Banning Comment Spam
New Here? You may want to Subscribe to my RSS feed for daily updates. Or if you prefer, 
Subscribe by Email What is RSS? Thanks for visiting!
Although I don’t really like the fact of having to approve comments, I did change the settings on Comment Moderation.  I also Activated Akismet.
Reason being, I got no less than TEN (10) Spam Comments within about 2 minutes of each other this morning. I never really had a problem with Comment Spam while on Blogger, as you probably already know, I had comments set to use Verification (that you were human) in order to post a comment.
Since using WordPress, I have not had a problem (it has only been a few days), and I used no Blocking tools or plug-ins for commenting. Until now… From now on, the First Comment will have to be approved by me. If you have already made a comment, there shouldn’t be a problem.
I won’t apologize for having to resort to using some type of Moderation for comments, mainly because most of you who have comments available on your site already know the problems with Spam. I just hope it doesn’t deter the newcomers to the community from being involved in the conversation.
As a side note, when I tried to activate the Akismet Plug-in, it refused to work saying I needed an API Key. Akismet was included when I uploaded WordPress to the Host. There was no API Key, nor information on how to get one. I used the API from one of my Blogs that happen to be hosted on WordPress.com and it worked for activation. Otherwise, I would still be having a Big Problem with Spam.
Update:
I have turned the Moderation Off the First Comment. Since Akismet seems to be working pretty well (it has caught some spam already) I don’t think I need the moderation right now. It is my hope that I don’t need it in the future either.
Related Posts:
Promote Your Home Business on the Featured Home Business Page... no charge, but no splogs allowed
My Skype: joe.hauckes
Hey Joe
Sad, but true. You simply could not maintain a blog these days without using some sort of spam-blocking software or plugin. I get thousands every month, I would spend all of my time cleaning up the mess. The spam module that you can get for Drupal does a great job catching comment and trackback spam, and I’ve heard good things about Akismet. On mine comments flagged as spam get dumped into a queue, where they get automatically deleted after a day if I don’t pull them out. No work at all on my end, except for the couple a week that make it through the filters.
BTW, I’m enjoying watching you ‘tweak’ your new blog, hope you’re having fun. I don’t know if you check the site in Firefox, but this theme looks a little funny between the post and the header. Also, your title isn’t getting pulled into the page title:
<title>andreas04: close to attraction</title>
Dave
Input by DavidC | June 28, 2006 @ 2:08 pm
Hey DavidC,
I hate any kind of spam, I have written some posts about it before, usually under RANTS…
Akismet seems to be working fine at present, I have noticed quite a few in the spam cue. It holds them for 15 days(?) if I don’t delete them.
I don’t know if I can adjust the time before auto-delete, I hope so.
I’m having a great (sometimes frustrating) time with the new setup. I really like the way it looks, and the choices I have.
I don’t have FireFox, so I have no idea what it looks like using it.
AND, I have to figure out how to make sure everything (title included) is where it should be.
It will take some time, but with friends like you helping to find the problems, I should survive pretty well.
Thanks,
Joe
Input by Joe | June 28, 2006 @ 2:29 pm
Joe, I know what you mean about the spam. I got hit several times early on too. Fortunately I had Askimet up and running by then and it caught them cold.
I sent them packing, and for the most part they haven’t come back.
As far as the API key goes, it was a source of confusion for me too. The WordPress site is not very clear on that. They say you have to register with them to get the Key, but you don’t have to start up a new blog with them as host.
However every time I tried to get the key, it kept steering me towards starting a new blog on their site, which I did not want to do.
Once you register with WP they send you a welcome email. What they don’t really tell you is that they also send you a second email with the API key in it after the welcome email.
If you register with WP they should send you the emails, even without starting a new blog with them.
Then you can put that API key into Askimet and be good to go.
The whole API key thing is not very clear. I only figured it out because I can be intensely stubborn.
All that said, I’m not sure they even require you to have a separate key for each individual install, so you may be just fine using the one you already had. I don’t know.
I’m a fan of Askimet. I don’t have any kind of comment moderation on at this point. I may eventually go the route you did, moderating the first comment, if I start getting nasties in there.
The only gotcha I’ve seen so far is that Askimet sometimes holds legitimate comments. I’m OK with that, as long as I remember to keep an eye on it and let the legitimate comments loose from time to time.
Input by Chris Cree | June 28, 2006 @ 3:05 pm
Hey Chris,
I don’t remember getting the “second” E-mail, I looked and even looked in my deleted folder, I couldn’t find anything.
The API Key from the WP.com seems to be working just fine for now. As long as it works, I don’t care how.
I only put the Moderation on the first comment because I couldn’t get Akismet to work in the beginning, I may take that off, most people don’t cause any problems with comments, and I don’t want people to have to wait for approval.
I will make a decision today on that.
Joe
BTW Chris,
Since I have links to a lot of old posts that still point to the Blogger address, I put a forward message back here in the template so it shows on ALL POSTS.
You may want to consider something like that for your old Blog.
J.
Input by Joe | June 28, 2006 @ 3:25 pm
I wish I could turn the first comment moderation off. But it doesn’t work for me. I get slammed whenever I try to. I think it’s the Net Neutrality folks.
Your about page looks wonderful, as does all of your new blog. Welcome home Joe.
Liz
Input by Liz Strauss | June 28, 2006 @ 4:30 pm
Hey Liz,
I turned it off because I don’t seem to have the problems you have with the paid-political-spammers that you have.
So far, since I installed Akismet, I have only had Friends stop over.
I hope it stays that way.
Joe
Input by Joe | June 28, 2006 @ 4:40 pm