Need someone to lead product management at your software company? I build high-craft software and the teams that build it. I'm looking for my next opportunity. Check out my resume and get in touch.

This is the blog of Adam Kalsey. Unusual depth and complexity. Rich, full body with a hint of nutty earthiness.

Security & Privacy

My trackback spam problem

Freshness Warning
This blog post is over 19 years old. It's possible that the information you read below isn't current and the links no longer work.

More than half the traffic to my site is Trackback spam — but not of the variety you’d expect. I’m not talking about people trying to ping me, I’m talking about Simpletracks, my standalone trackback tool. Simpletracks lets you ping anyone even if your blogging tool doesn’t support trackback.

The problem is that for the last 6 weeks, spammers are hammering it, and hard. Now they aren’t smart spammers. All but a handful of the spam traffic comes from a small group of IP addresses. So those are blocked. Other evidence that these guys aren’t very bright is that it’s probably harder to submit to my form than it is just to send the trackbacks directly and skip the middle man.

I’ve added some countermeasures to Simpletracks. I aggressively ban people that hit the tool too often. I have a form key that changes every few minutes, requiring that you actually load the form before submitting it. There’s a few other tricks as well. But the bots are as dumb as the spammers, they’re already been set to run, and the fact that they aren’t getting through does nothing to deter them. They keep hammering my server.

Recently Written

Lighten Your Process Burden
Dec 7: Everyone hates oppressive processes, but somehow we keep managing to create them.
Product Add-Ons Are An Expansion Myth
Dec 1: Add-ons can enhance your product’s appeal but won’t drive significant market growth. To expand your customer base, focus on developing standalone products.
Protecting your Product Soul when the Same Product meets New People.
Nov 23: Expand into new markets while preserving your product’s core value. Discover how to adapt and grow without losing your product’s soul.
Building the Next Big Thing: A Framework for Your Second Product
Nov 19: You need a first product sooner than you think. Here's a framework for helping you identify a winner.
A Framework for Scaling product teams
Oct 9: The people, processes, and systems that make up a product organization change radically as you go through the stages of a company. This framework will guide that scaling.
My Networked Webcam Setup
Sep 25: A writeup of my network-powered conference call camera setup.
Roadmap Outcomes, not Features
Sep 4: Drive success by roadmapping the outcomes you'll create instead of the features you'll deliver.
Different roadmaps for different folks
Sep 2: The key to effective roadmapping? Different views for different needs.

Older...

What I'm Reading