Blogger Magic - Comment Moderation Settings

If you publish a blog, and want your readers to comment, you need to decide whether to moderate comments.

Comment moderation, applied properly, help you to keep abusive and spam comments off your blog. If you want to publish a blog, and have real people commenting, you need to keep spam comments off the blog. People won't comment, if they have to compete with spam.

If you want to publish a blog, and allow Blogger Hosted comments, you really should moderate. If you don't moderate, prepare to remove spam comments after they are published. Remember that Google+ Hosted comments are moderated by the community.

You setup moderation, for Blogger Hosted comments, from the dashboard Settings - "Posts, comments and sharing" page.

Under "Comments", you have "Comment Moderation", with 3 settings.

• Always.
• Sometimes.
• Never.

Moderation settings are in the Settings - Posts, comments and sharing page.



Moderate Always.

Every comment, published by somebody who is not an administrator or author, will be moderated.

With "Always" or "Sometimes" selected, moderated comments will be sent to each email address listed in "Email moderation requests to".

Select "Always", "Sometimes", or "Never".



You - or whoever is addressed under "Email moderation requests to" - will have the ability to moderate from the email message received. You, or any blog administrator, can moderate from the dashboard Comments - "Awaiting moderation" page.

Moderate Sometimes.

You can selectively moderate comments for older posts, with newer posts not subject to moderation.

If you select "Sometimes", you provide a moderation threshold.

Here, we are set to moderate all posts older than 14 days.



Every post subject to moderation will receive the treatment, selected for "Always". Every newer post, not subject to moderation, will permit any comment to be published immediately.

Moderate Never.

Any comment, submitted to be published, will publish immediately.

Dashboard moderation offers three options.

With every comment listed in the dashboard Comments - "Awaiting moderation" page, you have 3 options.

• Publish.
• Delete.
• Spam.

Once one of these options is chosen, for any comment being moderated, you'll have similar - but not symmetrical - options.

EMail moderation offers similar options.

With each comment moderated by email, you'll have 3 similar options.

• Publish.
• Delete.
• Mark as spam.

Select "Publish", "Delete", or "Mark as spam".



Besides moderation, you can select CAPTCHA verification.

Besides moderation, you can reduce spam, using CAPTCHA verification. If selected, all non administrators and authors will be subject to CAPTCHA verification.

If not selected, anybody commenting anonymously - and not signed in with a Google account - will still be subject to CAPTCHA verification. The "Show word verification" setting applies to comments posted with the publisher properly authenticated.

Right now, the CAPTCHA used is a word puzzle - and has received mixed reviews.

The bottom line.

As a blog owner, you should choose a comment moderation policy - if you allow Blogger Hosted comments.

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If you allow #Blogger Hosted comments on your blog, you need to choose a moderation policy. Moderation is essential, to reduce spam, and encourage comments by actual blog readers.

Using A Killfile, To Filter Blogger Comments

We periodically see hopeful - yet naive - requests from blog owners, in Blogger Help Forum: Learn More About Blogger, asking about comment moderation improvement.

How do I add a disruptive commenter to a killfile list - and never see his/her nonsense ever again, without moderating every comment, being published?

This would be a popular feature - if it could be provided, in any way that would achieve results.

Using a killfile, to filter disruptive / malicios commenters, is not a likely possibility.

Anybody who does not want to be identified can comment as desired.

It is not possible to reliabily identify a comment publisher, who does not wish to be identified.

• Blogger / Google identity.
• IP address.

Disruptive individuals can't be identified, with any chance of success. Anybody who wants to publish comments can do so, using multiple accounts, and / or IP addresses.

Both Blogger / Google accounts and IP addresses can be easily cloaked.

Using either multiple Blogger / Google accounts - or IP addresses - is a trivial exercise for anybody who is determined enough to persistently publish unwanted comments.

Given the impossibility of identifying people who don't provide effective identification, Blogger is unlikely to provide a feature that would accomplish nothing - and possibly interfere with legitimate commenting.

The only solution for blocking unacceptable comments will always involve collaborative, fuzzy filters, trained by each blog owner.

