The first two panels are a portion from The Adventures of Sue and Kathryn, Selkie’s favorite cartoon. It really HAS been a long day if she’s nodding off during Sue and Kathryn.
Few things to talk about today. Firstly, I have been getting absolutely flooded with spam comments the past few days (over 200 just in the time I was at school yesterday! It almost feels like a deliberate targeting…). Complete gibberish, or vaguely generic “replies” that have links to Google or Yahoo or Bing. I am going to undertake some anti-spam measures, but I want to find a solution that won’t inconvenience all of you actual readers too much. The math problem captcha was working really well, but I think it’s been compromised. I’ve changed it to a different math captcha for the time being, if that doesn’t work I will try other measures.
I want to avoid anything drastic like shutting down comments on old strips (sometimes new readers like to drop comments on older comics, I’d hate to take away that option) or requiring my approval to comment (I’m afraid of accidentally blocking a legitimate person from comments). If I make any anti-spam changes beyond a new math captcha I’ll let everyone know.
Oh, also. I’ve cut back a lot of the spam floods by blacklisting the words “google” “yahoo” and “bing”. (they post with fake replies and link back to major search engines, I suppose to create fake traffic? Not sure why linking to already-well known sites is beneficial for the spammers). If you use a email address which includes google yahoo or bing to post, you may get tossed into the spam box. I’ll do my best to make sure any real people that get tossed in the spam comments gets properly reinstated, but try to avoid those three words if possible.
I’ve also been setting up a block on IP addresses used by spammers, so if you get some kind of message saying your IP is blocked… check for spyware.
On a happier note! I got two lovely pieces of Fan Art to share today!
Courtesy of Kayte and E.R. (in order):
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Thank you both!
Yay you make insomnia worth it by posting a new strip of SELKIE!
Oh and as a mom I just have to say, seeing Todd pick her up to put her to bed made my heart melt. “More cartoons” is a line I’ve heard from my little one in just that situation.
haha I remember moments like that when growing up…
Nie-nie, Selkie…Night light, sleep tight! 🙂
Also, Todd, your mom totally just stole your salad! And the black … thing… in the tv show looks like Owlamoo, a Dresden Codak Lantern/lemur.
Now I want to hug this comic. /hug!
And this is why I use my school e-mail! lol
Oh man, I have such memories of that happening when I was little. *enter cute memory montage :)*
I was surprised at the art for “Sue and Kathryn.” It’s such a major contrast to the art style for Selkie that I actually thought it was a guest comic at first! Bizarre.
Very cute fanart, especially the first one, nice job fan artists!
I love this comic with all my heart, You should feel so warm and fuzzy inside that you have the bestest readers out there by the way! Everything is positive and everyones so happy with one another. It honestly feels like the Selkie Comics are a nice little second home<3 Everyone can just enjoy and feel happy and safe around here. So thanks for creating an amazing comic and an amazing community!
Also the second Fanart is AMAZING!!! I LOVE it!
I feel exactly that way! 😀 Ya’ll are an amazingly supportive bunch of people and I love having you all around. Every Monday and Thursday I am basically glued to my iPhone checking for comments. My teachers hate it. XD
Spam is the worst! If you do a search for wordpress plugins, though, you should be able to find some that have invisible captchas. Basically, the comment entry form has a ticky box that spiders see but humans don’t. Spiders/spammers tick it, but since humans can’t see it, they won’t tick it. Therefore, if the box is ticked, it’s a spammer. You should also be able to limit the amount of links included in comments.
Spam sucks. And Selkie is SOOO cute!
The first day of adoption is over; all hail the new day! In all seriousness, I’m very excited to find out more. Your internet comic is the best I’ve read yet. 😀
I don’t think the day is over yet. it is probably just 20 questions time.
I love it!! Selkie only gets more adorable the further into the strip we get. You should definitely make a book of this someday.
Yeah … print version would be good. You might want to also sell it as an e-book, they’re real popular right now. In fact I just got the e-version of “Cleopatra in Spaaaace” (which, now that I look, I’m surprised is NOT on your links below …) – but the electronic version is a way that those of us on a limited budget, for whatever reason, can still get the book.
