The world's most-read Scottish politics website

Wings Over Scotland


You don’t know what you’ve got

Posted on November 28, 2013 by

…until it’s gone. Wings Over Scotland is normally protected by a brilliant spam filter called Akismet, which blocks the constant flood of fake comments that assails every website on the internet. Akismet has filtered out 1,496,404 of these attempts to sell you counterfeit fashion, hardcore porn sites and attempts to steal your bank details since we started, in amongst the 120,297 real comments we’ve published in that time.

akismet

Last night it suffered a temporary outage, with the result that the four or five “pending” comments we usually wake up to in the morning – ones Akismet thinks are spam but isn’t 100% certain about, and so puts in a queue for us to look at manually – have been replaced today by 1,877 (and rising – an hour ago it was just over 1,000).

Here’s what this means for you.

1. If you posted a comment after about 1am this morning and it hasn’t appeared yet, it might not make it. We don’t have time to manually filter almost 2000 comments, so anything that Akismet doesn’t catch up with will get mass-deleted.

2. If you post a comment this morning that finds itself in the moderation queue for any reason, it might suffer the same fate. So be EXTRA-careful about:

– comments with multiple links in them

– comments with huge quotes from other websites

– comments with “signatures”. If you always put “Saor Alba” or “Alba gu brath” or “VOTE YES” or any such things at the end of your posts, those are automatically added to the mod queue so we can edit the sig out before they appear.

(Because folk don’t want to be bombarded with slogans all day, especially for things they almost certainly agree with already. Stop doing that, people. And while we’re here, stop signing your flipping name at the end as well. We KNOW it’s you, the comment’s ALREADY GOT YOUR NAME ON IT.)

– anything else that breaches our comment rules.

Otherwise, normal service should hopefully be resumed later this morning. Apologies.

40 to “You don’t know what you’ve got”

  1. Lanarkist says:

    Fantastic week for all concerned with the struggle makers-instate Scotland as an independent nation. 
    Any comment or figures Stu, on your twitter comment that WOS broke two records in the same day. Views and resultant posts must have shot up after the WP launch on Tuesday.
    You are doing a brilliant job, I do not know how you can keep up with the increased traffic.
    Keep on keeping on.

    Reply
  2. Extreme0 says:

    Any estimate as to when the filter is back on ?

    Reply
    • Rev. Stuart Campbell says:

      “Any estimate as to when the filter is back on ?”

      The number of comments in the queue has stopped rising and is now dropping very slowly as Akismet gets through the backlog, so hopefully it won’t be too long.

      Reply
  3. Les Wilson says:

    Well things happen, we will suffer it Stu. The site needs to work well.

    Reply
  4. Rev. Stuart Campbell says:

    “Any comment or figures Stu, on your twitter comment that WOS broke two records in the same day.”

    Yesterday smashed the previous all-time one-day pageviews record (only set on Tuesday) by a whopping 23%, with a total of 116,762 views in 24 hours. Alert readers will deduce that that’s the first time we’ve broken 100,000.

    Reply
  5. alexicon says:

    Ah, that would account for my comment on the other thread awaiting ‘moderation.’

    Reply
  6. Les Wilson says:

    Just have to comment on how happy I was that Nicola gubbed Carmichael last night. A big cry baby who could answer nothing! Keep it up BT !

    Reply
  7. desimond says:

    Will we have SPam Filters in an Independent Scotland?

    Another missing answer in the White Paper!

    Reply
  8. Lanarkist says:

    Wow! You must be thrilled/exhausted. 

    2.5% of potential voters in Scotland viewed your site in one day.

    If you expand the idea that once decided as yes you do not go back to no, the majority of these visitors will keep on visiting and numbers of readers/contributors will now surge exponentially.

    One day soon, 10% of potential voters will visit daily to equip themselves with the info they need to convince undecided voters and to debunk MSM misinformation.

    That is one helluva lot of ambassadors for the argument for an Independent Scotland.

    The virus is now an epidemic.

    Reply
  9. alexicon says:

    Another good reason for voting YES.
     
    link to dailymail.co.uk

    Reply
  10. David McCann says:

    Nicola could not have done any better, even if she used a wrecking ball! Demolition job.

