Ping-o-Matic ate my baby.

rwaugh
(@rwaugh)

19 years, 5 months ago

As a new user of WordPress I feel the need to report on my new user experience… in particular, the most frustrating part of that experience, Ping-o-Matic.
So far I really like WordPress, but I wish I would have removed Ping-o-Matic from the list of Update Services before I posted my first entry. Better yet, I wish it hadn’t been enabled by default.
Imagine yourself as a new user. You’ve installed WordPress, and to test it out you post your first entry… “I’ve installed WordPress, w00t!” You take a well-deserved rest, and the next morning you find your inbox flooded with a dozen announcements that someone has posted a comment to your weblog — all of them spam. You spend the next week shoring up your weblog’s defenses. You change your settings, you install plugins, you edit the comment-post script to check that an entry exists before posting a comment to it, you change the name of your commenting script… you hack, and you hack, and you hack WordPress, wondering all the time if you’ll remember what changes you made when the next upgrade is released.
I think Ping-o-Matic is a good service. I know I’ll use it once I’m ready to promote my weblog. But it shouldn’t be enabled on WordPress by default. As soon as that first ping goes out, it can’t be undone. And believe me, the spammers have a better idea how WordPress works than a new user does. Please, remove the Ping-o-Matic entry from the Upgrade Functions script. It can only frustrate new users and give Ping-o-Matic a bad reputation.
When users are ready to promote their site, after they’ve set up protection against comment spam, it’s so easy to add Ping-o-Matic to the list of Update Services. The URI is right there at the top of WordPress’ list of recommended services. Or, add an option to the Writing Options submenu that would need to be switched on in order to enable Update Services… that way you can still keep Ping-o-Matic bundled with WordPress while protecting new users from an influx of comment spam at a time when they’re not prepared to fight it.

Viewing 15 replies - 1 through 15 (of 19 total)

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Moderator James Huff
(@macmanx)

Volunteer Moderator

19 years, 5 months ago

It’s not ping-o-matic’s fault at all. Hundreds of SPAM bots browse update service lists and attack blogs that recently post articles. I wouldn’t disable update services, it kind of cuts you off from the outside world. Here are some other solutions: http://www.tamba2.org.uk/wordpress/spam/

charle97
(@charle97)

19 years, 5 months ago

it kind of cuts you off from the outside world.

that’s the point. spammers can’t find you.

Moderator James Huff
(@macmanx)

Volunteer Moderator

19 years, 5 months ago

Charle97, the main point of combating spam is not to let it inconvenience yourself or your legitimate readers. Many legitimate blog readers use update services to learn when a blog that they read has been updated. I would rather not cut my readers off from that. And, even if you turn off update services, the spider-bots will find you. Sure, you could completely severe all ties to the outside world, but why have blog in that case? You have a lot to learn about making compromises for your community’s sake.

Moderator James Huff
(@macmanx)

Volunteer Moderator

19 years, 5 months ago

I don’t intend to enforce anything. I merely offer opinions and it is the reader’s job to implement what they wish. Sound familiar? It’s exactly what you do. On all my blogs I have update services enabled, rss enabled, and no IP blocking whatsoever. All I do is employ anti-spam methods which don’t interfere with my readers’ experience on my blogs. To this day, my largest blog serves 600-800+ unique hosts per day and I’m 98% spam free (note: I do get hit with quite a bit of SPAM, but only 2% actually make it onto the blog). You can find such mentioned anti-spam techniques here: http://www.tamba2.org.uk/wordpress/spam/ . Preach the faith, not the fist.

charle97
(@charle97)

19 years, 5 months ago

not pinging update services is a legitimate strategy in avoiding spammers.

Hundreds of SPAM bots browse update service lists and attack blogs that recently post articles.

you know there are bots combing these services. even the newbie bloggers will come to that conclusion after getting spammed in the hundreds. i don’t see how you can tell people to keep pinging in the face getting comment spammed. choosing between getting spammed and not pinging the update services is a no brainer.

Moderator James Huff
(@macmanx)

Volunteer Moderator

19 years, 5 months ago

For you, yes. For me and my readers, no. There is a decision here to be made, but you and I have all ready made ours. We can’t change each other, pure and simple. But, for the benefit of this topic, our opinions have been made. It’s time for others to choose.

Anonymous

19 years, 5 months ago

You guys should have taken your argument off-list.

Anonymous

19 years, 5 months ago

yeah grow up you too – you aren’t helping the poor soul one bit by arguing over who is the cleverest

Anonymous

19 years, 5 months ago

my god, this comment spam is the most annoying thing on the face of the earth. it doesn’t work, nobody is going to click on their stupid crap. why do they even do it? some things in life are so freaking pointless it makes me laugh.

Mark (podz)
(@podz)

19 years, 5 months ago

I ping, always have done.
I have anti-spam plugins installed.
My blog is linked to by others.
I get no spam.
My daughter has a blog.
She does not ping.
Her blog is not linked anywhere.
I have installed anti-spam plugins.
She gets spam.
Go figure.
To get back to the original post, I would imagine that when 1.3 is released, it will have the code there to protect people who are newly installing it from a rash of spam.
If the pingomatic option were removed, I have no doubt that we would have a flood of posts from new users asking how they can notify other blogs, so in some way the devs cannot win.
Whatever, there is no simple answer because as soon as WP ships with default code, the spammers will work hard to get round it – they had to work to get to where they are now.

Thread Starter rwaugh
(@rwaugh)

19 years, 5 months ago

podz wrote:

I would imagine that when 1.3 is released, it will have the code there to protect people who are newly installing it from a rash of spam.

That’s good to hear. Ping-o-Matic is some powerful stuff. I think it’s better to err on the side of caution and let users decide if and when they want to ping. Most new users will probably do as I did, post a test entry after installing WordPress before looking at the Writing Options.
Update Services and Ping-o-Matic definitely belong with WordPress. I support any technology that connects bloggers with their readership or other bloggers. Like I said, the update services shouldn’t be removed. But I imagine new users would prefer that Ping-o-Matic or other pinging services weren’t switched on by default since they’re still learning to use WordPress, and — I might add — are still evaluating it.
And thank you podz for your WordPress anti-spam guide. I don’t know what I would have done without it. I owe you a debt of gratitude… whatever that amounts to.

Mark (podz)
(@podz)

19 years, 5 months ago

It’s not me that needs thanking, it’s all the authors of the anti-spam code 🙂
Like it says on that page, go say Thanks to them.

Moderator James Huff
(@macmanx)

Volunteer Moderator

19 years, 5 months ago

Ah, but what a nice collection you have put together. It really does simplify things.

Anonymous

19 years, 5 months ago

So much for Ping-O-Matic eating your baby, the WordPress forum ate my post!

firefly4wp
(@firefly4wp)

19 years, 1 month ago

“Like I said, the update services shouldn’t be removed. But I imagine new users would prefer that Ping-o-Matic or other pinging services weren’t switched on by default since they’re still learning to use WordPress, and — I might add — are still evaluating it.”

I agree with this, as a new user (and someone new to blogging) who’s just been taken completely by surprise by the fact that WordPress isn’t just running my blog for me (fantastically well I have to say!) but has also taken it upon itself to start telling the world about it – well before I was ready for that, and without that being made at all clear to me. This to me is going beyond what the software ought to do by default. And even if it’s clear that more people want that there by default than don’t, it ought to be made clearer to the new user that that’s what’s going on – so we know to go and turn off the update service straight away if we don’t want it.