Ok, now I’m officially frustrated with SPAM on Riley Central. When I first found out that my Akismet plugin (which I previously revered as the holy grail of comment anti-spam) was holding Rosemarie and Jessica the Rock Chick’s (at least them and maybe more) hostage, I immediately researched other plugins and methods to fight spam.
On my site I get about 30-40 spam comments an hour (I clocked it). You don’t see them because they either go to Akismet or they get held for moderation and I later delete them before they are posted. When Akismet proved harmful to my readers, I tried Bad Behavior. Bad Behavior felt exciting, but it didn’t tell me what was blocked so I had no idea who I was blocking out. The capthcyas, recaptchyas, Peter’s Spam images, and another spam image plugin I now can’t recall . . . none of them worked flawlessly. The spam images also prevented good commenters from getting in ([Derek Semmler dot com] for example). I never imagined comments would be such an issue. If I didn’t value the tweakability of WordPress so much, I’d probably be taking Riley Central to Blogger. While it is harder than beating a dead horse to get a comment form filled out on Blogger.com, they have virtually NO Spam, or so [Life is RANTastic!] tells me. So here I am, having my “UGH!” Charlie Brown moment. So what am I doing now?
The BEST and only solution I know of to spam without excluding good comments inadvertently . . . . Moderate every comment. I hate to do this, but it’s to ensure that nobody gets SPAMMED!
If you have a clear solution for me, for a WORDPRESS blog please, I would welcome your comment (once it’s been “moderated!”), like I said . . . “ugh” moment. My apologies to my commenters, may this not slow you down!
Hi. I'm Damien Riley, MA.
10 Comments
Trying “Did you Pass Math” plugin and yes . . . turned on Akismet again. I’ll be checking it for mistakes daily for sure, so if your comment doesn’t show up, it will get there eventually.
I’ve seen the math test used on a few blogs. I’ve been pretty happy with Akismet but it sounds like you get much more spam than I do so you would have more to deal with. Did you have the latest version of Akismet? Assuming so but just thought I would ask.
What if I’m too harried to add correctly?
Seriously, on Blogger, I had no problems with spam, and on Wordpress my spam is increasing, but not to your level, so it is easy to just glance at them and make sure no one is left out.
Love the contrast of the green against the blue, though tired eyes rebel against the white against the dark… but I will love it while you leave it, because change is one thing you and I have in common. However, I was going to retype some of the info in the yellow boxes, the white letters already there didn’t show. I had the same thing on one of my templates.
@Derek: Yeah, I just checkedand I have 2.0.1 which is the latest version.
It picked up your posts which blew me away. I am so glad I found them. I wonder how many people I have offended through this past year because I never check my Akismet folder for false positives.
I’ll keep the “Did you Pass Math” plugin for a while because it keeps the Akismet folder from becoming huge. I do get a lot of comment spam, but I only get 100-200 hits a day so I don’t know what the deal is. Maybe somebody who doesn’t like me put me on a list :( That would truly suck. Anyway, the plugin will keep SOME of the bots away (they are getting smart nowadays!) Thanks Derek.
@Marcia: Yeah, I’m not happy with WP spam right now. I like this new theme. It was time to change my shirt again ;)
Let’s see if this works! =) I don’t mind moderation. Delay can be good. It will keep us coming back for more!
What’s up?! That was an instantaneous post.
Wow that’s an obscene amount of spam. You must have gotten on a list somewhere. I get between 200-500 hits a day on my blog, and I get maybe 1-2 spams PER DAY.. not per hour.
Like the colour scheme, by the way, but find it nearly impossible to read the navy blue on black writing on your sidebar. Hope that’s just something you haven’t tweaked yet!
I had problems with askimet, so I’ve just installed Peters Custom Image Plugin … seems to work fine, but because I don’t get a high level of spam, it’s difficult to say at this point.
Do keep us posted if you find anything wonderful! I read you via GoogleReader, so I’ll be watching out!
Thanks so much Jayne. Yeah, it can get bad sometimes. This morning I only had 16 spams in Akismet so maybe it’s slowing down (I wish). Thanks for putting me on your reader. Pardon my personal rant this am . . . rrr. Back to positive later I promise!
I have found a solution that has worked 100% for the past week. I will be posting about it very soon! Woo Hoo! It feels good to slay a dragon dead!