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Ask Andy.

My internet, let me show you it.

Indexing in Times of Spam

by Andy Laub on September 2nd, 2008

So you may have noticed lately that we’ve been seeing an awful lot (emphasis on awful) of spam blogs here on CW. As fun as it is to login multiple times a day and delete 5-10 new blogs at a given time, or to be frantically tapping away on a borrowed (non-3G) iPhone in an effort to clear away that new porn blog that just reared its ugly head, we’ve implemented a few changes that will affect new blog registration.

Validation Station

New blogs will now undergo a short validation period. Basically this just means we look at a blog when it’s registered, and if the username isn’t something like kdjalskfjewo and the title actually is coherent, we turn it on. Note: don’t just type in random characters for your username. If you activate your blog and don’t hear from us within 24 hours, please let us know. We’ve decided to remove this, for now, as I think the second step outlined below is handling things just fine. We shall see. I was wrong.

Private Public

Also, by default, new blogs will no longer be indexed and publicly viewable until you turn that option on in your admin panel. Again, this doesn’t affect existing blogs!

To make your blog public, follow this steps:

  1. In the admin panel, click on the Options tab.
  2. On the options page, click the Privacy sub-tab.
  3. Select “I would like my blog to be visible to anyone who visits…”
  4. Click Update Options

And just like that, you’re done! And now, I’m off to rehearse for some show about a barber.

Citizen Wausau, WCT, WordPress, acting, blogging, iPhone, internet, theatre

Discussion & Feedback

There are 4 responses to this article.

  1. Alex said:

    Nice work Andy, much needed and much appreciated. You’re the man.

    September 2nd, 2008 at 5:38 pm #

  2. Dino Corvino said:

    Good job Andy.

    September 2nd, 2008 at 6:58 pm #

  3. erik said:

    Sounds like a good plan, Andy.

    September 3rd, 2008 at 8:29 am #

  4. Citizen Wausau » Blog Archive » Your Voice: Sept 3 said:

    […] to spamming you and everyone around you.  Current real-person bloggers are unaffected, and future real-person bloggers need only undergo a short validation period and then will be set loose into the wide world, where you want to […]

    September 3rd, 2008 at 1:30 pm #

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