I have a few consistent commenters on this blog. Most of them I’ve known for quite a few years and they’re pretty popular commenters on the blogosphere as well. And yet, some of them have an interesting problem.
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They’re comments have been showing up in my spam filter, and spam filters of other blogs they comment on. They didn’t do anything wrong as far as they knew, and as far as I knew either. One day their comments were showing up fine, the next day and every time after that they were going to spam.
Now, I do have some settings where some people are going to go to spam. One too many words in the name field, email addresses that begin with certain words… that’s where you’re heading. If I’ve named you as spam and added your IP address, you’re going to spam. But that’s not what was going on with these folks.
A couple of weeks ago I decided it was time to check something out. I was talking to Brian at Hot Blog Tips about it and I asked him to send a comment to me using his smartphone. He did and his comment showed up without going into the spam filter. He thought that maybe it was coming from a different IP address.
I then wrote our buddy Adrienne about it in the private message area of Facebook and asked her to try the same thing. It worked for her as well. However, when I looked at her IP address I noticed it was the same as her normal comments, and when I looked at Brian’s I noticed the same thing. So it wasn’t the IP address.
But I had the mind working well at this juncture. I asked Adrienne to pull up a different browser and send me a comment. She did and it went through; yippee! I told her it worked and asked her which browser she normally used, and she said Chrome.
I then reached out to Brian and asked him to try leaving a comment on my blog using a different browser. At the same time I asked Mitchell Allen if he’d try leaving a comment on this blog using a different browser as well. Both of them did & their comments came through just fine.
What browser were they all using? Chrome! In my mind, it was a pretty good experiment and possibly the reason so many people were ending up in spam filters around the world! Well, that might be dramatic, but one of my friends is in India and he always goes to spam, and I’m not sure which browser he uses.
 via Compfight |
Now, whenever I see something like this that looks like a pattern, I always go to Google to see if there’s anyone else mentioning it. There were lots of topics that looked like it, but they were all talking about something else. So maybe I get to scoop them all! 🙂
Meanwhile, Adrienne decided to try something else first. What she did was uninstall Chrome, reboot her computer, run her antivirus program, reload Chrome, and try again. This time her comment came through perfectly; problem solved.
The only question would be what’s in Chrome that could be affecting so many people? Well, there’s a second question, which is what if it’s not just Chrome users this is affecting? Anyone else who shows up in the spam filter isn’t a regular writer, at least yet, so I don’t know if the initial problem could happen with other browsers and could be solved by switching.
So, this is a twofold testing question for all of you. One, if you notice that your comments, or the comments of someone who comments on your blog often, seems to be going into the spam filter, ask them to try a different browser to see if their comment comes through fine. If it does, ask them what browser they originally used and let’s find out if it’s a Chrome thing (by the way, I’m a Firefox user). Tell them that if they want to continue using their regular browser to try uninstalling, then reinstalling to see if that takes care of things (running the virus program wouldn’t hurt, but I’m not sure if that’s a part of it or not).
If it doesn’t, then it’s possible they’re really on a blacklist, which is a totally different issue and one I’m not ready to address right now. Still, I know I’ve taken care of a couple of people who comment so far, and maybe we can help some other people as well. As an addition, I was talking to Adrienne about this and supposedly some people have found that if they leave everything off before the domain name that it seems to work for them & CommentLuv still works. So try domainname.com to see if that might cure your issue also.
Hey Mitch,
So here’s another problem with this. I have several of my regular commenters going to my spam folder that are using FireFox. Once I told them my issue was with Chrome, because I emailed all of them, they informed me they don’t use Chrome. FireFox is their browser of choice.
None of them though were willing to uninstall it like I did with Chrome but instead just didn’t add the www before their URL but that didn’t work for them so I’m still scratching my head but you know it wouldn’t hurt to at least try this and see.
