New comment filters in place

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I’ve just updated to WordPress 2.7 (thank you again, WordPress Automatic Upgrade). In the process, I switched to a new spam-comment-filtering solution. That will probably mean some false positives and some quarantines in the near term until I get it fine-tuned. Sorry in advance.

I close comments after a few weeks. The alternative is mountains of comment spam, which I’m tired of dealing with. Oh, and just to be clear: I reserve the right to edit or delete any comment, any time. You get a lot of leeway if you’ve been a part of the discussion here before. If you’re a newcomer (if you have not previously had a comment published on this site), it will be held for moderation. I delete random snark, juvenile insults, and off-topic comments.

When posting a comment, I request that you use your real name and your real e-mail address (the e-mail details are not publicly available). I occasionally contact commenters to offer help or ask a follow-up question. If you use a fake address, I can’t reach you.

Published by Ed Bott

Published

12 thoughts on “New comment filters in place”

  1. My salvation has been WP-SpamFree http://www.hybrid6.com/webgeek/plugins/wp-spamfree combined with TypePad AntiSpam (You can substitute Akismet for the latter). WP-SpamFree does the heavy lifting in keeping out the bots and AntiSpam catches the few dubious hand crafted ones.

    The only downside of WP-SpamFree is that users with either cookies or JavaScript turned off will be prompted to turn them on if they wish to comment.

  2. Ironically, I had to manually approve your comment, David! Thanks for the recommendation. I’ve been using Spam Karma 2 for the past four years, but the author finally quit development…

  3. Hi ed, you probably had to manually approve his comment because he used a link. I have my 2.6 installation set to approve all automatically but every time someone posts a link, it is held up for moderation.

    You should take a look at akismet and howtogeek[dot]com’s spam plugins, they are very effective.

    I wanted to ask you if it was better to just wait until fantastico has the upgrade available

  4. Albert, even more irony: Your comment was held as well, even though it had no links! My Akismet settings are to moderate comments if they contain two links or more. Oh well.

    If you have a Fantastico installation, I would recommend waiting. I waited months to upgrade from 2.5x. A few days won’t matter…

  5. Ed, thanks for the information. I’m glad you take the time to monitor the comments. Other sites’ comments often diverge into a worthless collection of nonsense.

  6. I used to use Spam Karma 2 as well and while it certainly trapped a lot of spam, when the author quit I decided to look for something with less manual labor – just as you did,

  7. I know it is a bit paranoid, but I will request that if you edit comments you note that you have in the revised comment.

    Aside from that, good luck with your filter. Spam can be a real pain.

  8. The only time I ever edit a comment is a) to fix a broken hyperlink or b) to fix a typo or other error pointed out by the original commenter. I never, ever make edits to the content of a comment posted by someone else.

  10. I get e-mail notification of all comments posted, and I’m cjhained to my desk these days working on the outline for Windows 7 Inside Out. So it’s easy to respond quickly.

  11. I use Akismet which works extremely well.

    I also use the DISQUS comment system, which is ok. If I was a high volume blog, I’d have to re-think it.

    WordPress 2.7 rocks! Thanks for the prompting to upgrade.

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