Avoiding Blog Spam

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By MikePaetzold


Why you need to activate Askimet

Askimet is probably my favorite plugin. It comes with the standard download of WordPress for the last few versions. It will help you control spam comments.

One of the problems with blogging of late is the proliferation of these automated comment software. I just changed a blog over that was getting crushed with spam to WordPress just for the Askimet plugin. I was spnding all my time dealing with the penile enlargement, drug and porn spammers.

Haven't had to delete one since I made the change. Askimet does the work for me. The spammers haven't stopped but now Askimet deletes them and I can worry about providing content. The first 4 days it caught over 60 spam posts.

Now if you have a brand new blog this may not be a problem but eventually the spammers will find you. They have just started on this blog but Askimet makes my life easy.

To use Askimet you need to turn the plugin on in the plugin section. Then if you do not have a WordPress API key you will click the link on the Askimet configuration page and sign up at WordPress. They will email you the API key and all you need to do is add that key into the appropriate space and you have Askimet working for you.

It is not 100% but it will learn from posts that you mark as spam. I very rarely get garbage posts that it doesn't catch. Take the time to add it to your blog today.

Have a question about Word Press or blogging?

Ask it here

Then look for the answer in my posts at my Word Press Made Easy blog or in the RSS feed from it below.

WordPress Made Easy

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What are your biggest questions about blogging and WordPress?

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cspence profile image

cspence  says:
17 months ago

Askimet is a good plug in, but I recommend turning it off and going with Recaptcha plug in. Not only is it more effective at blocking spam comments (99.9% compared to like 70% with Askimet), you will find you will rarely need to moderate useless/spam comments. With Askimet, I was daily moderating comments that got through, with Recaptcha, I get a comment every 2-3 months that I have to mark as spam, likely the spammer did the captcha by hand. But never do I see multiple comments to deal with.

MikePaetzold profile image

MikePaetzold  says:
17 months ago

Well I have tried it both ways and I use do follow and find I get too many apporved automatiaclyy that are spam even though they were manually submitted.

More to spam than just the automaters the people that post just for a back link and don't participate in the conversation are just as bad and even more prevalent.

Just an Old Bald Guy's opinion.

cspence profile image

cspence  says:
17 months ago

You will find the Recpatcha module will block much more spam than Akismet does, and the stuff it blocks, you never have to deal with at all. Which is a big time saver.

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