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Some #Blogger blog owners would like to use a killfile, to filter unacceptable comments. They don't understand that anybody who wants to persistently publish disruptive or malicious comments can easily mask their identity - and make killfile use an exercis in futility.

Confusion From Comments And The CAPTCHA

This week, we're seeing complaints from quite a few angry blog owners, in Blogger Help Forum: Get Help with an Issue.

Why do I have to solve a CAPTCHA, to comment on my own blog?

and

Everybody sees a CAPTCHA - even if they are logged in to Blogger!

Previously, the CAPTCHA was visible only to those not logged in to Blogger, or to those wishing to comment, anonymously.

It appears that the full page and popup window comment forms were updated, possibly to make the CAPTCHA form more usable, for those blog readers who are using a computer subject to filtering of "third party" cookies.

The CAPTCHA appears to be always required.

The effect that we are now seeing is that the CAPTCHA appears to be required, for all comments, when the full page and popup window forms are used.

In some cases, even with the CAPTCHA displayed, you can publish without solving.

• If you are authenticated, the reCAPTCHA, though displayed, may not require solution.
• If you are authenticated, and a blog member, neither the ezCAPTCHA nor the reCAPTCHA should require solution.

In either case, simply compose and Publish your comment.

People who wish to publish anonymously will always have to solve a CAPTCHA.

Unfortunately, people who are publishing anonymously will still need to solve the CAPTCHA. The non optional reCAPTCHA, which gets displayed, is not as easy to solve as the optional ezCAPTCHA.

Cookie filtering, once again, may be part of the problem.

To increase the confusion, people using a computer where "third party" cookies are filtered will be treated as if they are publishing anonymously, and will have to solve the reCAPTCHA. Some people, who think that they are properly authenticated, will find out otherwise, if they try to publish a comment without solving the CAPTCHA.

Continuing to cause confusion, in some cases, comments entered may simply vanish, if the CAPTCHA can't be displayed when necessary. This, is another consequence of cookie filtering.

If You Must Moderate Comments Passively, Moderate Frequently

Not all Blogger blog owners understand that they must take responsibility for the comments that are posted on their blog.

We see signs of naivete, in Blogger Help Forum: Get Help with an Issue.

Why do I get so many spam comments, against my blog?

and

Why was my blog deleted? I always remove spam comments!

These blog owners do not understand that spam comments need to be removed promptly, marked as spam - not removed when convenient, or maybe just deleted.

Some blog owners let people comment anonymously, because it encourages communication, and brings them more readers - and moderate after comments are published, because it's more convenient for them, and again, encourages communication. They do not realise that the easier that you make it for people to publish comments, the more spammers will appreciate the open policy.

If you encourage comment spammers, by providing them a blog where they can publish their spam, even temporarily, you are leaving your blog vulnerable to spam classification, and to more spam comments.

If Blogger were to allow passive moderation without penalty, this would encourage more spammers to publish blogs, allow unmoderated comments, and provide a place where their friends can publish their spam without penalty. This would let spammers train the filters to be more spam friendly.

Given more spam friendly filters, more spammers would setup operations in Blogger - and give Blogger a well deserved reputation as a spammer haven. And legitimate blog owners would go elsewhere.

Blogger has to protect legitimate blogs - and the readers of legitimate blogs - by discouraging irresponsible passive comment moderation. Blog owners cannot let their need, to accumulate more readers, allow spammer activity.

If you must let people publish comments without moderation, and occasionally moderate published comments, you have to moderate frequently, and mark and remove published spam comments, before more spammers are encouraged to publish, on your blog. If you are moderating passively, and you start to see a steady flow of spam comments, this is a sign that you are not moderating often enough.

The more spam comments that are published on your blog, and the longer spam comments remain on your blog after publication there, the greater exposure that your blog will have to classification as a spam host. The question whether any resulting spam classification should be considered righteous, or spurious, is debatable.

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Confusion From Email Spam Detection, And Non GMail Email

We're seeing a few reports in Blogger Help Forum: Something Is Broken about problems with email, sent by Blogger, when the destination is a non GMail email system.