    Reply
  11. mealer says:

    I watched the BBC debate.Would it have been possible to ask Ms Lamont any softer a question about her views on nuclear weapons on the Clyde? Pathetic from the BBC.It was so obvious.

    Reply
  12. john king says:

    Lanarkist
    “The virus is now an epidemic.”
    Quickly followed by a pandemic
     🙂

    Reply
  13. Robert Kerr says:

    Well done Stu and us.
     
    I have recorded last night’s debate and tonight’s QT.
     
    these can await my return from Iceland. Another Too Wee Place.

    Reply
  14. kininvie says:

    I noticed at about 1.30 am that the site seemed to be down…wonder if it was attacked?

    Reply
  15. faolie says:

    Whoosh! 116,762 views. Terrific. Thank the good Lord for the online medium otherwise we’d never get the message out there the way we have. When you think back to the Yes/Yes referendum campaign, man that was easy compared to now, what with the MSM pretty much on side back then.
     
    Still, as Homer maybe said, if a thing’s really hard to do, then the reward’s really great. Or something like that. Maybe. You know what I mean.

    Reply
  16. Lanarkist says:

    John king
    Quickly followed by victory and a giant national party!

    Reply
  17. Marcia says:

    Well done that young man.
     
    Will we have Spam Fritters in an Independent Scotland?

    Reply
  18. kendomacaroonbar says:

    I never really liked Spam Fritters.

    Reply
  19. Greannach says:

    To Robert Kerr – Just back from Iceland. Great to see a country with a population less than Fife after going through a terrible financial and banking crisis but behaving like adults and running their country for the benefit of the people. It struck me as a situation impossible in the UK but far more possible in an independent Scotland. Enjoy the place and the friendly, confident people.

    Reply
  20. Training Day says:

    Good stuff, Rev, and more power to your elbow – your comments facility is inmmensely valuable.  I’ve just had an entire comment deleted from NNS on the David Torrance article because it dared to mildly criticise the author.
     
    So I know who I’ll NOT be crowdfunding.

    Reply
  21. faolie says:

    Interesting wee article in the Scotsman today by Peter de Vink, chief executive of Edinburgh Financial General Holdings, arguing, as a Tory, that the No side runs the danger of being too late now to present a compelling positive case for remaining in the Union.
     
    link to archive.is

    Reply
  22. ronnie anderson says:

    Rev, somethings no working, am getting fed up haveing to keep typeing my name e mail addy,every time i go to the top of the page

    Reply
  23. GrahamB says:

    Tonight’s QT is a rerun of Nicola Vs The Bruiser. i missed it last night and tonight I’ll be out for a couple of pints so I’ll have to catch up on iPlayer. He must be crapping himself to be going out for another doing – he’s having to miss the Downing Street’s patronising Scottish/St Andrews night, puir sowl.

    The programme is from Falkirk and includes Big Mags C so should be an uncomfortable night for her with a good chance of some classic moments à la James Kelly. Others on the panel are Dame Goldie, Patrick Harvie and Eddi Reader so might be more balanced than usual and Dimbleby should be able to control it much better than last night’s disgrace at PQ.

    Reply
  24. Archie [not Erchie] says:

    SOS Body Language – Interesting use of the pen in the right hand which seemed at times to be like a dart or even a WMD aimed at NS. Was his left hand mainly in his trouser pocket?
     
    I will check once the debate is posted online but I am sure during the toasting he replied to a question ‘I dont know, I won’t be here’. 

    Reply
  25. Dave McEwan Hill says:

    Training day at 10.05
     
    Join the club

    Reply
  26. faolie says:

    O/T, piece from Deutsche Bank about why a Sterling Zone is in Scotland’s interests, and, if the UK really didn’t want to play, why we should just use use the Pound anyway. Some of it’s a bit technical (for me at least) but always interesting to get a foreign view on our referendum issues.
     
    link to archive.is
     

    Reply
  27. Cath says:

    At the radical independence conference someone (possibly someone from here – didn’t think to ask) had piles of the Aye Right as a nice A5 leaflet, and others in my Yes branch have sourced them from elsewhere too. So a lot of them must be hitting the streets now. After the white paper release  we were out leafleting the train stations and gave out over a thousand just in a couple of hours, just our branch. 
     
