For the last couple of months, this weblog and many others have been targeted by organized and automated comment-spamming, whereby comments containing links are attached indiscriminately to just about every entry in the archive. These comments, links and originating websites are generally pushing an assortment of prescription drugs, variations on poker and other casino games, and sexual perversions of truly outstanding vileness. There appears to be a profit being made somewhere, something to do with inflating the trackback numbers or referrer logs for the sites, but in the case of “The Daily Brief” that would be money down the drain.

Somewhere, somewhere in the blogosphere there might remain a site or two which has not figured out how to block or delete the comment spam, and plugs for texas-hold-em poker, cut rate cialis and improbable perversions are roaming free and untrammeled across the archives. This site is not one of them, thanks to 1) Sparkey’s timely installation of comment spam filters, and 2) constant updating of the list of keywords which automatically dump a comment into the holding bin for review.

I am not going to be specific about the words which kick a comment into the holding bin, since I don’t want to make it easier for the spam comment trolls to contravene the list, but be assured that assorted references to card games, prescription drugs and particular 4-letter words included in a comment will put that comment into the holding bin until I get around to reviewing them for approval. And sometimes a comment just winds up there anyway…. But if your comment does not immediately appear, don’t panic. It hasn’t been eaten. It will appear eventually.

Curiously, the comment-spamming seems to be entirely automated— even though no more than one or two comments have appeared (for a very short time, and gone as soon as I am aware of them) whoever is doing this is still trying. There were over 950 spam-comments which they attempted to post during an eight hour period starting at 10 PM last night, a new overnight record. I anticipate hitting the 1,000 comment level very soon, and until something or someone puts these jokers out of business, comments at “The Daily Brief” will continue to be lightly moderated.