I close comments after two weeks, I think it is, and haven't been comment-spammed since. I'd love to do the same for trackbacks.

I can do your blog for you, no problem.

Then I need to set up a little program to keep doing it, once a week or something.

I'd like one month please.

Pixy, I'm getting flooded with 60k spam emails all along the "Password violation", "Online violation" etc. lines. Anyway to deflect it? I keep deleting as they come in, but they're overwhelming me.

Yay! Have I mentioned lately how you're the best, Pixy?

Simon - Turn on Spam Assassin in CPanel. It works. I'd be dead without it. And I HATE that password violation spam. (I do tech support for an ISP, among the many hats I wear at work. If you think you're getting flooded...)

I've been closing mine monthly as well. So far I'm not overwhelmed, but it's good to know these 2 alternatives are out there if things get out of hand.

Pixy, thanks for all your hard work!

Whatever is the easiest thing for YOU... thank you for your hospitality and all your hard work!

I like the month threshold. I'm getting very little comment-wise but the trackback spam seems to be on the uptake.

As a rule, I close trackbacks and comments to any post that gets any form of spam.

Spam me once shame on you. Spam me twice shame on me. So far its manageable.

Thanks Pixy. I checked and already have Spam Assassin/Spam box enabled. It just seems this latest flood got through the net. I just re-enabled it, so we'll see if that helps.

Thanks again on the trackback closing. Very much appreciated.

Yay! All Hail Pixy, the Munuvian Overlord of Spam blockers!

Thank you again Pixy for all your hard work!

Can my trackbacks be closed, too, pretty please? I still get trackback spam and it makes me crazy. One month is fine-I close comments after 7 days.

I close comments automatically after 60 days. Since I added that, I haven't gotten any comment spam at all, but of course I still get tons of trackback spam. I'd like to close trackbacks automatically after 60 days too, but I'd be fine with after 30 days, if that's easier for you.

How hard would it be to write a program to read a config file and close everybody's trackbacks according to their wishes? I'm sure that if I knew Linux/Server stuff better I could do it in minutes (I just signed up at eApps, I'm on the steep part of the learning curve at the moment, but that kind of stuff is not on my need-to-know list... yet).

Not too hard. The SQL statement is easy enough, so I just need to set up a little program to fire them off one after the other.

Helen, unless I did something wrong, trackbacks should be closed on all posts older than 1st July this year.

...

Okay, I did something wrong. Let me try again.

Ah, no, it worked. Anything that was last modified before the first of July has had trackbacks closed.

I'd like to close off trackbacks as well, please. I wouldn't mind closing off comments except that one post I did on Welsh rap has turned into a fascinating bulletin board for the Welsh rap community. Who knew?

I just discovered that I suffered a trackback 'Pearl Harbor' during the night. Something like 20 or so trackbacks to some gambling place.

The interesting part is that I think that closing of trackbacks is being felt NOW in the spamming world - all 20 or so trackbacks were on the posts currently up over at my place....nothing past August 4th or so.

(Sorry for the multiple comments here)

Pixy - where exactly on CPanel is the 'Spam Assassin'?? I've looked but I'm not seeing it.

I'm thinking to ask it now as I too am starting to get spam addressed to 'madmikey1@madmikey.....' which is impossible since I only use 'madmikey1' on my old Hotmail account.

Your Humble Munuvian,
Mike

Pixy, I don't know if you did it for my site yesterday but I was hit with a small flood of trackback spam again last night, some on posts going back 6 months or more.

Just letting you know.

Yeah, I got some too.

I think you might actually need to rebuild your blog before it works.

I'm rebuilding everything right now, so will let you know.

OK so here's something curious. Most of the trackback spam has been blocked, but I just got a couple for old posts. When I went back to those posts in MT, it has the Pings box unchecked and has no record of the ping. Mystery trackbacks?

Also Pixy do you mind doing both Showcase and Memeblog too please. 1 month for each is fine.