Mark Pilgrim's latest sermon more cynically and eloquently echoes our recent thoughts on stopping comment spam. Here's a few exceptional quotes.
They're rich:
You will be attacked by professionals who have more money than you, more resources than you, better programmers than you, and no scruples at all.
They're big and fast:
[Spammers are] bigger and smarter and faster than you. It's an arms race, and you'll lose, and along the way there will be casualties, massive casualties as innocent bystanders start getting blacklisted.
They're smart and determined:
[Stopping spam is] a full-time job, and everyone will hate you, and it still won't work. Spammers are smart and determined, and people are numerous and stupid, and spam pays. You can't make it not pay.
They're up for a fight:
If you're up for that fight, then take them on, Godspeed. But prepare yourself for the worst, and then imagine something worse than that, and then accept that your imagination is too limited, because it will be so much worse than that.
Our past thoughts:
There certainly exists a point at which spammers will no longer see benefit in jumping the hurdles webloggers erect. But, let's face it, webloggers are in danger of reaching a similar point. How many hurdles will we watch the spammers leap before we lose heart? ... Time will reveal who gives up first.
Update: And now this from Matt Haughey:
Four to five years ago, I used to spend quite a bit of energy on combating spam. I read anti-spammer email lists and newsgroups, I used a spamcop account, and I sent messages daily to every abuse@hostingprovider address I could track down that hosted these bastards. I watched hundreds of other vigilante spam fighters do the same and as we shut down site after site and got person after person cut off from their service, I noticed they kept coming back, only multiplied. Eventually I grew weary of the work I put out that didn't seem to have much impact on the problem and started filtering my spam instead.