My Opera Development

Behind the scenes at My Opera

Spam filtering comments

By Andreasdigmed. Friday, July 20, 2012 11:16:16 AM

, ,

On My Opera we unfortunately have to deal with spam, just like any other blogging site. We're continuously trying to find new ways of preventing spam, especially where the spam is most noticeable for our users.

One of these places is in the comments of your blog and albums. You may have experienced getting a comment on a blog post or image that had nothing to do with the post or image content, maybe even with an email address or a link to another website. This is usually what we call "comment spam", and to prevent this we're now running all comments through a spam filter. Comments marked as spam will be hidden, with a message that the comment has been marked as spam and is awaiting moderation.

Example: The blog or album owner is the only one who can see the original comment, and will have to mark the comment as "not spam". If the comment is spam, the owner of the blog or album can choose to delete the comment.

Example:
We'll probably have some "false positives", meaning that a few legitimate comments might be marked as spam. This is unfortunate, but thankfully all you have to do if your comment is marked as spam is to wait until the blog or album owner sees the comment and marks it as not spam.

If you notice any bugs with this, please report them in the My Opera: Feedback, questions and discussions forum.

Webcam support on My OperaImproving spam-detection for comments

Comments

Tamil Friday, July 20, 2012 11:50:42 AM

http://files.myopera.com/Tamil/Smilies/Good.gif -

Can we have similar one for forum posts?

Lorenzolor74cas Friday, July 20, 2012 12:35:14 PM

yes

Andreasdigmed Friday, July 20, 2012 1:16:28 PM

Originally posted by Tamil:

Can we have similar one for forum posts?


We have a different spam filtering system for the forums, as forum spam usually is quite different from comment spam. The forum spam filter is still considered a work in progress, as there's still too much spam slipping through the filter.

QuHno Friday, July 20, 2012 1:56:49 PM

Thanks for that smile

2 may be silly questions:

Can we just delete them if they are spam or does that interfere with the spam filter?

Will marked spams be counted|shown in the subscriptions count in the page header?

Mad Scientist (عادل)qlue Friday, July 20, 2012 4:14:52 PM

party .
This is a welcome change! yes .

Uncle MickMickeyjoe-Irl Friday, July 20, 2012 4:14:56 PM

http://files.myopera.com/Tamil/Smilies/Yahoo.gif -
Great news. Comment spam was getting to be a real problem.

I assume that comments from registered and unregistered users are all filtered the same.

Suntana Friday, July 20, 2012 5:19:46 PM

Cool! AWESOME! http://files.myopera.com/Tamil/Smilies/Clap.gif -

I've never really had a problem with that.
But, I do definitely see it on the Choose Opera Blog, the MOTW threads and I think on this Blog. And it does irritate me to infinity and beyond seeing it.

Words Friday, July 20, 2012 6:29:04 PM

Excellent idea!

Abhinavdecodedthought Friday, July 20, 2012 8:15:18 PM

up

Mimis Mum (MM)mimi_s_mum Friday, July 20, 2012 10:41:58 PM

Thank you very much for you hard work and this new measure yes

Originally posted by Tamil:

Can we have similar one for forum posts?

The following is what I have suggested elsewhere. Would be great if the team could put it into consideration

Originally posted by mimi_s_mum:

Please implement a "Report" trigger. When a new user is reported for spamming a certain number, the account is temporarily banned and their forum posts hidden until reviewed by a moderator. This would be especially effective to fight the spammers who target the time/day when Opera staff is not active, like right now.
(Originally posted on "Please help us fight spam by reporting "clever" forum spam!" forum thread)


Mad Scientist (عادل)qlue Friday, July 20, 2012 11:37:47 PM

And perhaps you could tweak the spam filter to include comments that have @yahoo.com somewhere in the post? Even when it's from a 'registered' user. rolleyes .
They get reported pretty quickly, but the comments stay up for several hours before disappearing. awww .

Uncle MickMickeyjoe-Irl Saturday, July 21, 2012 2:15:13 AM

Originally posted by qlue:

And perhaps you could tweak the spam filter to include comments that have @yahoo.com somewhere in the post?


