# Bloggers. Is it just me, or is it common to get strange comments from russia? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [September 21, 2009, 7:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bloggers-is-it-just-me-or-is-it-common-to-get-strange-comments-from-russia/510977 "2009-09-21T19:16:09Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Lobsang](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobsang/32/4067_2.png) [@Lobsang](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobsang)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2009, 7:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bloggers-is-it-just-me-or-is-it-common-to-get-strange-comments-from-russia/510977/1 "2009-09-21T19:16:09Z")
Or more specifically, bad english comments from people with a .ru email address? The latest I got was on my ‘Fallout3 Keep the game alive’ blog post. I’ve deleted it now, so I can’t remember the exact words, but it was something like “cool [notails.com](http://notails.com) googlereader!!” Is it just me? Is it specific to wordpress bloggs? Is it something I should worry about? ---
**Author:** ![Markxxx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5daacb/32.png) [@Markxxx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Markxxx)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2009, 7:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bloggers-is-it-just-me-or-is-it-common-to-get-strange-comments-from-russia/510977/2 "2009-09-21T19:39:08Z")
Are they relevant comments or just words? If the comment seems to be relevant to the discussion the commenters are probably using Google Translator (or another such tool) and often the words come out “a bit off” If they are random stuff it’s spam ---
**Author:** ![Colophon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f05b48/32.png) [@Colophon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colophon)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2009, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bloggers-is-it-just-me-or-is-it-common-to-get-strange-comments-from-russia/510977/3 "2009-09-21T19:59:05Z")
Hi! Interesting post! This happening lots time in web! Thank you for sharing [mybigbadspamsite.ru](http://nolink) 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Lobsang](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobsang/32/4067_2.png) [@Lobsang](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobsang)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2009, 8:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bloggers-is-it-just-me-or-is-it-common-to-get-strange-comments-from-russia/510977/4 "2009-09-21T20:00:34Z")
> [@Colophon](#): > > Hi! > Interesting post! This happening lots time in web! > Thank you for sharing [mybigbadspamsite.ru](http://nolink) > 🙂 Exactly like that! ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2009, 8:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bloggers-is-it-just-me-or-is-it-common-to-get-strange-comments-from-russia/510977/5 "2009-09-21T20:00:39Z")
In America, you get spam from Russian posters. In Russia, you get spam from Russian posters! What a country! ---
**Author:** ![Lobsang](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobsang/32/4067_2.png) [@Lobsang](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobsang)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2009, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bloggers-is-it-just-me-or-is-it-common-to-get-strange-comments-from-russia/510977/6 "2009-09-21T20:01:42Z")
In soviet russia, Spam gets you! ---
**Author:** ![filling\_pages](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/b9bd4f/32.png) [@filling\_pages](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/filling_pages)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2009, 8:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bloggers-is-it-just-me-or-is-it-common-to-get-strange-comments-from-russia/510977/7 "2009-09-21T20:07:15Z")
I’ve been getting a run of comments in Asian characters. I assume they’re spam. I delete them, but it’s a pain, so I have comment moderation on my blog for right now. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2009, 8:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bloggers-is-it-just-me-or-is-it-common-to-get-strange-comments-from-russia/510977/8 "2009-09-21T20:27:11Z")
If it’s got links in, it’s probably not just spam trying to generate traffic from people clicking it, but it may also be search engine manipulation - among the factors influencing page rank in Google are the number and diversity of inbound links from other sites. ---
**Author:** ![HorseloverFat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/8e8cbc/32.png) [@HorseloverFat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HorseloverFat)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2009, 9:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bloggers-is-it-just-me-or-is-it-common-to-get-strange-comments-from-russia/510977/9 "2009-09-21T21:12:17Z")
They are gaming google’s url weighting system. your site has a high pagerank so by dropping [myspyware.com](http://myspyware.com) in your comments it will raise their pagerank. Sometimes its testing to see if they cracked your captcha and automated posting. ---