Some email systems verify the sending email address, against IP address. With these systems, email which originates from a Blogger account that's based on a non GMail email address, and comes from a Blogger / Google IP address, is going to present a problem, to the account owners.

If your Blogger account (your readers Blogger account) is based on a non GMail email address - and your blog provides any of various "notification" / "subscription" services, this can be a problem.

• "BlogSend" (aka "Email posts to") based subscriptions.
• Comment moderation or notification email.
• FeedBurner feed distribution, such as "Subscribe by Email"
• Your readers like to comment authenticated, and select the "Email follow-up comments ..." option.
• The Blogger supplied "Contact Me" accessory gadget.

You're going to have email "bounced" by some (non GMail) email clients. This will be a similar problem, if a reader sends you email - or Blogger relays you email based on your reader request, as in comment notification or contact form entries.

Note that "bounced" email may not be treated as spam. Some "bounced" email never gets as far as a spam filter - it may simply be rejected. You will look, in vain, in "Bulk", "Inbox", and "Spam" folders.

Blogger originated email, to certain email clients, will be bounced, because Blogger sends the notification / subscription email with your Blogger account (your readers account) mentioned, as the sender.

With Blogger comment moderation / notification email coming from a non GMail based Blogger account, and sent from a Google IP address, an email client such as AOL, HotMail, or Yahoo, which verifies email address against IP address, is going to reject the incoming email message. This is because "Sender Policy Framework", which AOL, HotMail, Yahoo, and other email systems use, detects the originating address as "spoofed".

Spoofing is a common technique used by spammers, in hiding their email identity. Most email based spam is spoofed - so email systems, which use DKIM or SPF filters to identify spam, will bounce any messages which do not verify properly - when IP address and originating email address are compared.

The problem may also involve comment subscription email. This may result in bounce messages being sent to the person attempting to publish a comment. This causes more confusion.

The solution, to the problem with moderation / notification email, is simple - but unlikely to satisfy many Blogger account owners. You will have to use a GMail email address, for comment moderation or notification. Until Blogger Engineering figure a better way to send the moderation / notification email, email clients such as AOL, HotMail, and Yahoo will have this problem.

If the blog owner changes ownership of a blog, from a non GMail based Blogger account to a GMail based account, and neglects to change the comment moderation / notification email address, the bounce messages will likely continue. What might happen with comment subscription email is yet to be determined.

This problem, as discussed above, affects the comment moderation process. While annoying to some blog owners (as noted, those using non GMail based Blogger accounts / email addresses), the problem is not all that severe. Affected blog owners can use the Blogger dashboard Comments wizard, to moderate comments. Also, blog owners, who moderate comments after they are published, may not even notice this problem.

This problem may also affect membership invitations to private / team blogs This will be a more severe issue, in that this problem will affect all blogs with owners using non GMail email addresses, and with prospective blog members on large non GMail email systems - because there will be no dashboard based wizard - and no possibility of moderation after publishing.

The involvement of Google Apps based (non "gmail.com" Google email) Blogger accounts, and Blogger originated email, is yet to be studied. Also please note that Blogger account email addresses, and comment moderation / notification email addresses, do not have to be the same - and this may cause still more confusion.

Comments And Layered Security

One of the most common complaints, seen regularly in Blogger Help Forum: Something Is Broken, involves publication and visibility of comments.

Why can't I publish comments, on some blogs?

or

Why can't I see my comments, after I publish them?

or even

Why do my blog posts show no comments?

These are questions asked by blog readers and owners, alike. The answers all start with security filters and settings.

Security filters and settings affect the ability for you, and your readers, to use commenting, on your blog.

Comment Form Style

The majority of the problems, with commenting and filters, involve blogs which use the Post Page ("Embedded") comment form. Use of the embedded form requires third party cookies, on the reader computers.

The Full Page form is least vulnerable (though not totally so), of the 3 form styles. Embedded, Full Page, and Pop Up comment forms are all vulnerable, to differing extents, because of the different blogs, that attract different reader populations, each with differing abilities and needs to maintain security on their own computers.

The problems with comments involve the clients (ie, the blog readers), their computers, and their choices, reacting to the options chosen by the blog owners.