9 out of 10 spammers recommend using Yahoo mail... or so it seems lol

selurus Saturday, July 21, 2012 7:29:57 AM

This feature is long awaited.
Also I've noticed getting notification for new comments however on visiting the post I find no new comments. I'm guessing it was probably spam. so i think it will be better if new comment notification are sent once the comment is published.

Uncle MickMickeyjoe-Irl Saturday, July 21, 2012 12:43:21 PM

Originally posted by selurus:

so i think it will be better if new comment notification are sent once the comment is published.


Good point up

Rafael Luikrafaelluik Saturday, July 21, 2012 11:31:25 PM

You made this change and ok, it's great... smile
But I'm unable to report a spammer now.

It commented on my blog and your filter didn't get it, so it's appearing there. I went to the spammer profile and clicked "Report" but it says "This user has been recently reported", leaving me with no actions...

I can simply delete the comment but that way I won't contribute with improvements to your filter in any way. The comment is still there:
http://my.opera.com/rafaelluik/blog/show.dml/51036212#comment93171962

Tamil Sunday, July 22, 2012 12:13:28 AM

Originally posted by rafaelluik:

I went to the spammer profile and clicked "Report" but it says "This user has been recently reported", leaving me with no actions...

This is to prevent duplicate reports.

QuHno Sunday, July 22, 2012 8:39:05 AM

Another small problem: If the account of a SPAMmer, who posted to the albums, got deleted by one of the moderators, the subscription count doesn't reflect that.

There seemed to be a SPAM comment to this image from an account ( hfhwjs4455 ) that had been deleted before I saw it - but it still showed up on my subscription page and in the subscriptions count.

Dark FurieFurie Sunday, July 22, 2012 1:37:13 PM

Originally posted by Mickeyjoe-Irl:

Originally posted by qlue:

And perhaps you could tweak the spam filter to include comments that have @yahoo.com somewhere in the post?


9 out of 10 spammers recommend using Yahoo mail... or so it seems lol

They also recommend sending a photo as they so adore the profile they read on *robot voice* Op-eraaaa dot com

Rafael Luikrafaelluik Sunday, July 22, 2012 1:45:49 PM

Originally posted by Tamil:

Originally posted by rafaelluik:

I went to the spammer profile and clicked "Report" but it says "This user has been recently reported", leaving me with no actions...

This is to prevent duplicate reports.

But other person certainly reported a comment that was in another place. Will the comment on my blog be marked as spam also and go away? That was my doubt...

Tamil Sunday, July 22, 2012 2:08:04 PM

Originally posted by rafaelluik:

But other person certainly reported a comment that was in another place. Will the comment on my blog be marked as spam also and go away? That was my doubt...

All comments by the spammer will be deleted.

Mad Scientist (عادل)qlue Sunday, July 22, 2012 2:32:56 PM

Originally posted by Tamil:

All comments by the spammer will be deleted.


It has happened that some get missed! awww .
Not a problem if the Blog owner comes along and deletes it, but some people are not always around. left

Tamil Sunday, July 22, 2012 2:42:13 PM

Originally posted by qlue:

It has happened that some get missed!

There are various level of ban. In that case, kill comments option was not used.

Johnoldephartte Monday, July 23, 2012 3:02:53 AM

Would this explain receiving a note of a comment on a post...and finding nothing ?

QuHno Monday, July 23, 2012 11:27:17 AM

yes, it does.

Mimis Mum (MM)mimi_s_mum Monday, July 23, 2012 7:26:22 PM

Originally posted by qlue:

Not a problem if the Blog owner comes along and deletes it, but some people are not always around.

Or some people are only member of the group and don't have the right to delete spam comments at the group site. sad

Mimis Mum (MM)mimi_s_mum Saturday, July 28, 2012 5:03:48 AM

A comment by a friend, an innocent one line, 'OK ... I reckon I'm not used to NZ winters.' was somehow "automatically marked as spam".

He is a well respected long time user and has commented at my site literally hundreds of times before. He often made multiple comments to a single photo in response to my reply as we exchanged our opinions on it.

It was the third comment by him in 24 hours to this particular photo. I and my friends exchange many comments about our photos. If posting only 3 comments in a day triggers a positive, that kind of algorithm will severely hampers our photo sharing. I hope that is not the case.

