The last time I mentioned Spam Karma 2 was on April 4, 2006. In the previous six months, it had successfully deflected 19,003 attempts to post comment spam to this site.
Today, almost exactly six months later, I checked the SK2 stats again. This time, the numbers were more sobering.
That’s not a typo. If the pace of the last six months continue, this site will have been subjected to more than 1 million attempts to post comment spam before the year is over. On average, I get a few hundred comment spam attempts every day, compared to a handful of legitimate comments. (For an explanation of why people do this, see this Wikipedia article.)
Ugh. I’ve decided, in the interest of sanity, to close comments on all posts more than 60 days old. I may consider re-opening some older posts if they seem to be alive, but this should make a big dent in the problem and make my web hosting company much happier.
… OK, comments for most older posts are open again, thanks to a new plugin that should stop most stupid spambots. Let me know if you try to comment and are unable to do so (send a message to ed-blog AT bott DOT com).
… And after just a few days with the new regimen, the difference is profound. Spambots are now being blocked before they have a chance to post, thanks to an awesome plugin called Comments Post Rewriter, which uses a clever little bit of JavaScript to redirect the Submit button to a special URL and block any post that tries to access the comment submit script directly. Spam Karma now deals with the small number that sneak past, which is about two orders of magnitude smaller than before.
Oh, and sorry for you folks with live.com in your URL. For a day or two the filters were blacklisting that domain incorrectly. Should be fixed now.
Ed Bott 
Ed,
I believe you have a bug in your spam filter. I’ve had 4 of my posts rejected because it thought they were spam. I found that if I leave my blog URL out of the URL field that my comments go through.
Ray
Ray, for some reason your IP address was in the blacklist. I’ve removed it so you should be OK now.
And I thought my spam troubles were bad enough.
Ed,
Why not enable word verification like Blogger has. That will cut those numbers down to almost nothing. It is impossible to run a forum or blog without it nowadays.
And – or why not enable registration? The currect way you have the comment system wide open is why you are getting hit so much. This would be a much better solution than closing comments on topics older than 60 days.
Andrew, I already have captcha verification for any post that appears to be from a spammer. You don’t see it because anyone who has had a comment previously approved bypasses it. Word verification won’t stop the attempts.
And I really want to avoid registration, but will consider it if this doesn’t work. I have other ideas in mind for older posts, including an e-mail comment option.
Right but captcha will stop them from posting. Why not make older posts after 60 days require registration with captcha?
I’m experimenting on my other blog with some other solutions that don’t shift the burden to visitors and commenters. If they work there, I’ll use them here.
Stay tuned.
Testing a new plugin…
… Seems to work. I’ve reopened most old comments.
Someone else below asked this already about antyspam sripts.
I am getting nailed with Spam on my website mails and in our blog website – now ist offline too
much spam. Is there anyway to stop this? If not, there really isn’t any point in leaving it up
and active. Any help will be greatly appreciated. http://www.profesjonalna-reklama.pl
Thanks for help, Keep up the good work. Greetings from Poland