-Bys!