Security Accessories

Every different computer, accessing the Internet, has a different combination of security accessories. Every different security accessory will have its own filters - and be subject to updates, by the provider. And every different filter will be triggered, from time to time, by different components in the various Blogger (and Google+) comment scripts.

The commenting process - and accompanying security problems - involves many different details, besides comment form placement.

The blog URL, and the geographical location of the reader, will trigger filters. Both blogs subject to country code alias redirection, and those using custom domain publishing, will be affected by filters, in different ways. Both involve blogs not accessed as "blogspot.com".

Commenting Options

Authentication options, which are selectable by the blog owners, will vary.

• Anyone (no authentication required).
• Google / OpenID account.
• Google account only.
• Blog members only.

Within those 4 levels of authentication, the blog reader will have 1 to 3 choices. Each of those choices (by the blog readers), combined with each of those options (chosen by the blog owners), will involve different sections of code.

Besides the authentication choices and options, there are options (for the blog owner) to include CAPTCHA verification, and to include comment moderation and notification. Again, different sections of code will be involved.

The different sections of code involved will trigger different filters.

Comment Moderation

Besides the per blog choice to include comment moderation, the real time per comment choice of the blog owner, is to publish (or not to delete), or to not publish (or to delete) any given comment. This filter leads to the subject of community moderation, and training of the collaborative and heuristic filters, for Blogger hosted comments.

The community moderation filters provide automatic moderation of Blogger hosted comments - and the need for active moderation, by the blog owners.

Google+ Comments

The choice of Blogger hosted comments, vs Google+ hosted comments, provides one more option, to the blog owners.

Blogs which use Google+ hosted comments use community moderation, and free the blog owner to spend more time on blog content. Google+ hosted comments provide real time relation based filters, where the publisher of any comment can designate who will be allowed to view the comment, providing filters which are relevant to the comment publisher.

Cookies and Scripts

Each separate section of code can trigger different script filters - and may require different cookies, which may or may not be present and accessible to the Blogger scripts. Both cookies and scripts are essential parts of Blogger code, which are vulnerable to different security filters at different times.

The mysterious vanishing comments is just one consequence.

Use Of Supported Browsers And Computers

Some people prefer to ignore the crowd, and to use browsers and operating systems that nobody else knows about.

Individuality is good, in general - but in the world of web applications such as Blogger, use of unsupported browsers and computers may bring frustration. Blogger simply can't support all browsers and computers, with equal attention to the oddities presented by each one.

The End Result

The various filters involved cause comments to be published (or not), to remain published (or be deleted), and to be visible when published (or invisible). Many of these details are transparent, to the casual blog reader - until there is a problem.

These details may help to explain the apparent random nature of Blogger blogs and commenting - why comments, posted to some blogs, appear without problem - while comments, posted to other blogs, may never appear, or be invisible.

With Google+ Based Comments, Moderation Is By Community

With Blogger based comments, only the blog owner is allowed to report abusive comments published against their blog.

You are free to classify or delete comments posted against your blog - but comments posted against somebody else's blog are their business, and their opinion.

With Google+ based comments, moderation is a community exercise. Anybody, seeing an abusive Google+ hosted comment or post, is able to "Block" and / or "Report abuse".

You, the blog owner, have no special responsibilities or rights, with regard to comments posted by someone else, against your blog.

Comment moderation is a community responsibility, with Google+ posts and comments, and with Google+ based comments against Blogger blogs.

• You cannot, unilaterally, declare a comment to be abusive.
• You have no need to spend your time reading comments, and deciding if they are abusive.

Any Google+ member, seeing an offensive post, can mark it.

Everybody has the ability to mark any Google+ post - or Google+ based Blogger comment - as abusive. You can do this, against your blog, as well as against someone else's blog.

You, being a blog owner, have no unilateral decisions to make, to delete or to mark any Google+ post or Google+ based Blogger comment - even if the Google+ post mentions your blog (Google+ based Blogger comment is against your blog).

You can't view every comment or post - even if your blog is mentioned.

