A Simple Trick To Fight WordPress Comment Spam

By Abhijeet on March 3, 2009

If you are running a blog which attracts a decent number of pageviews then comment spam is probably one of the things which you have to deal with on a daily basis. Of course we have Akismet, the old and trusted plugin which does a pretty good job in stopping WordPress comment spam but still there are times when spam bots are able to dodge it and enter your main comments section.

Also, you might want to go through the comments moderated by Akismet to check if it has marked some genuine comments as spam. That’s what I used to do until a few days back when I found that Akismet was blocking around 3 to 4 thousand comments per day. Moreover, the number of spam comments which bypassed Akismet’s filters were increasing everyday.

Hence I started to look for a solution and that is when I came across this post by Shoemoney, where Jeremy talks about a plugin which closes comments on older posts since he found that those were the posts which were hammered by the spam bots. And that is what I found on my blog too.

Now the plugin is a pretty old one and hasn’t been updated since a long time. So if you are on the latest version of WordPress then what do you do ? It’s actually quite simple. Just go to Settings – > Discussion and there you find that WordPress already gives you that option. So no need of a plugin !

I’m not sure if this feature is specific to 2.7 and newer versions or whether it was present in some previous versions too. But it certainly is a good way to fight comment spam… in fact I’d go on to say that it would help you manage your WordPress comments better. Because it’s really not worth your time digging into posts which are 2-3 months old and answer questions which might have no relevance today. So it’s better to just close comments and trackbacks on those posts.

Do you take any extra steps to fight comment spam or to manage your comments and trackbacks in a better way ? Lets talk about it in the comments.

Posted in Blogging, wordpress | Tagged Blogging, comments, wordpress | 35 Responses

http://www.ankurb.info/ Ankur Banerjee

Actually, there’s a better way to handle this than simply closing comments (which, BTW, has been around in WordPress for a very long time). Use Mollom. Under normal circumstances Mollom uses Akismet-type filtering to check if a comment is spam or not. If it thinks it’s spam then instead of sending to spam it prompts the user to solve a CAPTCHA. Now, if the user is human – instead of a spam bot – he’ll be able to solve the CAPTCHA and this his comment will be posted. That way, you don’t need to close comments on an old post. A person may still have queries related to it, you know.
http://www.ankurb.info Ankur Banerjee

Actually, there’s a better way to handle this than simply closing comments (which, BTW, has been around in WordPress for a very long time). Use Mollom. Under normal circumstances Mollom uses Akismet-type filtering to check if a comment is spam or not. If it thinks it’s spam then instead of sending to spam it prompts the user to solve a CAPTCHA. Now, if the user is human – instead of a spam bot – he’ll be able to solve the CAPTCHA and this his comment will be posted. That way, you don’t need to close comments on an old post. A person may still have queries related to it, you know.
http://techpp.com Raju

Earlier this month I wrote a post on exactly same topic but with a different solution. The post is titled “How I reduced Spam on my WordPress Blog by 99%?”

Much easier for blog owner, and no irritation to readers with those captchas!
Abhijeet

@Ankur – Mollom looks good except for the fact that its free version is limited to 100 captchas per day. Regarding closing comments on old posts, I’d say it’s better to do it or else a blogger could spend his entire day answering comments…or he might just ignore it which doesn’t solve any purpose. If the person has genuine queries then he could always use the contact section to ask the blogger.

@Raju – I’ll give Antispam bee a shot. Thanks.
http://www.ankurb.info/ Ankur Banerjee

Mollom offers an upgrade too, akin to Akismet pro licenses. 100 comments is 100 _legitimate_ comments; spam comments are not counted into this limit. The reason why it sounds good is because in Akismet there’s a chance of false positive, i.e., a genuine comment gets sent to spam. Frankly, not many people have the time to go through spam queue.

Mollom has been made by Dries Buytart, the creator of Drupal, so it has some serious mojo under the hood and backing from loads of people.

Abhijeet

@Ankur – Cool. Mollom is definitely worth a try then.

http://techpp.com Raju

Earlier this month I wrote a post on exactly same topic but with a different solution. The post is titled "How I reduced Spam on my WordPress Blog by 99%?"

Much easier for blog owner, and no irritation to readers with those captchas!
http://techpp.com Raju

Earlier this month I wrote a post on exactly same topic but with a different solution. The post is titled "How I reduced Spam on my WordPress Blog by 99%?"

Much easier for blog owner, and no irritation to readers with those captchas!
Abhijeet

@Ankur – Mollom looks good except for the fact that its free version is limited to 100 captchas per day. Regarding closing comments on old posts, I'd say it's better to do it or else a blogger could spend his entire day answering comments…or he might just ignore it which doesn't solve any purpose. If the person has genuine queries then he could always use the contact section to ask the blogger.

@Raju – I'll give Antispam bee a shot. Thanks.
http://www.ankurb.info Ankur Banerjee

Mollom offers an upgrade too, akin to Akismet pro licenses. 100 comments is 100 _legitimate_ comments; spam comments are not counted into this limit. The reason why it sounds good is because in Akismet there's a chance of false positive, i.e., a genuine comment gets sent to spam. Frankly, not many people have the time to go through spam queue.

