Public History and Spam

This is an aside, but even so…

I stumbled onto the Comments tab. Pending comments… (1).  Approved comments… (60). Spam? (292). What? From our little BMC public history blog? Yep. And it’s pretty hilarious what is in there. (Horny Women was my favorite username from the Junk Bucket.)

But it got me thinking. How do virtual public history exhibits/projects manage spam? I’m assuming Prof. Mercado didn’t have to deny all 300 of those messages; there must be some form of spam filter. But if the project is more specifically public-oriented, how would one not censor the public while keeping spam at manageable levels?