If a Google+ post or Google+ based Blogger comment is not published to the public, by someone who has not circled you, you won't even see that post or comment. With this lack of visibility, community based moderation is the only possible solution.

You have no need to read each comment, one by one, and decide if it is abusive. This eliminates the need for individual moderation - and allows all comments to be published, immediately. As a secondary effect, this encourages more comments.

You can spend more time working on your log - and let your readers moderate.

Since you don't need to spend your time reading comments, you have more time to work on your blog. This gives your readers better / more content to read, and encourages more search engine traffic. More search engine traffic leads to more readers, and more comments. Eat, sleep, rave, repeat.

Community based abuse classification allows more accurate and prompt feedback, into the Blogger / Google abuse classification processes. This may help reduce the volume of spuriously classified blogs, reported in Blogger Help Forum: Something Is Broken

Why was my blog deleted? I don't spam!!

As a secondary effect, Blogger Policy Review may be able to more promptly review the blogs that are reported.

The CAPTCHA Sucks - But It Does Zoom

I have yet to see anybody who loves - or even likes - CAPTCHA ("word verification") screening. Several weeks ago, I noted a distinct drop in comments here, so I removed it from this blog. I am not the only blog owner to do just that.

I do note that it is a bit - just a bit - easier when it is larger. Both Chrome and Firefox use the Zoom key

Ctrl +

to make text larger. And the CAPTCHA form zooms, the same way.

A quick 1 - 2 - 3 hits of Ctrl + makes the CAPTCHA larger, and I find maybe 25% easier to read. It still sucks - but Zoom makes it suck slightly less. Whether it truly stops scripted hacking - even with the new form - remains to be seen, though.

The Many Faces Of Spam Classification - And Varying Consequences

Many blog owners and readers are completely unaware of the many ways our AdSense, Blogger, GMail, and Google accounts, our blogs, and our forum activity, are subject to spam classification - and the various consequences that we may suffer, when we trip a spam classification threshold. Questions in Blogger Help Forum: Something Is Broken are seen daily.

Why was my forum account locked?

and

Why do my comments go straight to the Spam tab, on my friend's blog?

and

Why am I seeing ominous messages about "suspicious activity" on my account, when I sign into Blogger or GMail?

These are but 3 examples of the questions, that we deal with, almost constantly.

Spam classification, by Blogger / Google is a collaborative, fuzzy, and ubiquitous process, which affects all aspects of our use of Blogger and Google services. Each different Google service may produce input into the spam classification process - and each service may be differently affected, when we are (righteously, or spuriously) classified as a potential spammer, by another service.

Some services may use automated classification or detection - and others may use user contributed abuse reports. When user contributed reports are used, collaboration - either by multiple users, or automated or manual verification by Google staff - is involved. A single, accidental click on a "Report Abuse" link will not cause a problem.

Some automated classification processes, on the other hand, may result in false positive detection. We are repeatedly advised that Blogger cannot whitelist your blog. The volume of spam content in Blogger requires immediate locking of all suspected spam blogs, with spuriously classified blogs being unlocked after review.

There are a few common sense ways that we may reduce the chances of many blogs being classified as suspected spam hosts.

Here are 3 services, which we use in publishing and viewing, and asking for help about publishing and viewing, various Blogger blogs.

Causes of spam detection

• Blogger account / blog
  • Spammy content.
  • No content, and clone detection.
  • Linking to spammy content.
  • Comments repeatedly flagged as "Spam", by other blog owners.
  • Use of URL obfuscation services, such as "gooo . gl", "bit . ly", or "spaam . ru".
  • Excessive posting volume.
  • Suspicious / Unusual account activity.
• Forum account
  • Post floods.
  • Spammy links, or excessive signatures in posts.
  • Similar to spammy commenting, advertising one's blog / web site in forums where it is not considered appropriate or relevant.
• GMail account
  • Brute force login attempts, using hijacked computers, supposedly controlled by Net based neighbours.
  • Repeated login retries, by the account owner, which can look like brute force login attempts.