Kathryn reminds me ot the Astral in Svetlana Chmakova’s new manga Nightschool :} I like that we get to see a bit of the cartoon. My first thought every monday and thursday is “Yay! It’s Selkie day!”, this has really become one of my all time favourite comics. Keep up the good work.
Glad that Grandma came around so quickly.
I love that last panel with him carrying her off to bed, brought back so many memories of me doing the same thing with my kids when they were little.
Also, love the fan art. I’m tempted to give it a go myself some time once I have a working monitor on “MY” computer again. My monitor died so I’m using my husbands computer and he doesn’t have the same art programs that I do on mine.
Dave> You could change it to a darker brown. The human eye probably won’t notice aside from it being clearer to us. And the whole strip was a giant “Aaaaawwww:)”. I’ve done that many times with my daughter so far, and probably many more:) I also didn’t miss Marigold sneaking a bite of her son’s veggie dinner, LOL.
It’s a common practice in my extended family. That and maintaining a constant watch on your chair, lest you lose it to someone wanting a better view of the TV. XD
On the spam issue, this comic runs on WordPress, right? Do you have the Akismet anti-spam plugin enabled? It’s been pretty effective at filtering in my experience, and you can set it to auto-approve somebody after their first comment.
I’m trying to explore all the free options first. >_>
Kathryn is adorable, but what IS she??
I’m guessing zombie-girl, what with the green skin & use of brains in her “cooking”.
Kathryn (white head with black hair/tendrils) is a wraith. Sue is a zombie wearing a school uniform.
Well darn … wrong again! LOL. Sure wish Cartoon Network carried Sue and Kathryn.
Please change the eyebrows back. Please.
D’awww~
Also loved the sneaking of the food… I love a lot of the little things, as well as liking the proud-parent/beaming look that Todd gave.
Inspired by a friend’s blog post, I did a little analysis of why I bookmarked all the ongoing comics I did, and I wanted to share the part related to Selkie, as it was something I thought was rather unique in the list.
“Aside from phenomenal writing, seeing the art make spaghetti upgrades (throw it at a wall, see what sticks, use the best stuff) every couple strips, as well as how responsive in-depth parts of the universe are, Dave makes me feel rather involved as a reader. When I think “I wonder how x works?”, he usually comments back with an answer, he tells us his thoughts about decisions in the comic, he has us come up with some ideas here and there (Like the Selkie as a fantasy character sketches)… So there’s essentially a degree of pride there: Not only do I get to watch it grow and develop at a noticeable pace, but I feel like, in some small way, that I’m actually helping it along just by being the type of reader I have been…”
I honestly have no idea how much I help, if at all, but the involvement (Such as telling us about choices you fought with, or the feedback) is very rewarding regardless.
Dave does give us readers more of a personal stake in the comic. It is one of the things that I love about “Selkie” also.
One of the things I do at my own site is block certain phrases. Many of these spambots love to use BBCode, so I just block any message that contains the following:
[url=
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It took out over half of my spam comments. Try that. 🙂
Heh. Kathryn looks very J-Horror (think Ju-on/The Grudge or Ringu) in a cartoony way. Love it. And I love how well-observed and realistic this family is.
I use the Akismet plugin on my site. It’s very easy to customize, and i’ve had very little spam slip through.
So cute!!! Todd’s gonna be such a great dad.
Heh, you show family bonding in adorably (no surprise) believable ways. Stealing each others’ food is a big one: in my family if you let a stranger get away with that, you may as well set the wedding date…
Selkie being sleepy (and doing her best to deny it) drives home how successfully she’s adapted to human ways. It seems clear her original people must be socially very similar, even allowing for the adaptability of the very young.
So. Much. Love. I love love love this comic! It sucks about the spam though….and I don’t have anything I can say to help. Personally, I don’t mind captcha much, so there’s that at least.
