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Simon Willison’s Weblog

Banning Google Comments

Russell Beattie has an ingenious solution to the problem caused by weblog un-savvy Google users turning up on old entries and posting comments on them, without properly understanding the nature of the site. He simply displays the page without a comments form if he spots Google in the user’s referrer. I’d be tempted to do the same thing on this site if I didn’t find the comments on my ancient MSN Messenger rant so amusing.

Posted 28th August 2003 at 4:37 am

This is Banning Google Comments by Simon Willison, posted on 28th August 2003.

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5 comments

  1. Ooooh, that would explain a lot. I've been getting a few very, very weird comments lately, most from (surprise surprise) AOL users. I didn't make the Google connection.

    Dave S. - 28th August 2003 06:01 - #

  2. Disabing comments on posts over a certain age does the trick, doesn't it?

    MiMaS - 28th August 2003 08:46 - #

  3. Heh. You're random comments are as enlightening as mine... though mine generates more 4 letter words than yours. :-D Cutting comments off after a certain age is okay, but if someone finds the comment from a permalink on another weblog and actually does have something interesting to add (that's happened) I'd like to see it. So I'd rather just cut off the weirdo comments at their source. :-) -Russ

    Russ - 28th August 2003 10:02 - #

  4. Hmm. Well call me unenlightened, but why is it important to block comments on old stories? It only affects the story in question and not the site as a whole, and a comment doesn't need to be less relevant because it's old..

    But if anyone have any good arguments, I'm all ears..

    Eivind - 28th August 2003 21:29 - #

  5. Yeah, I kind of enjoy the semiclueless comments that come in that way (mine seem to almost all leave yahoo return addresses). One of my favorite comments was something like "Wow, a whole site about Arthur Treacher's Fish and Chips." I'm afraid my whatever-happened-to log post of last year has become Arthur Treacher central. The comments on an old Michael Jackson post are always good for a chuckle too.

    xian - 29th August 2003 08:11 - #

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