Like you, I’m tired of rescuing legitimate commenters from my spam folder. I bet though the first time I delete their comment and they email me asking why it never showed up that might make them think twice. Mean of me right! 😉
Thank you so much for helping me with this Mitch and at least we both know why this was happening for us. I’m sure there probably could be a few other answers too so we’ll see because I wrote about this as well. Thank you for taking the time to try and figure this out. You’re so smart.
~Adrienne
Adrienne, I saw your post as well and in the post you didn’t tell anyone to try a different browser first, though you did mention it in one of the comments you left someone else. As I said, I believe if these things don’t work then the people have to be blacklisted somewhere in some fashion, especially since you and I aren’t intentionally blocking anyone.
Hey Mitch,
When I mentioned that you had me use my phone to test it then I kind of thought that would just be common sense but there I go again thinking everyone has some of that. LOL!!!
Yeah, I did mention it in one of the comments and as I emailed my users I told them to try another browser as well to see if that was the issue but some were up for it and some just want things to remain the same. For those I just said don’t email me again then asking where your comment is. I’ll get it when I get it.
I know that with Akismet that you can be blacklisted as spam but let’s face it, who on earth would ever blacklist you or I! Other people, I know they may have started off commenting that way and that’s a possibility so they have to get themselves removed if that’s the case.
Oh well, we’ve done our part and I’m saved! Yay!!!
Feels good doesn’t it Adrienne? 🙂 I don’t know why it doesn’t work for everyone but I know I’ve helped some folks and I guess that’s about as good as I can get for the moment. Always thinking… sometimes about stuff that might help someone. lol
I use Firefox and my comments go into your spam box. I have uninstalled and reinstalled ff a number of times but this problem persists and with only your blog. I have not come across this problem with anyone else’s blog where I regularly comment.
Rummuser, did you try a different browser in trying to comment on this blog? Just wondering since that was the 2nd thing I had everyone else try and had it work.
I’ll see if this first comment goes into spam since I often have to comment a second time and then it will go through okay.
I use Chrome and I’ve wondered about certain problems I’ve had, but I’ve never related Chrome as a reason my comments go into certain spam folders. I was having a lot of problems with WordPress for a while, but now my comments usually go through okay there. In fact most blogs where I comment seem to go through okay.
Let’s see what happens now.
Well, this one came through Arlee; did you try a new browser?
Nothing new or different and don’t know of anything that I could have done to make things work differently. I have no idea!
Not much help to you I guess.
Makes little sense, but there has to be a reason, something different; there always is! lol
Wow Mitch, who would have thought a browser could have done all that? I’ve only had a few comments going into spam of late. I always check mine quickly each day to see if anything pops out before I hit that delete button. Thanks for sharing this with us Mitch, very good to know!
Thanks Lisa. Doesn’t seem to be a 100% fix across the board, but some folks have started coming through just fine so I feel good about it.
I recently turned Akismet on two of my projects. Many emails as well as many statuses on my social network were blacklisted, but with the social network, it doesn’t go to spam folder, just cancel all further action, which is a bit problem. Actually even the admin, me was blocked few times, wow.
Rarely the problem would be related to virus or adware, it is highly probable that IP is dynamic or not dedicated IP. Big problem especially with wifi at hotels, coffee shops and mobile internet.
My comments might also go into spam at Imjustsharing, as I was using my writing name for more than 2 years and just switched to my real name.
Carl, one wouldn’t think a name would be enough to pop you into a spam filter, although I guess anything’s possible. But you’re right, some of your comments are going directly into spam these days; freaky. Course you could also try the alternate browser comment just once to see if it happens with two separate browsers.
Blocking yourself; now that’s funny! lol
Great that you, Brian and Adrienne have partially found a solution Mitch.
I don’t tend to get many people straying into the spam folder on my blog.
I’m also mindful that I use Chrome too though and I’m probably blissfully aware that my comments are going into spam folders all over the blogosphere!