Consequences of spam detection

• AdSense account
  • Deleted / suspended AdSense account.
• Blogger account / blog
  • Locked account.
  • Deleted blogs.
  • Comments going straight to "Spam" tab.
  • Having to solve a CAPTCHA to publish posts.
• Forum account
  • Cleared / deleted discussions list.
  • Frozen / deleted accounts.
  • Frozen / reduced forum Level.
  • Loss of custom forum icon.
• GMail account
  • Deleted / locked GMail account.

Other Google services will have other causes and consequences, too - and the combinations of the various causes and consequences are almost infinite. The Blogger Help Forums - and the various other Google Support forums - will remain in business for a very, very long time.

Blogger Does Not Censor Comment Content

Periodically, in Blogger Help Forum: How Do I?, we see a naive query.

How do I report a person who posts nasty things, in comments, on my blog?

And the unfortunate response here is

You can't report unwanted comments. There is no comment censoring agency.

Blogger considers comments to be protected as freedom of speech. Outside of moderation for spam - which is a collaborative activity - comments are up to you, the blog owner, to treat as you please.

You, the blog owner, may choose what level of authentication to require, from each commenter.

• Anyone - includes Anonymous Users
• Registered Users - includes OpenID
• Users with Google Accounts
• Only members of your blog

You, the blog owner, may choose how to moderate each non spam comment.

• Moderate before publishing.
  • Delete
  • Publish.
• Moderate after publishing.
  • Delete.
  • Don't delete.

Those are your choices. Blogger won't censor, nor do they accept reports about, undesirable content.

Since Blogger leaves these decisions to the blog owners, Blogger also won't un censor content. There's no comment review process, similar to spam review, where they re activate comments when properly requested by the would be comment publisher.

If you post comments which are not appreciated by the owners of the blogs where you post your comments, and you end up labeled a spammer, that's your problem which you must bear.

Like blocking specific viewers, blocking specific commenters, who choose to make unwanted comments, will be as productive as a game of Whac-A-Mole. Blogger chooses to not play that game.

Moderate the comments on your blog, because Blogger won't do that for you. Moderate, and help train the filters. Don't moderate, and accept the decisions made by other blog owners.

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The Need To Comment, Anonymously, Has To Remain A Possibility

Not all blog owners understand the need for people to post anonymous comments, against our blog posts. Periodically, in Blogger Help Forum: How Do I?, we see the naivete expressed by some.

How do I find out who is posting anonymous comments to my blog?

These people do not understand the need for anonymous commenting.

You, as a blog owner, have the ability to select the level of authentication, to be required of anybody preparing to post a comment to your blog. For "Who Can Comment?", we find the selection list

1. Anyone - includes Anonymous Users
2. Registered Users - includes OpenID
3. Users with Google Accounts
4. Only members of this blog

People who wish to comment anonymously, yet provide a "Name" / "URL" to link back to their Blogger profile, or their blog / website, may do this at their discretion. Anybody doing this provides no guarantee of being genuine, however.

If you allow "anonymous users" to comment, then people who wish to comment anonymously need to be assured that their privacy will be respected. You can gather demographic data about your blogs visitors - and you may infer specific details about individual commenters - but the relevance of that policy will be limited by the precautions exercised by your commenters.

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Blogger Commenting, And Social Networking Relationships

Every week, we see the anguish

How do I get user xxxxx blocked from commenting on my blog?

because many people enjoy FaceBook and Twitter, where there is no spam, and no unwanted comments. They think that Blogger comments should be controlled, as social networking like FaceBook and Twitter are controlled.

With FaceBook, each person controls their own Wall, and their own neighbourhood. With Twitter, each person decides exactly who they wish to Follow, and sees tweets from only those folks that they follow. Neither FaceBook or Twitter encourages you to open up your neighbourhood to the world; both allow you to establish each contact, one by one, at your discretion.

With Blogger commenting, you are encouraged to allow anybody - or anybody with a required level of authentication - to comment on your blog. This encourages freedom of speech, and extends your neighbourhood far beyond the walls that you setup with FaceBook and Twitter. Some commenters, and other readers of your blogs, may later become part of your FaceBook and Twitter neighbourhoods - but at their discretion, as well as yours.

