IP banning

You could add this line to your .htaccess file:

deny from 69.234

However, I do not recommend this action. Blocking 69.234 will probably block your troll, but it will also block all legitimate users, proxies, and bots under the 69.234 range.

Can’t you use a capcha program or something that will discourage him and will cause the comment to at least be moderated? Hmm. I’d be interested to know a solution to this one.

J

Send all comments to moderation, by default. That alone should ensure that his junk doesn’t get posted without your intervention.

Add some of the words he uses on a regular basis to your list of moderation words, to further ensure that his stuff gets caught.

Keep a copy of all the emails that you get sent with his vitriol in.
If you can establish his ISP (which over time is easy), you can let them know what a delightful customer they have. You can almost guarantee that this idiot is violating the T&C’s of his line.

Thanks for those replies.

jonimueller: I know that SK2 has captcha capabilities but I’m not sure what captcha is or whether I can use it to help me fend off this guy. If anyone knows SK2 better than I has ideas on this score, I’d be grateful to hear them.

skippy: I can’t send comments to moderation using wp comment settings because none of them are working. The same holds true of moderation words. But since SK2 does seem to be working for me I’ve started trying to use Regex content blacklist & added one phrase to it fr. his current harrassing comment (he’s had many versions over the months). I also tried adding his e mail address (he uses the same address ea. time he comments–dumb troll!) as a Regex blacklist entry though I’m not sure whether Regex can ban an e mail address (maybe someone out there knows?).

UPDATE: I just noticed he’s tried to post the same comment again today but this time it’s greyed out which I see means it went to moderation. That’s perfect. It looks like Regex worked. But of course, when he sees the comment didn’t get posted he’s liable to wise up & change the comment text or start using a diff. or fake e mail address.

Just checked my stats & this guy spent 1 hr. 27 mins. at my site & accessed the post at which he tried to comment 7 diff. times today! If it doesn’t sound too ridiculous to say I feel any satisfaction out of his frustration–I do!

Sometimes I wish I could give out his e mail to everyone in this forum who could give him back a dose of what he’s dishing out. But I know the rule is “don’t feed the trolls” & that’s prob. correct.

Podz: I had another much filthier troll when my blog was at Typepad. I made a neat little package of all his doodoo comments & mailed them to Qwest w. the guy’s IP address & all other identifying info I could gather fr. WhoIs. I also quoted their TOS to show them how many ways he’d violated them. I never heard back fr. Qwest. Knowing what a horrible phone company they are I have no doubt nothing was done about the guy whatsoever. And since the troll’s the customer & not me, they’re under no obligation to respond to me at all. It really stinks. That federal law needs changing.

BTW, this troll’s ISP is pacbell.net

Macmanx: I thought of a good compromise regarding banning the IP. I could IP Deny the 69.234 IP fragment for a few wks. or months & then unban it. By then, the troll may’ve lost interest in me.

Let me ask another question. Since the troll seems to have unlimited access to IP addresses in the 69.234… range, is it foolish for me to ban the specific IPs he’s using? He must be using dynamic IPs & those IPs must be getting recycled to other people who won’t be able to visit my blog if I’ve banned those IPs. What do you think?

He must be using dynamic IPs & those IPs must be getting recycled to other people who won’t be able to visit my blog if I’ve banned those IPs.

Yet another reason for why IP banning is “bad karma”. If I were you, I would most certainly deny all of his IPs, but for no more than 24 hours at a time. If this eventually proves to be futile, then do not continue, you will only block more legitimate users.

You can also review your stats to see how many other people are coming from his netblock. It might be that he’s the only one who regularly comes to your site from that range of IPs. You won’t know until you check your logs.

I’d suggest trying to fix that default WP moderation tools, too. Usually this can be fixed simply by re-uploding the core WordPress files.

Skippy: I did upgrade fr. 1.5.1 to 1.5.3 a few wks. ago but I did not remove my plugin files. The moderation behavior stayed the same. I think when Carthik returns fr. India I’ll ask if he can help me do a clean install after deleting all plugin files & then reinstalling after the clean WP install. We’ll see if that fixes things. I could try this myself but I’m a little intimidated by the process. I may just go ahead & try to do it myself if my frustration level increases.

I see the troll has succeeded in getting a comment published. This is weird because it is the exact same comment that SK2 placed in moderation yesterday. I’m completely bewildered why SK2 succeeded in moderating it yesterday, but let it through today. Maybe it’s because I let the comment fr. yesterday stay in moderation & didn’t take action on it??

Anyway, frustration continues. I’m going to use IP Deny Mgr. to deny 69.234 & see how that works. He doesn’t seem to use any other IP string so maybe he won’t have access to anything but this one & I’ll succeed in knocking him out of business (one can always dream!)