Hi all,

Today I posted a story Free Online Porn is Killing the Sex Industry, Stars Claim and immediately closed the comments thread.  The reason for my doing so was related to the large amount of comments spam that a story with this type of headline is likely to attract.  As a preemptive strike I opted to disallow comments on my story to avoid an onslaught of comment spam.

Please note that we have had a higher than normal volume of comment spam lately, especially on stories that have specific keywords in the headlines. The words that often attract spam bots include:

• Porn
  
• Sex
  
• Free
  
• Adult
• Dating
• Rape
• Brides
• Download
• STDs (the acronym or by name)
  
• Prescription medications (by name)
  
• and any sex enhancement drugs by name
• the names of any online viruses
  

This is by no means an exhaustive list but if your headline and/or the text of your story contains these words alone or in combination, you could find your comments littered with spam.  If the spam on a story becomes too onerous we may close the thread.  Since we remove spam you may just find your thread closed.  Before you get upset please check with staff to see if spam was the reason for the closure.

Comment spam not only hurts the site as a whole, but it hurts the search engine placement of your story and thereby restricts the traffic it will get. 

Please see these articles for further explanation on how comments can hurt a site and a specific article or post.

Could Comments Hurt Your Search Engine Rankings?

Google Penalty Caused by Comment Spam

Comment spam is not only unsightly and unproductive but it hurts NowPublic as a whole and the story it is placed on in particular. For this reason we can not allow spam posts to stand and have no choice but to close comment threads where spam is problematic.

Please note, we also may close comments without warning if they attract racist, homophobic, or other hateful speech.

Like the removal of stories, the closure of comments without notice is covered under the Terms of Service that all members agree to when they sign up to NowPublic.

If you see spam or hate speech comments on your story or any other story at NowPublic please contact a member of staff ASAP to have them removed. Guest Editors (denoted by the white crown icon) DO NOT have the ability to remove comment spam or close comment threads. If you post an article that you fear may attract comment spam and would like the comments closed right away please alert a member of staff as well.

A list of the members of staff:

NowPublic Editorial Team

Thank you for your understanding and cooperation in this matter. Please feel free to post any questions here or to message me directly.

Tina