I have some automated filters on the comments section of this blog. They do a solid job of removing the seemingly endless selection of useless messages that bots deliver to the website. When the comment is a more human sounding message, they go to the pending folder for me to approve. However, recently, I have seen a far higher number of messages appear in that folder and they seem to be real. Below is a selection of the recent messages received.

• That’s a really interesting project – it’s great to see how practical applications like Helinet can be showcased in visual media.
• Sounds like a really busy but rewarding day of travel and photography. Itchen Abbas is a bit of a trek from the Watercress Line!
• It’s amazing how much technology was packed into those older helicopters. They really were impressive machines.
• That’s a really interesting spot you’ve found. I wonder if they might be used to encourage fish to gather and feed?
• That’s really fascinating, it’s amazing to think about how much equipment is involved in modern movie productions.

These might all look like someone had been reading the posts and commenting on them. However, when you look at the website links that are associated with the comments, they are all odd websites in Korea. It appears to me that there are some decent AI elements that are scanning the posts and creating plausible comments that can then get the links into the comments section. It is not an overwhelming level of commenting at this point, so I am comfortable sending them to spam. However, it does have me wondering whether this is going to grow to a level that is really troubling. Hopefully the spam filters will get more adept at identifying the dodgy links that are associated with the comments and junking them, but we shall see.