Due to very heavy spamming over Xmas the file mt-comments.cgi has been disabled. So the comments function is turned off. No comments can be made. The trackback function is turned off as well.

Silence. Tis odd. I've become so used to the waves of comment spam washing over the weblogs.

It was the end of the road for the old style free Moveable Type publishing system.The philosophical conversation in the commons is killed off by comment spam. 800 on this site in a couple of hours from a spambot. Some weblogs have been getting 10,000 an hour! Comment spam is a conversation killer.

We are currently in the process of a long overdue upgrade to Movable Type v3.14 plus MT-blacklist as a first step to deal with the pernicious comment spam problem. It would appear that there has been a targeting of MT by the spammers.

This is due to the popularity of its publishing system and Movable Type's susceptiblity because it is designed for very open commenting.Movable Type's built-in comments functionality did not require registration and it allowed bloggers to block comments only by IP address: a restriction spammers can easily avoid. Hence a spam bot could, and did, enter hundreds of unwanted spams in a matter of minutes into the comments of a largely unprotected weblog.

I've been waiting for the new style Movable Type to fix the bugs in their MT-blacklist software that resulted in escalating comment spam, which in turn caused extreme server loads. Movable Type has been working on the problem.

Now I'm not sure whether the spam comment problem has been solved. People are voting with their feet and moving on: onto WordPress. As there is no silver bullet to remove comment spam I've decided to stick with a now corporatised Movable Type.

That means paying for a more sophisticated publishing system (fee based licence system) and using the specially designed plugin architecture. I'm happy to do that.

In the meantime--until the upgrade has gone through--comments can be emailed to me and I will incorporate them into the post as an update.

Update
The Movable Type upgrade has been successful. However, problems have been encountered with installing the MT-Blacklist plugin.It is far too far complex for me. I've called in help from my local tech support. We will work on it tomorrow.

Jay Allen writes in response to my comment that "People are voting with their feet and moving on: onto WordPress." He replies:

"Not as many as you might think...After you upgrade everything (which will help immensely) you may want to also install Brad Choate's MT-DSBL. I installed it last night and so far not a single spam has even gotten TO MT-Blacklist to be blocked or moderated. It's eerie quiet...

If you're having problems, go search on the MT-Blacklist forums for an answer. It's probably already been written about. See forum."

Update:31 Dec.
Installing the MT-Blacklist plugin is very complex. We are struggling with it.This is no easy task--it is beyond the capabilities of ordinary bloggers such as myself.

I reckon that essential plugins such as MT-Blacklist should be really be part of Movable Type 3.14 itself, not an add on extra. There are 7 pages of instructions. It is a major job---it is a job for the professionals.

Very hot weather and New Years eve is not the right time to be doing this kind of work. We will have another crack at it tomorrow.