Spam Bombardment
-
We’re getting bombarded by spam.
The Akismet spam filter sequesters incoming comments for review, but we’re getting fifty to sixty comments per day, 95% of them spam which we still have to read through and delete. Worse, a lot of the spam is multiple comments from a few sources.
Is there any way to blacklist sources, by key word or URL, so that these sources are automatically deleted before we even see them?
The blog I need help with is: (visible only to logged in users)
-
See here for comment blacklisting http://en.support.wordpress.com/settings/discussion-settings/#comment-blacklist
Also, do not put IP addresses in the blacklist. IP addresses are no longer unique, and you might end up blocking legitimate visitors. In fact for over a decade only about 30% of us have IPs that trace back to any individual computer. Also, all they would have to do is go to a wi-fi hot spot, or connect via a different ISP and they could get around that.
-
Know that the number of missed spam comments you report is actually a very low number. On self hosted installs we get hundreds and even thousands of spam comments daily. Here’s a reality check that’s amazing. The vast and overwhelming majority of all so-called information on the internet is spam. Over 80% of all so-called comments submitted to .wordpress.com blogs every day are spam.
Aksimet is a learning engine. If you get spam that slips by Akismet then mark it as spam (do not delete it) and over time Akismet will learn it’s spam. On the spam that Akismet catches on it takes only seconds to click “empty spam” and you don’t even have to click “empty spam” if you don’t want to. Akismet will maintain comments it has caught for 30 days from the time they were received, and then it will delete the comment automatically.
There is no such thing as eliminating all spam but Akismet works very well. If you have not already done so, set up comment moderation, if you have not already done so, because allowing anonymous commenting on your blog is like putting out the welcome mat for spammers.
This page > Settings > Discussion is where you set up defaults for comments. http://en.support.wordpress.com/settings/discussion-settings/
I reduce spam by using this setting:
3. Automatically close comments on articles older than __ days – This setting can be used to have comments closed on articles that are X days old. As an example, if you only want articles to accept comments for 30 days you would check the box and type 30 into the text field. http://en.support.wordpress.com/settings/discussion-settings/#other-comment-settings
And I moderate comments too. Comment moderation http://en.support.wordpress.com/settings/discussion-settings/#comment-moderation
Discussion Settings
Other comment settings
_Comment author must fill out name and e-mail
_Users must be registered and logged in to comment -
SIGH … I forgot to edit the first sentence in my second response above and remove one word and I apologize for that. It should have read:
Know that the number of spam comments you report is actually a very low number.
-
As always, thank you timethief.
I’ve made all the settings in Aksimet you refer to except I’ve been deleting spam instead of marking as spam. I’ll try that from now on and see if the system learns as you predict.
Other than that, I guess there’s no way around wading through all the spam to approve the few legitimate comments.
- The topic ‘Spam Bombardment’ is closed to new replies.
WordPress.com Forums 