**Author:** ![Lobsang](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobsang/32/4067_2.png) [@Lobsang](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobsang)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2009, 9:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bloggers-is-it-just-me-or-is-it-common-to-get-strange-comments-from-russia/510977/10 "2009-09-21T21:17:44Z")
I don’t have a captcha but I do have moderated commenting. Their comments never make it onto my blog. Does my blog really have a high page rank? Or are you just saying that for the sake of the argument being discussed? If it _does_ have a high pagerank a) sweet! b) I don’t know why or how. ETA: My blog is a wordpress blog. I don’t think it uses captchas. Does WP have a captcha widget? And if not how do I implement captchas? If I had a captcha there would be less need to have moderated commenting switched on. I’ll go google that question now. ---
**Author:** ![HorseloverFat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/8e8cbc/32.png) [@HorseloverFat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HorseloverFat)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2009, 9:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bloggers-is-it-just-me-or-is-it-common-to-get-strange-comments-from-russia/510977/11 "2009-09-21T21:28:18Z")
They might not be looking specifically at your blog. Theyre probably googling for postcomments.cgi or whatever wordpress uses and spamming all the ones they can find. ---
**Author:** ![Freudian\_Slit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@Freudian\_Slit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Slit)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2009, 9:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bloggers-is-it-just-me-or-is-it-common-to-get-strange-comments-from-russia/510977/12 "2009-09-21T21:33:07Z")
> [@filling\_pages](#): > > I’ve been getting a run of comments in Asian characters. I assume they’re spam. I delete them, but it’s a pain, so I have comment moderation on my blog for right now. I, and a bunch of other blogs I frequented, got a rush of those a while back. It was like five or six of my posts and I noticed it on other people’s posts, but it stopped happening. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2009, 11:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bloggers-is-it-just-me-or-is-it-common-to-get-strange-comments-from-russia/510977/13 "2009-09-21T23:57:08Z")
> [@Lobsang](#): > > Does my blog really have a high page rank? Doesn’t matter - if it’s indexed by Google, then Google would see any links there pointing to their site and that would falsely inflate Google’s understanding of their site’s popularity. Sure it works better for them if they create inboind links on a popular site, but it still has some effect from less popular ones. ---
**Author:** ![Wile\_E](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c37758/32.png) [@Wile\_E](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wile_E)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2009, 12:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bloggers-is-it-just-me-or-is-it-common-to-get-strange-comments-from-russia/510977/14 "2009-09-22T00:02:30Z")
From Russia, with spam. I don’t know if it’s possible to block addresses on a blog but I’d block the .ru ---
**Author:** ![Reply](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/reply/32/15952_2.png) [@Reply](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reply)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2009, 12:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bloggers-is-it-just-me-or-is-it-common-to-get-strange-comments-from-russia/510977/15 "2009-09-22T00:34:10Z")
> [@Lobsang](#): > > ETA: My blog is a wordpress blog. I don’t think it uses captchas. Does WP have a captcha widget? And if not how do I implement captchas? If I had a captcha there would be less need to have moderated commenting switched on. > > I’ll go google that question now. Yeah, definitely. [Use it and love it](http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wp-recaptcha/). ---
**Author:** ![minor7flat5](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/minor7flat5/32/258_2.png) [@minor7flat5](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/minor7flat5)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2009, 12:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bloggers-is-it-just-me-or-is-it-common-to-get-strange-comments-from-russia/510977/16 "2009-09-22T00:35:19Z")
By far the most common spam I get is great huge blocks of text—dozens and dozens of lines—filled with hyperlinked drug names and other typical spam subjects. These are so easy to spot as I’m sifting through “suspected spam” since they are so amazingly huge and there are no line breaks. I get occasional Russian spam, sometimes in Russian. I once asked a friend from Moscow what they say, and the comments she read were friendly and flattering, but they still had their typical links to spam sites. I’m also using WordPress. Let us all know what you find for a captcha solution! ETA: Thanks, **Reply** , I’ll check it out.