Or probably blissfully unaware lol Heck, for all I know it could be happening to me also; just have to wait for someone to tell me. Luckily, I have 4 browsers I could test if necessary.
Hi Mitch!
Lovely picture from Compfight, by the way. LOL
Anyway, I saw a comment on the Evernote post and decided that the best way to help was to not be in the spam folder. Lo and behold, I see this article.
After browsing the comments, particularly Adrienne’s followup, I’m surprised that only Arlee seems to have hit the nail on the head – WordPress! I think we need to do some cookie testing. In an unrelated matter, I can not log on to WordPress with RoboForm until I clear one or more cookies. But it comes right back the next time I load Chrome.
This is one of those things that becomes overwhelming very quickly. The fact that you didn’t uncover more Chrome complaints may indicate that the problem lies elsewhere.
Adrienne, can you add any thoughts? Version of WordPress, etc?
Anyway, while I’m here, let me go answer that Evernote question. 🙂
Cheers,
Mitch
I never ever knew why such have been happening, i experienced it a lot of times with some trusted commenters i know, i always wondered if it was their IP but now i know it may not be IP address issue.
I will follow the guide you have shared here to advise such people so they can rectify the problems. Thanks for sharing.
I found this post on Kingged.com and also left a comment there.
No problem Nwosu; I hope it helps those it’s affecting.
Alright, I am on Firefox, let’s see if it works (if it does, then I need to figure out what the problem is with Chrome…I might try the URL fix. Right now, I used both ‘http’ and ‘www’ in the website field.
Love the picture! The cupcake looks delicious (and unique :D).
Glad that you figured out the problem, Mitch. I am sure that this will be a great help to lot of folks 😀 Thank you again for sharing this with us 🙂
Thanks Jeevan, but I’m not sure it worked for you. However, I checked my IP blocks and the first two numbers were the same as yours. I’ve removed them, so if you try it again & you make it through it’s possible that was the issue. If not… I’m at a loss.
Yeah, I wasn’t sure either. I didn’t actually see the comment.
Okay, let’s see if this one goes through (Using chrome, cache + cookies cleared).
Thank you Mitch 😀 Hope this works!
Nope, it’s still picking on you Jeevan. 🙁
Very interesting – and good work! I’m using Chrome for my main browser and I’m not sure if my comments go through automatically or not.
One thing to be aware of in Chrome is the recent “adware” spam issue:
http://arstechnica.com/security/2014/01/malware-vendors-buy-chrome-extensions-to-send-adware-filled-updates/
essentially existing plugins are bought out by adware companies and then used to spam the users. Maybe affected users have some compromised extension in common?
It could be a “form filling” extension or bookmarking plugin. you never know.
sometimes those form filling plugins can fill in the hidden fields in spam catchers so maybe that could be it?
This is one thing I don’t care for in WordPress as opposed to Joomla – there’s just not a central place to go to ask for help. Yeah you can try the WordPress.org support forums but I think only a small subset of folks actually know about those.
This thing would be solved in short order if enough of the affected people could somehow get together…
First John, you know this comment went to spam right? lol Then again, you did include a link in the comment, and those comments automatically go to spam so we don’t know if you have a browser issue or not just yet.
Second, I’ve always wondered about those apps and plugins. It seems Firefox checks these things well, but I would assume Chrome gets tons more options than Firefox does and it would be harder to take care of.
As for the platforms, there is a central place for WordPress, but often the people answering the questions aren’t the WordPress people. However, I’ve always been able to find my answers, even if I’ve had to get creative with the specific search terms here and there.
Yeah I suspected the link would land me into spam, that’s why I hit you up on Twitter lol.
The WordPress central forum is really hit or miss -despite the vast number of posts there. Each extension has it’s own support section, you can search and filter through that but it’s not as dead simple as it is with the Joomla forums. Not to mention you have WordPress.org and WordPress.com to deal with – a lot of people still don’t understand that. A ton of questions asked in the wrong area.
