I’ve had a run-in with scrapers and sploggers about a couple of years ago when my main site was exposed to the public. After locking down the info and making the domain private, I’m now thinking of more proactive ways to protect a blog site. Since the garden info is slowing being spun off to its own domain, I’ve taken action to post a Creative Commons license after each section with the help of the Open Attribute plugin. I’ve also bolstered the contact form by going with the Fast Secure Form, related to the SI Captcha anti-spam plugin. I’m wary of opening up comments, pingbacks and trackbacks at the moment until I determine if FriendConnect will allow users to register and follow my blog without a formal WP-based registration.
Meanwhile I have to be vigilant. I have Akismet, and I need to review my Analytics stats to ensure that I’m not being targetted by leeches. Of course, I also can look up who’s been duplicating my content on Copyscape.com. And I should think about watermarking my photographs…amateur as they are.
I planned on upgrading the visuals on the spinoff garden site with some fancy new graphics. But I also discovered that I could easily change the headline fonts by using Google web fonts. I also added a custom-colored dragonfly favicon to the site via an online editor.
I also integrated the Google Friend Connect system to the new site, but I’m still having a hard time comprehending all of its functions. It seems much of it is disconnected from Google itself, and I’m not sure how practical an addition it will be. The issue I’m experiencing relates to the commenting system, and so far all I’ve been getting is a message stating: “We’re sorry…We were unable to handle your request. Please try again or return a bit later.”
Last task related to the new site is opening comments/pingbacks/trackbacks. Putting the site up publicly risks spamming, but I think the experience will give me an opportunity to learn how to prevent attacks in the future.
Update: got some help from the GFC wiki installation document. Looks like the GFC comments works and has replaced the native WP commenting system.
a gardening gamer gal in search of good grub!