I’ll give glaring in a threatening manner at my computer a try, and see if I scare off any of the bots. 😉
Dude i though it was some random filler page when i saw the first panel xD
I love your character interactions. Everyone seems so real.
The fan arts are greats! Nice job on both.
Re; the security thing … I don’t mind a captcha, there’s a couple of comics that use them for the comments section. I’ve gotten so used to them, I honestly can’t remember which ones they are! (Hmmm … I think ACC might be one.) Since I don’t actually run a web site, I don’t have any idea of how well they work, but I gather they DO work. Do what you need to do to protect the integrity of your site. One of the things I love here is the ability to comment and receive replies from you. You’re very responsive to us (your readers) so we know you appreciate our remarks, and in return, we value you and Selkie all that much more. I agree with you about not closing the comments on the older pages … if I remember right, when I first found Selkie I dropped a couple of comments along the way while I was catching up. It was great to have replies to them. (Though I may be thinking of other comics … I’m old and easily confused. LOL) (Though one solution would be to round up the people who’ve written spambot programs and other malware and start shooting. But … I suppose that’s a tad drastic … maybe just caning …)
Naw caning leaves bruises (evidence). Just sign them up for 1000 home and garden magazines. Taste of their own medicine.
Hmmm … could the math problems be made just a tad more difficult? Say, instead of ALWAYS having a simple addition, maybe use a subtraction problem? Can it be set to randomly use different operators? Say, addition, subtraction, multiplication, square root, cosine, tangent … naw maybe not tangents … Okay, yeah, a little tiny bit carried away there …
Integrals and derivatives! Everyone knows computers are bad at those.
Sideways Math from Wayside School… I never could quite figure it out. It went somewhat like this: Marcia plus Todd times Apple equals Miss Zerves…
Oof, I’m lousy at math… for a moment when it asked me for the sum I was a little confused. If it got much harder than simple addition and subtraction I probably wouldn’t be able to comment.
I love Selkie comics- im commenting this time around because we finally got to see a piece of The Adventures of Sue and Kathryn, and I’ve wantd to see them for awhile. I love most stories with undead characters, but undead children in at least apperance strike a particular cord with me. awesome idea. (I’m working on one with a kind of Wight)
Selkie is as cute as always!
Aww, she looks so cute in the last panel. Wish my dad was that nice about putting us to bed as kids. He’d just push us with his feet until we woke up enough to walk to bed.
Sorry about the spammers Dave. D: Hope you manage to stave ’em off.
On another note, today’s comic was super adorable. xD
Good, I see you’ve got a security question now — hope that helps. If you’re using WordPress it is really trivially easy to block spam these days — Akismet will eat it all for you and you never have to think about it. I really feel you on the spam issue. When my blog got socked in with spam I got so depressed I stopped writing. And then there was so much spam that Movabletype actually broke, and my server choked, and I couldn’t even get into my blog’s backend. (And then I wrote an entire academic dissertation about the depressing misdirected comments I got from actual human beings, but that’s another story.) Hang in there, it’s an easier problem to solve these days than it used to be.
The captcha doesn’t bother me at all, and I’m sorry you’re being hit so much with spam. That really sucks.
On a personal note, I love the adventures of Sue and Kathryn mostly because… well, my name is in there, and it’s not all that common of a spelling so yeah. Bit of extra love there.
Hi Dave,
Thanks for sharing your heart with us.
Re: the spam, I did a quick look around for options. The major site starting with a ‘g’ has some interesting suggestions in their Official Webmaster Central Blog. One of them is this free filter: http://sblam.com/en.html
Hey Dave, we use Akismet, which is AWESOME. It autoblocks most spam comments and sticks em in a separate area where you can just click one button and remove them all, or go through and approve one that isn’t spam :).
Very nice, this really highlights the nature of Kathryn’s body, just in the way she’s holding that test tube.
So, based on Selkie’s food being pink and grandma’s being brown, I’m guessing that Selkie’s is a little more raw?