SuntanaLab Sunday, July 29, 2012 2:58:15 AM

Okay, suddenly I don't care for this Spam Checker.
Now all of a sudden, apparently ANY comment I make ANYWHERE using my "Suntana" Username gets flagged as Spam. bomb furious

That's why I am here under my "SuntanaLab" Username because otherwise, this comment would have been flagged as Spam.

SuntanaLab Sunday, July 29, 2012 2:59:24 AM

So, why is my Suntana Username blacklisted as a Spammer?
What gives?

Mimis Mum (MM)mimi_s_mum Sunday, July 29, 2012 5:16:25 AM

Originally posted by SuntanaLab:

So, why is my Suntana Username blacklisted as a Spammer?

Is that you, Chuck!? scared no

It appears to me those making more than a certain number of comments at other users' sites within a short period are automatically marked as spam by the new spam filter. See my post above.

To Andreas & the team. Some of us do consider my.opera.com as the first choice blogging site. Please do not punish us active users for being active. sad


[Update | 05:35 UTC]
A comment I'd made at my own blog 10 munites ago was automatically marked as spam. Luckily I was able to mark my own alleged spam comment as Not Spam. It is obvious there is something very very wrong with the current spam filter algorithm. sad

Swapnil RustagiSwapnil99pro Sunday, July 29, 2012 7:47:22 AM

"This is unfortunate, but thankfully all you have to do if your comment is marked as spam is to wait until the blog or album owner sees the comment and marks it as not spam."

What do you about the Desktopteam blog?

This comment http://my.opera.com/desktopteam/blog/show.dml/51304502?startidx=50#comment93545402 is still awaiting moderation.

Suntana Sunday, July 29, 2012 10:28:53 PM

Testing Testing Testing One Two Three
Uno Dos Tres

Suntana Sunday, July 29, 2012 10:38:49 PM

Heyyyyyyy! I've been removed from the MyOpera Slammer.
I've been released from the ranks of Spamming Riffraff.

Yes, MM, SuntanaLab is me as well.
True, I WAS at that timeframe having a pretty active chatting exchange with 2 friends there at my SuntanaLab Test Blog while logged on with my Suntana Username. But well, if they're going to flag us as Spammers for engaging in genuine, Non-Riffraff, pretty active, fast-moving chat in a short time frame, that's going to make for quite a Pterodactyl in the Ointment situation. It's going to discourage chatting.

Aadil made the observation that well ... I DID use the B Word! yikes
no no no WAIT! Not THAT B Word.
I'm talking about another B Word.
You know ... left right B --- A --- B --- E http://files.myopera.com/Tamil/Smilies/Scared.gif -
OMG! What a bad influence criminal I was. http://files.myopera.com/Tamil/Smilies/ROFL.gif -

But, who knows? Aadil might have a point.
It WAS right around right after I used THAT B Word that suddenly anything I commented anywhere was flagged as requiring Moderation.

MAN! I KNEW I should have used "Chick" instead. http://files.myopera.com/Tamil/Smilies/LOL2.gif -

Mimis Mum (MM)mimi_s_mum Sunday, July 29, 2012 11:25:44 PM

Welcome back, Chuck cheers

I think there is a bug in community software somewhere that triggered this. Otherwise we would all have been marked spammers within a day of new spam filter release. Forum search is not working either, so definitely something is not right in there.

Originally posted by Suntana:

I DID use the B Word!

What is that, baby? p

SuntanaLab Monday, July 30, 2012 3:35:01 AM

Grrrrrrrr! Apparently I spoke too soon.
I've been given detention again. bomb
That's why I'm having to log in as SuntanaLab again.
Again, it was in the middle of active commenting.
But, well, if we get limited to a certain amount of comments per x amount of time, that's gonna bite.

Mad Scientist (عادل)qlue Monday, July 30, 2012 6:15:37 AM

Originally posted by SuntanaLab:

Grrrrrrrr! Apparently I spoke too soon.I've been given detention again. That's why I'm having to log in as SuntanaLab again.Again, it was in the middle of active commenting.But, well, if we get limited to a certain amount of comments per x amount of time, that's gonna bite.


sherlock Hmmm! Perhaps it's your tendency to add three or more comments after another before any other comment has been made by someone else? left .
And I know that the spam filters of most forums etc. do look for certain key words that are commonly used by spammers. (and "babe" is definitely one of those words!)

