WordPress MU

I was thinking about adding an option to insert a NOINDEX,NOFOLLOW meta tag on all blogs that are less than 2 weeks old.

Anyone know where I would begin in the base files without having to edit each and every theme's header file?

The theory is that some may get through and at least they could be on probation for a while without the fear of a search engine picking them up.

I suppose another way would be to put a conditional statement in the privacy options such that its hidden by robots until the time period expires as well.

I'm thinking something simular like when comments get left. The issue with that though is that those tags are added in when the comment is first left and are saved to the database. You would have to refilter the post content and remove them after the 2 weeks.

Maybe something like:

- Poster makes post.
- If under 2 weeks, run throw a copied version of the filter/ function that the comments use to add in the tags.
- Save post.

Not sure which hook that would be. The system is already doing filters though on content so I know they exist.

I did the same thing, but with pings.

I had to edit post.php (in wp-includes, not admin), and I wrapped the setting of the ping function in an if statement.

Since the post_id for the new post is grabbed before this runs, I use that and check if the post_id is greater than 4. If it is, then I let the pings go through as usual.

What this does, is prevents a splog that actually makes it through from telling "the world about it". Since I monitor all registration, plus the site feed, I can spot a splogger quickly and take action. I just mark their site as spam, and disable it.

Yes, they get through, but the damage is controlled. I am considering changing that though, to where it only blocks pings from sites which are less than a couple days old.

Probably tap into the privacy settings or something, since if you have your blog set to be private it doesn't ping either.

The privacy setting is where I am currently headed, thinking about wrapping that in conditional statement based on blog age, and now that you mention it perhaps a post count. Instead of having the privacy setting set to public initially it would set it to private. Would have to have some sort of time delay that unhides the settings and then toggles it to public after the timeout...hmm...off to think a bit.

No real need to toggle it, just have to find the area where pings to outside sources are cancelled, and then add another condition to that.

if: (blog) is-not private || blog_age > 2days -> do_pings

Or whatever.

I'm thinking age is better, as some jackass spammer could put up 10 posts, and circumvent the post id limit.

Nothing is going to be completely perfect though, as either way if they "know" something is in place then they know to play nice for whatever. If it's 5 posts, they put up 5 seemingly innocent posts, and then spam. Or if it's time, then they just wait.

So the "trick" would be, make sure they don't know what you're implementing.

Which to me means that this is something that shouldn't be a plugin or a feature in the core. Mainly because then spammers will "eventually" catch on that you're using the plugin, or know what is mandated by the core.

Well, we could make it a plugin with options of course, minimum posts and an aging setting. It's kind of like locking your convertible, you keep the really dumb lazy spammers out, which is probably the majority.

The way I look at it, if I can't determine that the blog is spam or already abandoned within two weeks I shouldn't be running the site to begin with.

My wish list is getting longer and time is getting shorter...

True, it "could" technically be a plugin. But, then again, it would let spammers know it exists.

Me personally, I think the "best" option long term is to filer any posts on a site less than say, 2 weeks old, through a filter(s) like SK2 uses.

I looked at SK2, to see if it could be hooked into easily, but it's centered around comment_id and comments very heavily. It would require hooking into the actual plugin filters SK2 uses, or creation/modification of existing filters to pull off. It would eat enough time that I had to push it down my list a good ways.

You also run the risk of some false positives, like someone blogging about their weekly poker night or whatever, but I'd rather have a 5% false positive rate and 0 splogs, than 5% splogs and 0 false positives.

You know, I should make a "bulk email" address, and since these chumps are forced to use a legitimate address to register, start sending them an "invoice" for my time. Not that they would pay it, or even read it, but just for spite.

Either that, or start publicizing that address and registering it for "a ton" of newsletters, so that their mailbox is filled up and they can't use it.

Or maybe when they try to log into the site again, redirect them to an alternate site. Spamcops, or something else that's annoying. (I'd list em, but let's just say they "aren't work safe", if you get the drift.)

Well, my little hack saved me this morning, as a couple splogging idiots signed up overnight.

No pings, no feeds, nothing. Nada, zip, zilch. All just sitting there patiently waiting for me to delete. :D

Gotta admit that I like the pings. I have links to my blogs set to be created upon blog creation.

May as well get something for them wasting my time. :)

I'm referring to technorati, pingomatic, etc.

If I'm going to delete their stuff anyway, then a quick ping from their site to the main one really doesn't make a difference.

Splog content linking to your site will actually "hurt" in the long run.

lunabyte, you hit on the real important reason why i brought this up. I don't want my site associated with some of that nasty splog content. Though I can erase it pretty quick, and its on a subdomain, it eventually may get associated with the domain, specially as a site gains trust. Google's indexing new blogs withing 3 days lately and I don't want to be associated with any viagra blogs that slip through the cracks.

You've inspired me to work on this solution a bit more...

Exactly.

I don't want to have any dirty content, and by dirty I mean span and not just porn, associated with my domain name at all.

So, I was quite happy when my initial solution worked out just fine.

It doesn't stop the content, per say, but it stops the world from being notified about it.

The only small downside is that initially your honest bloggers don't ping anyone either. But it's only for the first couple of posts, or whatever you set, and more times than not they won't even know the difference anyway.