I installed a new plug-in a few days ago and it seems to be working great. I've tried various plug-ins over the years to block spam of all types with mixed results.
SpamKarma 2 and Askimet both seemed to work pretty well but I was still having to go through and verify if blocked items were really spam. They both worked pretty well for comments but trackback spams would sometimes slip through.
Lately, the only spam I've been getting has been the trackback kind. I was getting tired of looking at the various drug and porn trackbacks so I went looking for a plugin that would block it completely.
WP-SpamFree looked like it could do the job I wanted. According to the plug-in author's description
Comment spam has been a problem for bloggers since the inception of blogs, and it just doesn’t seem to go away. The worst kind, and most prolific, is automated spam that comes from bots. Well, finally there is an effective solution, without CAPTCHA’s, challenge questions, or other inconvenience to site visitors. The WP-SpamFree plugin virtually eliminates automated comment spam from bots, including trackback and pingback spam.
It seems to be doing the trick. So far it's blocked 33 spam bots according to the information it puts in my dashboard.
There's only one problem. It appears that no one has tried to leave a comment since I installed the plug-in. Since there's no way to see just what its blocking I can't be positive that a legitimate comment has been blocked.
So I'm asking for a favor. Please leave a comment. Even if it's just to say hi. I'd appreciate it.
Kelson says:
Okay, here's a test comment. I did have to turn JavaScript on first…
OK, it looks like it doesn't blogk the latest Opera (at least with JS and cookies turned on).
7/5/2008, 1:16 pmjan says:
Hi Laura, May you live your life free from spam. It did seem like comments took a little while to open, but not a lot.
7/5/2008, 4:12 pmLen says:
Um… hi?
That was funny… I tried to comment leaving just the two words above and was told that my comment was too short and that I should go back and try again. First time I've been accused of saying too little. Thanks!
7/5/2008, 6:17 pmLaura says:
Kelson,
Thanks, I'm not sure why you had to turn on JavaScript, though. It may be a feature of the plug-in to make sure your "human."
Jan,
Oh, to be so lucky. I've got 2 or 3 plug-ins now that have something to do with the comments. That may be slowing them up.
Len,
Thanks, I'm sure that had to do with making sure you were "human."
Steve Hayes says:
What exactly is trackback spam and how is it supposed to work?
I've seen trackbacks caught by Akismet, and they seem to be from sites that are simply trying to collect links rather than make people go there.
7/7/2008, 6:47 amLaura says:
Steve,
Basically, a trackback spammer is anyone who sends a fake trackback ping to your blog to try to increase links in to their site when their website doesn’t even mention your post, your blog, or have anything to do with the subject of your post. Trackback spam is a way for fraudulent blogs to increase their ranking with search engines and try to get visitors to click on one of the adverts. This only works for them until the search engines are notified and block the blog from their database.
Kelson says:
From reading up on the plugin, it requires the visitor to have both JavaScript and cookies enabled. This probably means anyone using a mobile browser (with the possible exception of the iPhone) isn't going to be able to leave you any comments.
7/8/2008, 12:36 pm