See the following link for the discussion. (My site is a personal blog and is in no way commercial so forgive my posting the links in the comments)

http://www.keitaigoddess.com/index.php/site/entries/comment_spammers_parasites/
http://www.keitaigoddess.com/index.php/site/entries/comment_spammers_parasites_deux/

To see if a comment is legitimate, you visit the URL. If you like what you see, you comment or contact the blog author in response to their comment.

They may quickly visit your blog, if you have told them what it is, to find out what “they said” on your blog, since it wasn’t really them, or reply in a way then or over time that makes you discover they they aren’t the person who left the comment.

They hired a company to post comments on blogs because it’s quicker to pay someone than do it themselves.

Now, how does your perception of them as a blogger change? Does it remain the same? Or do you wonder if they even write their own blog content? Maybe they are cheating on that, too? What else are they doing that is a bit underhanded? Hmmm?

If you want to see if a comment is legitimate, it would be wise to click through the commenter’s URL and see what kind of site you find.

If you want to completely remove the incentive for posting spam comments, don’t allow URLs in comments.

I agree with you that this should be eradicated at the source. Question is, at this point, how are you capable of dealing with the problem that affects a medium of communication that has already raised eyebrows among the “mainstream” crowd?

So far, all I do is hold on comments for moderation and see if the people who leave comments are even “trustworthy” (I guess even that too can be arbitrary) to place their comments on my blog, my personal space on the Web.

A year ago I use to say I blogged part time (as I started earning money from it) and I got weird looks. Now people ask how they can join the party.

As far as human comment spammers go, I’ve been dealing with them for a while. The only “good” measure I know that deters them is the dreaded “word verifications,” or CAPTCHA’s.

Askimet only goes so far, and many spammers know how to change their IP or mask it to avoid being blocked (as I’ve seen them even get past TechCrunch).

Although they can pass CAPTHCHA’s, they seem to loathe having to re-type those funky letters again (and again and again) after deletion. I battled one annoying guy for about a week. After seven days of his crap on my site, he gave up and moved on.

However, for those who think that “any comment” is better than no comments, and that such paid comments are a blessing that “someone really read my stuff” – you are deluding yourselves.

These people don’t care. They aren’t going to write on a blog “Check out this brilliant article!” and link to yours. They aren’t going to talk about the interesting blog post they read today over the dinner table or with their friends. It’s just a job. They will read only enough to make a coherent comment and then head to the next one. And the next one. Your blog is just one in a conveyor belt of blogs. They don’t give a rip about who you are or what you blog.

The big elephant in the room in this is that you won’t know what’s a paid comment or not. Few write good comments, so how would you know if a mediocre comment is valid and a perfectly coherent and spelled comment is a paid one?

Moderation and other torture tests also won’t work. Since a human can pass them, and “sound valid” then how are you to know if the comment is valid or not?

How would you feel if a new friend you were eager to learn more about turned out to not be who they said they were? Wouldn’t that hurt?

If you like a comment and then connect with that blogger, saying “Thanks for your comment. I’d love to discuss this further with you.” and they have no idea what you are talking about – or do but then have to scramble to find out what “they” left on your blog – it’s not a good footing for building a relationship, is it.

And if I find out they weren’t the originator behind the comment – oh, boy, watch out.

Revenge has no fury like a scorned blogger.

If a “Paid” commenter comes and reads my content in order to leave a comment, then I at least got them to read my content.

The “Paid Comments” service is only new to the little guys who don’t understand economics. Anyone can hire a VA in a 3rd world country to do this fom them cheaper then $20.

I manually approve all my comments.

Here is an idea. Allow comments, but don’t show them. Like a “Suggestion Box”. Visitors can interact with you and you can email them back if you want, but the dialog is not for public display.

BeachBum