Things That Just Piss Me Off

Every now and then another blacklist appears that claims it has the solution to the spam problem on the web. They never have a real solution and end up blocking legitimate users from accessing websites, doing email, etc.

The latest encounter I had with one is called bad behavior. This one even regularly locks the administrators of the blog out of their own blog. They have to rename the plugins folder just so they can get back in and they own the blog. So how can anyone expect it not to block legitimate users?

Bad behavior is really useless as with the case of most blacklists and related software. Seriously, the first time i visit a blog and get blocked, you expect I will bother to email the blogger? Nope. With millions of blogs that don’t block me I have plenty to read.

So all of you who have that claim bad behavior has cause a reduced load on your server, you might want to think that the reduced load is because of less readers and visitors to your blog.

Akismet deletes the spam just fine. I run about 50 blogs through my company. The extra “load” is not a real burden only an imagined one.

Here are some of the comments from the bad behavior blog;

I’m the admin of my blog and Bad Behavior is blocking me to get into the admin zone.

oops!

Yep, same here. My site was working fine, then a registered user told me they couldn’t get in. Went to check it out and the plugin won’t let me log in as admin!

uh oh

Same here. As soon as I am able to log into my blog that you’ve locked me out of, I’m going to remove this plugin, throw it on the floor and stomp on it.

That one was funny.

there is no reason in the world why a spam plugin should be allowed to override a top level administrative login, I would very strongly recommend against the use of this plugin to anyone who is considering it.

Me too.

Gotta say, great plugin, it works like a charm reducing load on my server.

Someone likes it! it’s reducing that huge load on his server.

same here, when activated BB i cannot browse my own sites. Also, i notice the same behaviour on www.teachmejoomla.net and www.dutchjoomla.org when using my regular desktop PC. (No matter if if use IE 7 or Firefox), When using another (linux) PC (behind the same router, firewall / ip) with Firefox i can visit the mentioned websites with no problem.
Have contacted the admins of the mentioned websites but they bounce the problem back : I have to check on viruses, spyware etc. or remove all firewall, anti-spyware software all together in order to access their websites ?!?!?!? What kind of advice is that. BTW : ie checked my desktop PC with various ant-virus/antispyware software with no result at all. When i suggest the admins to check their own configuration they reply a bit annoyed. All in all : i believe the BB plugin is a good concept but needs a serious bugfix. Untill then i stay away from www.teachmejoomla.net and www.dutchjoomla.org.

That last one sums it up. Users will stay away from a blog where they have problems accessing things. Go figure.

But for those of you wishing to defend bad behavior, which is more of a description of the plugin than a name, you can go get your own copy here and block your visitors from reading your blog too. If you are lucky it will block you out of your blog too.