Since I grumbled about it a month or two ago, it so happens that I have had very few spam comments sent for approval, most of them having been caught by the filter.  However, what I have had is a vast number of the wretched things from the same sender, in Arabic, to a long-term blogger whose posts I often used to comment on.  She still blogs once in a while, but not very regularly.  The thing is, I subscribed to comments on each post at the time and therefore I get the unfiltered spam and have to delete it and unsubscribe from the post.  You might think this isn’t a big issue but there are sometimes dozens in a day.  I had over two hundred in four days last week – two hundred posts I unsubscribed from, that is, some had several comments each.  Some of the posts concerned went back six years or more.  I have left a comment on a recent post asking her to do something about it – on Blogger, you can have posts sent for moderation after however many days you choose.  I suspect she doesn’t have notification of comments herself, though, as there’s been no response and she has blogged since.

I check most of my mail on my phone, because it’s simple and efficient – I can either send a brief, swift answer, delete or file it or make a mental note to visit the computer: it means I spend less time at the computer (where nowadays I’m mostly to be found just for blogging purposes, I don’t have the amount of paperwork to deal with that I used to).  So finally I went there and started marking all these as spam.  It didn’t seem to have got through when I did so on the phone, but finally they’ve got the message.  But now, all Blogger blogs that I’ve subscribed to comments on have them marked as spam.

*Sigh* – still, at least I can check them there, delete the rest en bloc and spam isn’t pinging into my inbox in the early hours any more.

I check my own spam folder once in a while before clearing it, just in case anything genuine has slipped through – the first time anyone comments it comes to me for moderation, otherwise it only does if it has a link that the filter is anxious about.  And they range from nonsense to nasty-looking links to fulsome compliments, non sequiturs or insults.  And, in two of those categories, these were my favourites of the recent ones –

For the insult – and  non sequitur too, it has nothing to do with the post it’s commenting on:-

Clot – I think you could start a quite successful business, writing and selling anti-greeting cards to be sent to people that someone despises. You have a gift for dark tidings. I would buy a bunch to send to just about every politician.All true on Long Island unfortunately. We moved there for a job opportunity and the best I can say in its defense is that the traffic is second worst on the planet (Los Angeles). You forgot to add that it has the crappiest collection of overpriced homes known to mankind. NJ is paradise compared to L.I.

I laughed at being roundly called a clot, I admit.

For the flattery:-

This design is wicked! You definitely know how to keep a reader entertained. Between your wit and your videos, I was almost moved to start my own blog (well, al8Hts&#m230;oaHa!) Excellent job. I really loved what you had to say, and more than that, how you presented it. Too cool!