Frank recently started a new service: SpamReporter.com.
It’s a nice idea but I see a few problems with it.
- SpamReporter itself open to spamming. If the spammers start spamming SpamReporter with a bunch of legitimate blogs, the information in it will be useless. Maybe using a Captcha or something would help.
- I’m not sure I see how the blog search engines could use this data. Just because a blog is marked as spam by someone doesn’t mean it is really spam. Maybe the more “spam votes” a blog gets would reduce it’s relevancy or something, but I’m just not sure how much sense that makes.
- If this data is publicly available, the spammers will be able to use it too. As soon as they find out one of their spam blogs is on the SpamReporter list, they just start up a new free blog.
I hate to criticize a well-meaning project, but hopefully my suggestions can make it a better service.
[...] What’s all the fuss about Blogger.com and other free blogging services? Well there is talk of banning such free blog site from the major blog search engine directories (MSN, IceRocket and others) due to the increasing levels of Blog Spam from some users. This is not good news for legitimate blog users who will also be excluded regardless of their good integrity.The Splog Reporter set up by Frank Gruber aims to encourage blog owners to report "Splog" (Blog Spam) on their new site, as of August 2005. I have to agree with Toivo Lainevool about how easy the Splog Reporter’s "Report A Splog" web form could be high jacked by unscrupulous Spambot programs and ruthless people who may report legitimate web sites just for the fun of it. On the other hand I welcome any person or organization working to fight against Spam.Maybe with a lot of feedback Frank will be able to develop this site into something extraordinary. This is a mammoth task to undertake and with time should prove to be a huge success in the online community. You can read more about the attack of Splogs Mark Cuban’s blog. [...]