Mimis Mum (MM)mimi_s_mum Monday, July 30, 2012 6:27:49 AM

Originally posted by qlue:

Perhaps it's your tendency to add three or more comments after another before any other comment has been made by someone else?

That itself shouldn't be a problem, though. You could be replying to multiple people.

There's some more bugs since Friday. "Quote" doesn't include mark up any more, including line breaks. The flash photo uploader is broken. And as I mentioned before, forum search and related functions such as My topic, Today's posts are not working, either.

SuntanaLab Monday, July 30, 2012 1:04:57 PM

This is reminding me of a scene in some Kris Kristoferrson movie where he played a dirty Sheriff. He pulled up to a Bar. Things were all rowdy. Kris' character goes, "Well, sounds like someone is having a lot of fun. We can't have that. I'll put a stop to it." http://files.myopera.com/Tamil/Smilies/LOL.gif -

That's about the equivalent of what's been going on here on MyOpera the last 2 or 3 days. A couple of friends engage in some rowdy, but NON-Furniture Breaking fun and BAMM! The Sheriff comes over and puts a stop to it.

I guess I'll go test Suntana again and see if he's been let out. They'll probably put a Leg Monitor on him though. http://files.myopera.com/Tamil/Smilies/LOL2.gif -

Suntana Monday, July 30, 2012 1:08:55 PM

Testing

SuntanaLab Monday, July 30, 2012 1:13:03 PM

SEE?
Tomorrow July 31 I have to release a date-sensitive Post under my Suntana User Name. It's gonna infuriate me if I miss the deadline because the Spam Detector has me unjustifiably locked up.

zrafatdjmd1 Monday, July 30, 2012 3:08:36 PM

I love to be considerated a 'false positive' spammer now and then. Sure! whistle

Mad Scientist (عادل)qlue Monday, July 30, 2012 4:30:28 PM

Originally posted by mimi_s_mum:

"Quote" doesn't include mark up any more, including line breaks. The flash photo uploader is broken


That sounds like the typical case of old bugs re-appearing after an 'update' to the site code! rolleyes .
pssst This could sometimes be caused by the wrong copy of source code been used when applying new patches! left .

walterbugscout Tuesday, July 31, 2012 7:21:05 AM

pirate

Mimis Mum (MM)mimi_s_mum Thursday, August 2, 2012 9:14:29 AM

My comment is marked spam again! cry (This may get the same treatment, too sad)

netwolf Thursday, August 2, 2012 5:28:58 PM

@Mimis Mum: the really great thing is that you still get notifications for comments that are marked as spam doh

Mimis Mum (MM)mimi_s_mum Thursday, August 2, 2012 9:16:10 PM

Originally posted by netwolf:

get notifications for comments that are marked as spam

You'll need to go back again and again until the comment gets unmarked (proven innocent) or deleted (guilty devil) Mine got unmarked about 10 minutes after posting.

It would be good if the notification is delayed and sent out only when a marked comment is unmarked/proven innocent.

Mad Scientist (عادل)qlue Friday, August 3, 2012 4:27:04 AM

Originally posted by mimi_s_mum:

It would be good if the notification is delayed and sent out only when a marked comment is unmarked/proven innocent.


+1
That is how it is on Wordpress and other blogging platforms! up .

Dark FurieFurie Saturday, August 4, 2012 3:30:12 PM

Poor Sunny, caught in the act. wink

Suntana Saturday, August 4, 2012 7:47:16 PM

I guess now I can upgrade my User Name to The Dark Sunny now that I have graduated into nefarious MyOpera activity. Muhahahahah!

Mimis Mum (MM)mimi_s_mum Saturday, August 4, 2012 8:33:50 PM

When you get marked, you can actually add another comment straight below that without a consequence. A kind of proves this is a bug.

Originally posted by mimi_s_mum:

It would be good if the notification is delayed and sent out only when a marked comment is unmarked/proven innocent.

Having said that, I realise the current notification is useful in letting the blog owner know. Otherwise your innocent comment could be stuck forever in the false positive void if the blog owner has a habit of not checking often.

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