I can always find the answers I need via searching Google, but honestly it’s very rarely at any official WordPress site, and usually at someone’s blog. WordPress needs to do better than that.
Joomla doesn’t have a native comment system, but if it did this sort of problem wouldn’t go on very long once the question hit the forum.
Hey John, I’m with you on the spotty WP forum. However, taking a page from Mitch’s book of creativity, I long ago created my own Google Search engine – have you heard of CSE?
I made sure that StackOverflow.com is one of the sites searched and I get tons of useful results.
Email me if you want a walk-through, as I have to dig up the steps on creating a Custom Search Engine. I actually used to link to my CSE, but you’ll want your own so that Chrome can use it whenever you want.
Cheers,
Mitch
That brilliant! You know, I have actually set up CSE’s for clients, but I just never thought to use it for myself lol. DUH.
I’m going to go set that up now, good looking out!
Cool! Then I just have to share the bonus tip:
In Chrome, go to Settings. Scroll down to Manage search engines …
Add the URL to your new CSE, give it a memorable name and a nonsense keyword, so that real autocompletes are less likely (I use cse and call it Google Custom Search).
Now when you type the keyword into Chrome and press the space bar, your search engine will receive the query!
Cheers,
Mitch
Course, it didn’t keep this comment from going into the spam filter lol
Still, WordPress is still the easiest software around for blogging as far as I’m concerned.
Hey Mitch, I usually use Safari when leaving a comment but after reading this post I’ve decided to use Chrome to see what happens. Hopefully it won’t be spammed 😀
BTW, my latest Friday funnies has received a whole heap of traffic and I’m pretty sure it’s all because of one photo! Not the sort of photo I would have published because I know it would have offended Google but as you know that is no longer a problem. 😉
Sire, this one did come through; good for you.
As to the other issue… remember my post on “cleavage”? They didn’t like that post, even though there wasn’t anything bad about it (shows no one reads it) but it brought in an overwhelming amount of traffic, false traffic, until I finally killed it. I hope it’s not doing you wrong like that.
Nope, most of the traffic has been from Stumblers who have shared the post. The post has only been up for a few days so it probably isn’t getting any search traffic. Got to admit though, it brought a smile to my face again and I’m the one that wrote it 😉
Glad that’s working for you. I never signed up for Stumble Upon or any of these other shared sites; after Delicious failed & Technorati started irking me I just gave up on them.
Chrome is interesting. I wish all the browser could just get along. LOL. I use Chrome because some computer geek friends of mine say it is more secure. (I have not used Firefox.) Ok. Good enough for me. Still I run into a Chrome vs Internet Explorer problem with a plugin I use in WordPress to very quickly produce Amazon affiliate links on other blogs of mine. The plug in simply does not work in Chrome but is fine with IE.Interesting eh?For the record I am using Chrome at the moment. My website block has both (xxxx) and (xxx) in the URL and I tried to use several keywords that programs may see as spammy to see if again I go to the spam folder.
EDITED- I tried to send this comment and got an error message. Said I had too many you are els in the comment. That is why I put the Xs above. So maybe that is also part of the issue Mitch?
Yeah, I don’t allow URLs in comments since that’s how most spammers get stuff through. I think if you left off the stuff before the domain name it’ll let you put it through.
I don’t know what it is with Chrome but many people who post comments from there end up in the spam filter, and it’s not just on my blog. I used to be a Netscape guy & when they morphed to Firefox I came along. I love the customization and, trust me, there’s things I can do with it that I can’t do with Chrome.
I am using Chrome web browser and I don’t know whether my comments will gets published or not. Finger crossed. However, I never faced any such issue in other websites.
In general, it’s happened to enough people to warrant the discussion and offer the tip. This comment of your went into the spam filter because I have my settings set up to block when people put in more than just their original domain name, since I have CommentLuv to take care of the rest if it’s a blog & people put their website in properly.