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en WordPress.com Forums Can't find report abuse on a Gravatar

Can't find report abuse on a Gravatar

  • jayeedgecliff · Member · Jul 14, 2013 at 1:33 pm
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    I’ve gotten a “Like spam” from http://gravatar.com/fatspecialist and according to a post in another thread from a few months ago, there ought to be a report abuse option in the lower right if I visit that profile page.

    I can’t find it. I have stopped short of hovering my mouse over every pixel of the page looking for invisible links.

    The site the profile links to isn’t a wordpress.com hosted one, so browsing to it proved useless to report my suspicions; and that profile does not look to be remotely legitimate nor the site it links to.

    The blog I need help with is: (visible only to logged in users)

  • danielisreading · Member · Jul 15, 2013 at 4:46 am
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    I think the report abuse on Gravatar accounts may have been removed. Hopefully Staff can help you further.

  • justjennifer · Member · Jul 15, 2013 at 6:18 am
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    There are currently about 2 dozen posts in the forums on the problem of spam likes, with little or no staff input. Here’s one: https://en.forums.wordpress.com/topic/how-do-i-stop-or-report-spam-likes?replies=7#post-1344843

    I and others as well would be very happy to see Staff post an update.

  • jayeedgecliff · Member · Jul 15, 2013 at 12:29 pm
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    oy vey, all right … well, I can live with it, I wouldn’t even much care in the first place if I wasn’t afraid someone could get hurt following the “person’s” profile and its blog, diets are sketchy enough business from someone who knows what they’re doing!

  • justjennifer · Member · Jul 15, 2013 at 5:56 pm
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    For the interim, until this spam wave washes over, I’ve simply turned off the Likes from displaying on my sites and have every comment set to be reviewed and approved by an admin.

    This won’t prevent people from liking the post or page, but they won’t have the gratification of having their gravatar displayed.

  • snowpartridge · Member · Jul 15, 2013 at 7:24 pm
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    Hi jayeedgecliff,

    I have encountered exactly the same problem today. Fatspecialist also liked my post () and it is really annoying me that I am not able to delete this “spam like”.
    Wordpress Staff: please tell us how to fix this!

  • snowpartridge · Member · Jul 15, 2013 at 7:25 pm
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    And apparently I also need help with linking… Sorry about that.

  • timethief · Member · Jul 15, 2013 at 7:35 pm
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    @snowpartridge
    There is no “fix” available because
    (a) Gravatar accounts and WordPress.com accounts are one in the same
    (b) and because Gravatar accounts are universally available to all who wish to register one ie. they are not limited to just those who have free hosted WordPress.com blogs.

    My concern is focused on the fact that because these people are able to click like button we have no accurate means of assessing blog growth.

    I suggest you disable likes for as justjennfer pointed out above they won’t have the gratification of having their gravatar displayed.

    Add a Like Button

  • staff-heroponriki · Staff · Jul 16, 2013 at 4:31 pm
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    Hi there!

    It is possible for spammers to like posts on your blog, although it isn’t something you need to worry about. Pretty much the only thing they have to gain by liking your posts is getting you to visit or follow their blog through the notification email.

    If there are profiles have blogs that contain spam content, please report it following this guide: http://en.support.wordpress.com/report-blogs/

    Also, as @justjennifer and @timethief mentioned, the only way to completely prevent this from happening is to disable likes on your blog.

    I hope that clarifies things!

  • snowpartridge · Member · Jul 17, 2013 at 11:42 am
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    Hi csonnek and timethief,

    Thank you for your replies and the spam reporting advice. I am a bit disappointed that I cannot allow or deny the “likes” but hey, I can live with that :-)

  • jayeedgecliff · Member · Jul 17, 2013 at 4:54 pm
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    Hmm … I might disable the likes. I’ve so little use for them, but my readers seem to enjoy using it, and I’ve discovered some pretty neat blogs because of it.

    One quack looking profile I suppose isn’t too big a deal. I’d report the blog, but it doesn’t appear to be wordpress.com.

  • justjennifer · Member · Jul 17, 2013 at 5:24 pm
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    @jayeedgecliff You don’t have to turn Likes off permanently.

  • phunnyphilly · Member · Aug 23, 2013 at 2:58 am
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    I just got a like from “fatspecialist” as well. Seems like it’s harmless? Gravatar is obviously bogus…

  • rosieschwartz · Member · Aug 26, 2013 at 2:26 pm
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    I just got a like from “Fatspecialist” and on this like it states he blogs at “Enlightened Eater”. That’s my blog. How do I know that he’s not doing this elsewhere?

  • landscapelover · Member · Aug 26, 2013 at 2:50 pm
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    BTW the photo on his gravatar link is of noted cardiologist Arthur Agatston MD…

  • rosieschwartz · Member · Aug 26, 2013 at 2:54 pm
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    Interesting! Thanks, landscapelover! Is there any way of blocking him from using the name of my website – whoever he is?

  • The topic ‘Can't find report abuse on a Gravatar’ is closed to new replies.

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About this topic

  • In: Support
  • 9 participants
  • 15 replies
  • Last activity 11 years
  • Latest reply from jayeedgecliff
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