Oh! and how about just a darker brown for her eyebrows? It’s not uncommon for eyebrows to be darker than the rest of one’s hair and it would be a real shame to see the colour in them go.
huh… with the new Security Question way down there, it can be easy to miss. How is it even still tied into the system? :. Maybe you should consider moving it up to above the Comment section?
It’s really too bad about the spammers :<
I hope that the new math-captcha works.
I’d love to move it up but I don’t know how. XD
I have never commented, but I have enjoyed this comic since I discovered it, I think the fourth or fifth one in. I found it, read it, and was immediately hooked. I really identify with Selkie as the whole fish-out-of-water in my childhood, though I was not adopted.
I am posting a comment, finally, because I have also noticed the spam here and several other sites I frequent, none of which had a problem with it until recently. The one thing that all the sites I have noticed being hit with the spam have in common with each other is the fact that there is no anti-spam captcha or confirmation that it is a human posting it. So I think it is not a case of specific targeting against you, but some kind of rampant explosion of spambots.
As a processed meat that has been pre-cooked, I am guessing Selkie wouldn’t be able to digest the stuff and would probably think it was gross. I think it is too, both the canned meat and electronic versions. So the new security question you put in will probably solve your problems. I actually enjoy reading the comments and would hate to see them shut down because of an act of terrorism like a this spambomb.
And in the end, I just want to say thanks for the regular updates, funny situations, and adorable artwork.
Sincerely,
Michael Hester
Oh I’ll never let the site shut down to spambombs. I am like a fortress of manually removing spam comments. Xd The new measures have helped a lot though, thank you!
Fascinating webcomic. The setting is familiar with some hints as to the changes, and the characters seem well developed. I look forward to reading the next installation, and will add this to my reguarly read list along with ‘Gunnerkrigg Court’, ‘Girl Genius!’, and ‘Order of the Stick’. Keep up the good work.
I was without a computer for a while but now I have one again. That means I can read this again. Yeay!
Also, yeah, no kid ever wants to go to bed ever unless it’s horribly inconvenient.
I would go nuts without my computer! Happy surviving it! XD
Poor Selkie. She gets all sleepy…
WOAH YOU ACTUALLY POSTED THE FAN ART!!! Awesome. I bragged about this comic all day because of it. Thanks for posting my drawing! ^_^
There’s a new captcha that will work really well for this site! It’s very effective against spambots and is super-cute and fun for your readers!
It’s called “KittenAuth.” The captcha presents a panel of nine random animal pictures, of which three are kittens. Your user selects the three kittens. The end!
The big drawback is that it can’t be used by the visually impaired. In that case, I’d suggest offering an audio-based captcha alongside it.
Here’s an article on it. It’s up to you to figure out where to get it from. http://arstechnica.com/old/content/2006/04/6554.ars
P.S. Here’s the creator’s page explaining the concept behind it and what you need to make it work. A must-read if you’re considering this. http://thepcspy.com/read/the_cutest_humantest_kittenauth/
Also, the big flaw in your “Sum of 5+6” captcha is that addition is easy-peasy for a spambot that’s been taught to search for the word “sum,” especially if a programmer looked directly at your site before tailoring the code.
I saw an interesting captcha on another site, (don’t remember which one at the moment) It looked like a perfume add but it wasn’t. Underneath the picture of the perfume was a scrolling banner that had the name of the perfume and three random letters in red. You just had to enter the three red letters and that was that.
I know this is really, really late to add to this discussion, but I just ran in to this tidbit on the discussion for how to keep the Erfworld Wiki free of spammers:
“– Over at the unofficial exalted wiki, I found that the most successful thing with fixing spam was switching to a straight type-in-the-word captcha on account creation – recaptcha and logic puzzles are pretty much cracked, but the spammers are generally not targeting single wikis, so something like ‘type in the name of the wiki’ cut my spam down to zero. – Xyphoid –“
quasi-related, but given the links to comics you like I’d recommend Erfworld to you
I started reading your comment today, and I have to say I love it! Its really cute and herat warming :3
Todd
carrying
tired
Selkie
off
to
bed
made
me
die
of
d’aww.