E-Scribe News : a programmer’s blog

About Me

PBX I'm Paul Bissex, and e-scribe.com is my consulting business. I build web applications using open source software, especially Django. In the '90s I did graphic design for newspapers and magazines. Then I wrote technology commentary and reviews for Wired, Salon.com, Chicago Tribune, and lots of little places you've never heard of. Feel free to email me.

Book

Python Web Development with Django I'm co-author of "Python Web Development with Django", an excellent guide to my favorite web framework. Published by Addison-Wesley, it is available from Amazon and your favorite technical bookstore as well.

Colophon

Built using Django, served by Apache and mod_wsgi. The database is SQLite. The operating system is FreeBSD, on a VPS hosted at Johncompanies.com. Comment-spam protection by Akismet. Vintage topo imagery from the Maptech archive. The markup engine is Markdown.

Pile o'Tags

ajax apple blogs browsers business design django ebay fp fun google hardware haskell intellectual property iphone javascript linux media mercurial mobile open source os x oscon oscon2007 palm php programming python rails rants reading risks ruby site spam textmate the well tips tools unix vcs web development web frameworks webservers wmassdevs

Stuff I Use

Akismet, del.icio.us, Django, dpaste.com, Emacs, FreeBSD, Freenode, jQuery, LaunchBar, MacPorts, Markdown, Mercurial, OS X, Postfix, Python, SQLite, Subversion, TextMate, Trac, Ubuntu Linux, wmii

Spam Report

At least 70644 pieces of comment spam killed since January 2008, mostly via Akismet.

Spam, del.icio.us spam

Like every other web site/service/app/community/thingy that allows individual user contributions, there's spam on Delicious too. The perp I came across today was "mcloan" -- check the page out for yourself -- and there are many more. Fred Stutzman has a good post on the subject, and I came across an exchange with naive Delicious spammers on Brian Dear's weblog from last year.

But what's Delicious/Yahoo doing about this? Where's the Craigslist-style "flag this user as a spammer" button?

Wednesday, September 27th, 2006
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4 comments

Some related posts: Comment Spam Stats • Library of 1000 scammy spams • I hate those SitePal ads • Is Akismet broken again? • I filled up my GMail box • Akismet anti-comment-spam • RapidWeaver spamming vulnerability • More on "Splogs" • Fixing Web Spam • Google blog search
• Comment from Fazal Majid , later that day

I asked them the same question in April, the official method to report a spammer is to send them an email to support@del.icio.us. A Craigslist-style approach would be much more manageable, of course.

• Comment from Paul , later that day

Thanks, Fazal -- I sent in a report.

• Comment from Paul , later that day

And I got a reply about three hours later, saying "That does look like spam, and we're taking care of it now." Not gone yet though.

• Comment from Man , 2 years later

I don't think delicious take spam seriously at all.

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