    So hello and welcome to anyone who’s new here 🙂
     

    Reply
  28. Edward says:

    Does anyone think that Lamont was actually coached beforehand
    I’m going by the profusion of ‘Blair’ hand gestures to emphasise  points

    Reply
  29. Morag says:

    Lamont always appears coached.  I’m convinced she’s had rather a lot of media training to try to turn her into a silk purse, but it must be a hard slog.  And of course she would have had special coaching before something like last night.

    Reply
  30. Simon says:

    A friend was just saying yesterday that they really noticed how the Twa Fishes were not using Westminster Politician hand Gestures, and how refreshing it was to see. So well spotted Edward on JL using them more.

    Reply
  31. Finnzz says:

    Well done to all at Wings.
    I have been actively encouraging all doubters to visit the site for the unparallelled coverage of the Independence debate and the questions that are never answered by the MSM.
    Having been an active participant on the Hootsman for several years, always with the same’ish user name, its always handy to have a source of undeniable facts available to educate the irrational No Better greetin faced whiners…
    More power to your keyboard.

    Reply
  32. Jim says:

    Congratulations on breaking more page view records Rev.
    Do you not feel guilty that people like me have stopped buying the Scotsman and Herald and rely on you and others for our news now?
    Does the dog collar in you not feel any remorse?
    LOL

    Reply
  33. jake says:

    That GrahamB says he’s going out for a couple of pints tonight got me wondering if we’ll be allowed to keep old imperial measures if we vote for independence.
    I assume if we can’t keep the pound for our currency, we can’t keep pints for our beer or miles for our road signs. Will our GPS still work based as it is on the Greenwich meridian?

    Reply
  34. Appleby says:

    Well it is nice to post in a comments section that isn’t full of adverts for dodgy medications or dangerous scam links that send you blundering into malware. 🙂

    Reply
  35. john king says:

    Jake says
    “Will our GPS still work based as it is on the Greenwich meridian?”
     
    Will our clocks go backwards, will the water drain down the plughole counter clockwise? WE NEED ANSWERS!

    Reply
  36. ronnie anderson says:

    Jake, We need to change to Greenland time ,anything after Independence that we dispose of flows south does that help

    Reply
  37. ronnie anderson says:

    JO LO , kept glanceing to her left, she was nt looking at J Swinney, so I think she was reading of a Idiot board of cam

    Reply
  38. Dramfineday says:

    Hi Rev Stuart
     
    just a few words to say thank you for the effort you put in over the last few days to keep us all in the picture. It has been a very busy spell with the white paper and the follow up material to the drivel pumped out by the usual suspects. Many, many, thanks for that and although I didn’t comment, I was following the debate avidly. Some very fine points made and thanks to all the “wingers”, new and old, for their lively contributions.

    Reply
  39. GP Walrus says:

    My flipping name is “Alastair Darling”.

    Reply


Comment - please read this page for comment rules. HTML tags like <i> and <b> are permitted. Use paragraph breaks in long comments. DO NOT SIGN YOUR COMMENTS, either with a name or a slogan. If your comment does not appear immediately, DO NOT REPOST IT. Ignore these rules and I WILL KILL YOU WITH HAMMERS.


  • About

    Wings Over Scotland is a thing that exists.

