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5th May 2006

Advice to curb wordpress spam?

posted in blogs |

Does anyone have a favorite, free plug-in for Wordpress that you’re using to block automated spam comments? The quantity of spam comments to my blog has been skyrocketing. Spam Karma 2 is doing a great job filtering it out, but I’d like to stop it from being posted at all. To do this I need a plugin that will require people to type a random word unreadable by computer bots. There is a word for that and I don’t know what it is (that type of authentication.) The official Wordpress site offers lots of different suggestions for fighting comment spam, but I want recommendations. I probably need to add this functionality soon, the comment spam is out of control.

On this day..

This entry was posted on Friday, May 5th, 2006 at 11:12 pm and is filed under blogs. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

There are currently 5 responses to “Advice to curb wordpress spam?”

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  1. 1 On May 6th, 2006, Kevin Farnham said:

    The random word displayed in graphics is called a “captcha”. It’s actually an acronym.

    Are you running WordPress 2.0? It has some spam fighting support right out of the box. But, my sites haven’t put it through much of a test yet. But I don’t know if 2.0 has anything that would automatically delete spam comments.

    I’ve seen a couple sites with alternatives to captcha’s. One site asks you to add two random numbers and enter the sum. Some others ask you to enter a specific word. Captcha’s are what’s used at all the large volume sites, though.

  2. 2 On May 6th, 2006, Steve said:

    These are straight from the Wordpress site and a Google search for “Wordpress spam tools.”

  3. 3 On May 6th, 2006, Wesley Fryer said:

    Thanks Kevin, I knew there was a word for those that I had heard but I forgot it.

    Thanks Steve, I did see that page of tools also, I am using Spam Karma 2 but am just wondering if anyone is using any tools that include “captcha” functionality that they recommend. That page from Wordpress does look pretty comprehensive, but I wish it had a feature where users could rate which ones they like best.

  4. 4 On May 6th, 2006, Doug Noon said:

    Wesley, if you want a “hands-free” low-profile spam blocker, I enthusiastically recommend Bad Behavior. Before I upgraded to Wordpress 2, I had it installed alongside Spam Karma, and Spam Karma essentially took a very long break. Since my Wordpress upgrade I haven’t had any need to add any new protection. The way it seemed to me then was that Bad Behavior+Spam Karma was like putting an electric fence around a yard with a guard dog in it.

  5. 5 On May 6th, 2006, Wesley Fryer said:

    Excellent Doug, thanks! A recommendation like this is just what I was looking for. I didn’t want to install a WP plugin that would conflict with Spam Karma, and I would prefer something that doesn’t make commenting more of a pain for actual human visitors! I’ve installed Bad Behavior and activated it, now I’ll wait to see if Spam Karma gets a break. THANKS! :-)