Comments on: Accidental Blogspam http://www.hyperborea.org/journal/archives/2005/06/14/accidental-blogspam/ Sci-fi, comics, humor, photos...it's all fair game. Thu, 05 Nov 2009 20:02:35 -0800 http://wordpress.org/?v=abc hourly 1 By: Mark J http://www.hyperborea.org/journal/archives/2005/06/14/accidental-blogspam/#comment-6394 Mark J Wed, 15 Jun 2005 17:01:00 +0000 http://www.hyperborea.org/journal/archives/2005/06/14/accidental-blogspam/#comment-6394 Note that there is a "block all notifications" feature in Subscribe to Comments 2.0 for cases where pranksters are subscribing people to comment threads maliciously. The problem I see with an opt-in system (send an e-mail, click this link to verify) is that it can potentially generate as much unwanted mail as a subscription would itself. You can't send out one verification e-mail and then say "well, if he didn't get that particular e-mail and opt-in, I won't give him another opportunity." No, you'll have to give him another chance. Similarly, if someone knows your e-mail address, they can use WordPress to spam your "Forgot your password?" form. One other thing to consider is that if someone has your e-mail address and wants to annoy you, there are much better ways to do so than by subscribing you to comments on a blog somewhere. I'm a cynic, and that means that I consider the worst of human behavior, but I've not yet seen someone do this (yet!). Note that there is a “block all notifications” feature in Subscribe to Comments 2.0 for cases where pranksters are subscribing people to comment threads maliciously. The problem I see with an opt-in system (send an e-mail, click this link to verify) is that it can potentially generate as much unwanted mail as a subscription would itself. You can’t send out one verification e-mail and then say “well, if he didn’t get that particular e-mail and opt-in, I won’t give him another opportunity.” No, you’ll have to give him another chance. Similarly, if someone knows your e-mail address, they can use WordPress to spam your “Forgot your password?” form.

One other thing to consider is that if someone has your e-mail address and wants to annoy you, there are much better ways to do so than by subscribing you to comments on a blog somewhere. I’m a cynic, and that means that I consider the worst of human behavior, but I’ve not yet seen someone do this (yet!).

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