Mollom has been made by Dries Buytart, the creator of Drupal, so it has some serious mojo under the hood and backing from loads of people.
http://www.ankurb.info Ankur Banerjee

Mollom offers an upgrade too, akin to Akismet pro licenses. 100 comments is 100 _legitimate_ comments; spam comments are not counted into this limit. The reason why it sounds good is because in Akismet there's a chance of false positive, i.e., a genuine comment gets sent to spam. Frankly, not many people have the time to go through spam queue.

Mollom has been made by Dries Buytart, the creator of Drupal, so it has some serious mojo under the hood and backing from loads of people.

Abhijeet

@Ankur – Cool. Mollom is definitely worth a try then.

http://web-workathome.com/ Bill Masson

I was getting truckloads of trackback spam on my blog, so I popped over to WordPress and copied their spam list and pasted if into my blacklist in WP admin. The spam completely stopped, showing up in my comments, but the site counter was still recording the spam. The Blacklistis mainly words but I have added suspected spam URLs.
http://web-workathome.com Bill Masson

I was getting truckloads of trackback spam on my blog, so I popped over to WordPress and copied their spam list and pasted if into my blacklist in WP admin. The spam completely stopped, showing up in my comments, but the site counter was still recording the spam. The Blacklistis mainly words but I have added suspected spam URLs.
http://web-workathome.com Bill Masson

I was getting truckloads of trackback spam on my blog, so I popped over to WordPress and copied their spam list and pasted if into my blacklist in WP admin. The spam completely stopped, showing up in my comments, but the site counter was still recording the spam. The Blacklistis mainly words but I have added suspected spam URLs.
http://www.bestproductsguidereview.com/ Dhiaqis

Hai.. good idea. I’ve noticed that setting but I don’t realized the benefits.
http://www.bestproductsguidereview.com Dhiaqis

Hai.. good idea. I've noticed that setting but I don't realized the benefits.
http://www.bestproductsguidereview.com Dhiaqis

Hai.. good idea. I've noticed that setting but I don't realized the benefits.
http://www.truecashmakers.com/ CashMakers

Thanks, this is a great WP + Akismet guide. Getting sick and tired of all this spam on my blog. Thanks again!
http://www.truecashmakers.com/ CashMakers

Thanks, this is a great WP + Akismet guide. Getting sick and tired of all this spam on my blog. Thanks again!
http://www.truecashmakers.com/ CashMakers

Thanks, this is a great WP + Akismet guide. Getting sick and tired of all this spam on my blog. Thanks again!
http://www.expatlist.be/ A Brit in Brussels

Hi,
I think the 60 day rule is good if your blogs entries are kind of ‘newsy’.

For blogs that you are going to keep useful info forever it doesnt work so well.

I had never heard of Mollom – so thanks for the tip guys.

Regards
http://www.expatlist.be A Brit in Brussels

Hi,

I think the 60 day rule is good if your blogs entries are kind of 'newsy'.

For blogs that you are going to keep useful info forever it doesnt work so well.

I had never heard of Mollom – so thanks for the tip guys.

Regards
http://www.expatlist.be A Brit in Brussels

Hi,

I think the 60 day rule is good if your blogs entries are kind of 'newsy'.

For blogs that you are going to keep useful info forever it doesnt work so well.

I had never heard of Mollom – so thanks for the tip guys.

Regards
http://www.volacci.com/ Ben Finklea

I agree that Mollom rocks. I still occasionally get a human who posts some spam but it has cut down on the spam on my site by 99%. I use the free version. I wonder if the 60-day rule and Mollom are compatible? I can’t see why they wouldn’t be…
http://www.volacci.com/ Ben Finklea

I agree that Mollom rocks. I still occasionally get a human who posts some spam but it has cut down on the spam on my site by 99%. I use the free version. I wonder if the 60-day rule and Mollom are compatible? I can't see why they wouldn't be…
http://www.volacci.com/ Ben Finklea

I agree that Mollom rocks. I still occasionally get a human who posts some spam but it has cut down on the spam on my site by 99%. I use the free version. I wonder if the 60-day rule and Mollom are compatible? I can't see why they wouldn't be…
http://www.dindingcoret.com/ Eldo A Pradana

May you tell me how to fight spammer in Blogger blog??
In many article, I think captcha don’t work anymore.

Thanks
http://blog-eap.blogspot.com/ Eldo Arfendika

May you tell me how to fight spammer in Blogger blog??

In many article, I think captcha don't work anymore.

Thanks
http://blog-eap.blogspot.com/ Eldo Arfendika

May you tell me how to fight spammer in Blogger blog??

In many article, I think captcha don't work anymore.

Thanks
Abhijeet

@Eldo Not sure. I thought Blogger blogs fought spammers better than other platforms. But now since you are saying it doesn’t work, I think you’d have to research and find out if there is a service which helps blogger blogs to prevent spam.
Abhijeet

@Eldo Not sure. I thought Blogger blogs fought spammers better than other platforms. But now since you are saying it doesn't work, I think you'd have to research and find out if there is a service which helps blogger blogs to prevent spam.
http://www.muszalik.com/ Chris

I´ll chance the option just now. thanks for your tipp.
http://www.muszalik.com Chris

I´ll chance the option just now. thanks for your tipp.
http://www.muszalik.com Chris

I´ll chance the option just now. thanks for your tipp.