With both FaceBook and Twitter, any established account has some implied value, which is a function of the size of its neighbourhood. Nobody can use a FaceBook or Twitter account for persistent spam, because people control their own neighbourhoods. If offended, they can easily discontinue a FaceBook or Twitter contact. There is no real anonymity in either FaceBook or Twitter - each contact there is identified and validated, by its neighbourhood of contacts.

With Blogger, anybody can setup one or more Blogger accounts, for posting comments on any blog that permits comments. A Blogger account has no value, equivalent to a FaceBook or Twitter account. A Blogger account won't be identified, or validated, by its neighbourhood of contacts.

The owner of any blog has a few options, as to what level of anonymity may post comments.

Who Can Comment?

• Anyone - includes Anonymous Users
• Registered Users - includes OpenID
• Users with Google Accounts
• Only members of this blog
• (For private blogs) Only members and readers of the blog.

Beyond those 5 choices, there is only the Blogger heuristic comment filter, which has to be persistently trained, by each blog owner. You, as the blog owner, moderate either actively or passively. You allow / disallow / tag as "spam" before publishing comments, or you delete / don't delete / tag as "spam" after comments are published. That's the choices that you have, as a blog owner.

You cannot negatively filter comments, by blocking specific individuals. If you were to add a filter for one individual, the owner of the filtered Blogger account could setup another account, and pester you from that account, with impunity. They could even use multiple different accounts, using botted computers, if they wished.

When you publish a Blogger blog and allow commenting on your Blogger blog, you open yourself to the world. For good, or for bad.

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Keep Malicious Content Out Of Your Blog

Every day or so, we see reported from concerned bloggers, about unknown content in their blogs.

Where did those ads come from? I didn't add them!

or

How do I keep this other blogger from posting porn links in my blog?

As we add content to our blogs, and make them fun, interesting, and shiny, to attract readers, we risk adding undesirable content. This is a constant problem.

The bad guys are out there - and the more fun, interesting, and shiny your blog is, the more it's likely to have readership, reputation, and value.

The more readership, reputation, and value that your blog has, the more attractive it is to the bad guys. And the bad guys have various ways to attack a given blog.

• Malicious Comments
• Malicious Posts
• Malicious Accessories
• Malicious Blog Members
• BlogList / Feed Gadgets

Malicious Comments

One of the easiest way to add third party content to your blog is from allowing comments.

Comments are contributed by people who, at best, you simply do not know. Any content from someone who you do not know can always be malicious, or obnoxious in some way.

Some blog owners will try to identify and block individual commentors. I will continue to insist that anybody who you should fear will not be bothered greatly by anything that you can do here.

You absolutely must moderate comments, or risk having a blog known for hosting malicious links - or worse.

Malicious Posts

Besides comments, posts are a constant concern. If you have a team blog, you have to be able to trust the other members in the blog.

Post moderation, using post editor to publish, isn't an option. Anybody who you make an author can publish what they feel like publishing. You can only moderate posts after they are published, when using post editor.

An alternative to using post editor to publish is Mail-to-Blogger, where contributions are emailed to the blog. If Mail-to-Blogger is setup to publish straight to the blog, and the bad guys figure out your MTB account and password, you'll have malicious content a plenty.

You can moderate before publishing, using Mail-to-Blogger.

Malicious Accessories

Any time that you install third party accessories of any type, you are placing your blog at risk.

Don't be overly paranoid - you have to make your blog interesting to your readers. But do keep the risks in mind.

This is similar to layered security for your computer, which is a related concern here.

Malicious Blog Members

Sometimes, possibly having unwisely installed a third party accessory, the install process may have enabled the addition of an unknown member to the blog. The unwanted content may be added by the attacker, using this unknown blog member.

If none of the above advice offers you an explanation for the existence of unwanted content, check your blog member list.

BlogList / Feed Gadgets

Occasionally, we may Follow a blog where the owner will later decide to try to get more traffic to the blog, and will redirect the blog feed to a cloud of random blogs. If you are Following such a blog, or have such a blog in your BlogList or Feed gadget, you'll see your BlogList or Feed gadget show odd content - and frequent spam.