WordPress.com

1. demonweed
   Member
   Dec 19, 2008, 7:33 AM

   For a few weeks now, I've been unable to post comments under my identity to any WordPress blog that is not my own. Initially I thought one specific blogger banned my comments, but attempts to comment in several places this evening confirm that it is something else entirely. Submitted comments simply vanish, not even appearing as pending in my comments panel when submitted to blogs that screen commments.

   I never received any sort of notification of a suspension or other problem. In fact, though the last comment I did successfully post was born of drunkenness, in hindsight I see no rudeness or even strong argument in it. Have I run afoul of some peculiar glitch, might I have inadvertently gimped myself through some settings change, or is this some sort of censorship working as intended?

   FYI, I favor FireFox as a browser, sometimes I can be long-winded, and I had no difficulties posting comments until a time a few days after the latest U.S. Presidential election.

2. lizii
   Member
   Dec 19, 2008, 12:24 PM

   You're probably being marked as spam. Contact the owners of the blogs you're commenting on and ask them to fish your comments out of spam. Eventually akismet will learn.

3. demonweed
   Member
   Dec 19, 2008, 2:05 PM

   Hrm. I'm not filtered out of my own blog, and my comments rarely fail to be topical and substantial. On the other hand, the morning of that election, I did offer a lighthearted jest to one of those "Obama is an aspiring Muslim tyrant who will not rest until every American adult is compelled into a same sex marriage" nutbars. Presumably that dyspeptic propagandist was in an especially foul mood when my comment was encountered. Is it possible just one abuser of the system could mark me as a spammer in the eyes of akismet? If so, that seems like a serious design flaw to me (and also, if so, isn't there some way that abuse of process can be dealt with so the problem user's failure to distinguish between comment moderation and spam filtering doesn't continue to degrade akismet's performance?)

   Of the various bloggers who have received my comments, there is only one I know how to reach through means other than comments. I will pursue support from that blogger, but this "eventually" notion worries me. If I need to have comments fished out of numerous spam piles, I might have no recourse (unless coordination through the forums could facilitate sufficient comment validations.) Incidentally, looking through my own spam folder, I found a comment from a persistent heckler that I've filtered out. I suspect the incoherent venom spewer I meant to screen has also run afoul of a trigger happy akismet, since his ravings prior to the most recent turned up in the moderation queue where they belong.

   In any case, thanks for the response. It does seem like a sound theory, and hopefully I can resolve this issue in a reasonable amount of time.

4. demonweed
   Member
   Dec 28, 2008, 12:20 PM

   For what it's worth, my comment capability has been restored. I suspect I got a response by using a feedback form at askimet's site, though since I didn't notice fellow bloggers pulling any of my comments from their spam bins. I just thought I'd mention it here in case anyone else is having a similar problem recently.

Topic Closed

This topic has been closed to new replies.