Nuke redirect code
While looking at HyperNews misuse, I started thinking. How would an owner of a HyperNews site nuke all the comments with redirects?
A script that looks for common redirect code would get a lot of those comments, providing the template doesn’t contain that type of code. On the other hand, HyperNews is dead. It’s too hard to keep up these days. Spammers will just pump out the comments without checking for admins who clean their installations. So the only logical step is to remove the software altogether.
But, owners of free blogs and free websites, should definitely scan for redirect code. And remember that the moment you remove sites containing one type of code, the spammers will try and outwit you. So it’s an arms race, all the way.
And if you’ve got a website with any kind of interaction: The spammers will find a way to use your scripts against you. So you need to stay vigilant and monitor everything. Don’t want to monitor anything? Remove all the interactive stuff, and stick to clean HTML. OK, CSS might work, but php and cgi is out. While you’re at it, you should move to a dedicated box… 
Seriously, the most cutting edge is way beyond guestbook spam by now. It’s high time we rethink our old methods for combating webspam. It just doesn’t work.
Update: Check out Google Groups spamvertizing of HyperNews spam. Don’t know what the point is, unless Googlebot spiders links in their groups. But there it is anyway.