    Stats: 6,846 Posts, 1,231,790 Comments

  • Recent Posts

  • Archives

  • Categories

  • Tags

  • Recent Comments

    • Cynicus on The cost of failure: “Hatey McHateface says: 6 December, 2025 at 7:26 pm “Nobody is going to claim a McTavish born in Islamabad to…Dec 7, 00:28
    • Confused on The cost of failure: “Farage tries to get back in with the jews, issues a statement : – my own grandfather (sniff) … DIED…Dec 6, 23:14
    • James Cheyne on The cost of failure: “Dan, Good to see others keeping an eye on whats going on behind scenes, Just wondered if the re-population of…Dec 6, 22:10
    • James Cheyne on The cost of failure: “Scotland will not end England, Englands old treaties and plans for Scotland are now being used in the same manner…Dec 6, 21:57
    • James Cheyne on The cost of failure: “Look north England for your enemy while we ” the other”infiltrate and invade your Country by sea and town, and…Dec 6, 21:34
    • James Cheyne on The cost of failure: “Globalisation does not believe in nation states, nationality, own culture of indigenous people or own language, own soil land or…Dec 6, 21:20
    • Hatey McHateface on The cost of failure: ““Dundonian born and bred” “Born in Dundee and brought up in Dundee” Not the same thing at all, Cynicus, as…Dec 6, 19:26
    • Captain Caveman on The cost of failure: “Well, quite.Dec 6, 19:04
    • agentx on The cost of failure: “Saturday, June 13: Scotland vs Haiti (Gillette Stadium, Foxborough). Kick off 2am UK time. Thursday, June 18: Scotland vs Morocco…Dec 6, 18:13
    • agentx on The cost of failure: “Scotland have 2 games in Boston and 1 in Miami which is good.Dec 6, 17:59
    • Iain More on The cost of failure: “Meanwhile that cheating diving anti Scottish Racist Neymar will possibly be back playing for Brazil and the Sassanach controlled BBC…Dec 6, 17:17
    • Dan on The cost of failure: “Stuff going on elsewhere, as the tumbleweed rolls by here… https://www.isp.scot/november-29th-december-5th-2025/Dec 6, 16:43
    • sarah on Ginger beer and fruit and nuts: “That’s good. Thanks, Silent Majority, for sharing with those of us who avoid the BBC!Dec 6, 16:31
    • GM on The cost of failure: “The first game is v Haiti as well.Dec 6, 14:05
    • SilentMajority on Ginger beer and fruit and nuts: “…interesting…that the BBC, recently, when reporting these types of stories, I’ve seen them use the describing prefix of ‘a biological…Dec 6, 13:23
    • Cynicus on The cost of failure: “Hatey McHateface says: 6 December, 2025 at 9:58 am “I see you’re not averse to a spot of goalpost shifting…Dec 6, 11:51
    • Mark Beggan on The cost of failure: “The Canadian Socialist experiment has failed. Treaty!Treaty! we don’t need no stinking Treaty! We’ve got the receipt for the beads…Dec 6, 11:32
    • James Cheyne on The cost of failure: “This small nation is not alone and many Countries now want the same wants as Scotland, many nations will beat…Dec 6, 10:49
    • James Cheyne on The cost of failure: “A Labour plan to devolve and create one supreme court is still on going, as is witnessed this week by…Dec 6, 10:38
    • James Cheyne on The cost of failure: “The NuSNP are part of that system as are the devolved governments. Minor control given but altimate control reserved.Dec 6, 10:15
    • Hatey McHateface on The cost of failure: “Some people like to point out that the Earth has a billion or two more people on it than it…Dec 6, 10:11
    • James Cheyne on The cost of failure: “Repeating the same political policies in every governance over all the nations, most of them have roots (as a tool)…Dec 6, 10:06
    • Hatey McHateface on The cost of failure: ““Next time brown skinned people make you feel uncomfortable have a look in the mirror” Not if they’re coming at…Dec 6, 09:58
    • James Cheyne on The cost of failure: “Treaties being altered, repealed, textual changes, breached, not adhered too, used for annexation purposes, and control taken over by one…Dec 6, 09:57
    • James Cheyne on The cost of failure: “What is interesting is how Canadians are saying prices are rising in every quarter over there causing the economical downfall…Dec 6, 09:43
    • Hatey McHateface on The cost of failure: “So the “gas the Jews” remarks aren’t going to be forgotten, Confused? Wow. Where does that leave you?Dec 6, 09:32
    • James Cheyne on The cost of failure: “Nigel Farage is also someone whom annouced that he would say no to Scotland if he came to power. With…Dec 6, 09:20
    • Confused on The cost of failure: “Farage was a good laff the other day, pointing out what the BBC was up to in the 1970s -…Dec 5, 23:04
    • James Cheyne on The cost of failure: “Stu, good journalism, Catch up in morning, am tired and away to bed.Dec 5, 22:29
    • Colin Alexander on The cost of failure: “There is no pro-indy vs Pro-union division at Holyrood. That’s just a theatrical show for the gullible. The parasite political…Dec 5, 22:28
  • A tall tale



↑ Top