Well after deleting what seems like hundreds of bloody comment and trackback spams over the past week, I’ve installed Spam Karma (billed as a “fearless Spam Killing Machine”) on this blog. If it’s successful, I’ll be installing it on my other WordPress blogs.
It includes blacklists, captcha or email verification for suspicious comments, a myriad of settings, all that good stuff. For now I’ve set it to “lenient” mode until I get a feel for how strict it is. Feel free to leave junk comments here to see how it goes. (But beware of deliberately leaving spammy comments — for all I know it may decide to blacklist your IP address!
PS. Tuesday 21:25. The manual install as in the ReadMe worked for fine me, except that you can’t get to the config page through the menus, you have to activate it from the plugins page, then go to the URL it quotes. (This is apparently a known thing with WP1.2, but I guess it applies to WP1.2.2 as well, which we’re running here. Presumably it doesn’t apply to the current nightly builds or to the future 1.5.)
Also be sure to try the test captcha page (linked off the config page) to make sure that bit works (eg the correct PHP libraries are there somewhere. If they’re not, I guess you need to hassle your ISP. Works fine for me.)
PS. Wednesday 21:15. There is a hitch: the e-mail it sends out summarising what it’s done is encoded with something. I think this is an incompatibility with the PHP setup on my ISP… the same thing happened with WordPress 1.2’s password reminder messages. I’ll have to dig around for a fix.
It should also be noted that Tony has tried to plonk it onto a blog he runs, and is having some issues. So it’s not all beer and skittles.
On the bright side, it tells me it caught 20 spam comments in the last 24 hours. I certainly haven’t seen any get let through.
PS. Thursday 20:05. Some are getting through, but evidently nowhere near the total number being caught. Hmmm.
This is a test comment.
This is a test, don’tcha know. How do I trigger the captcha?
Poker is great holdem porn
Sorry. 🙁
Interesting. Well you didn’t fool it Andy, but overnight it did catch 8 real comment spams. No false positives, and no spams let through. It logs everything to a digest (which it emails you after X comments deleted) which includes all the comment details, so nothing is lost if it does get fooled and there are false positives.
Meh. I want this. Badly.
I guess I was too human…
psst have I got this cool de@l for you
Reetire young and have your investments pay your bills while you go swan round the globe with nary a care. Venice, Las Vegas, San Marino, Mauritius and other fleshpots. Pick one or all. Places or Prostitutes is what I’m talking about. The world’s your oyster when you invest in this fantastic development that will redefine the way you live. Tel your boss to f**k off and never work again!
Grotto towers is pleased to announce 34 pre-release sales of 3 bedroom sub-penthouse apartments in the landmark Ghastwick Docklands development.
Book your removalist now; completion is due in 2006. As soon as their finger touches the marble-coated button on the security video intercom, your friends will know you’ve ‘made it’. You’ll be a protected species in your own eyrie with round the clock security and 360 degree views of the stunning city skyline. A team of masseur cum hosts will answer every need, while a fountained plaza of swanky cafes mean you’ll be seldom be using the chic Eurpoean kitchen.
As an investment, Ghastwick knows no peer. You need no deposit to buy one or nine. Indeed if you sign up, we’ll give you a $1000 cash rebate today if you say you read it on Geekrant! Cash Cash Cash in your hand. All you need is to own your own home; or at least a dunny. A development of this quality is sure to appreciate in the years ahead. So make the decision that will make you rich today, pocket the cash or hesitate and be forever destitute!
Remember success favours the decisive, and if you don’t do nothing, you’ll get nothing. Take control of your life and enter the exclusive ranks of landlords by accepting our once in a lifetime offer, never to be repeated!
Take up our offer now and we’ll waive stamp duty as it’s off the plan. For added investment security, we’ll even provide a rent-guaranteed tenant for not one but two years, courtesy of our Housing Trust partners. Not only are you securing the future (for us), but you’re also banishing the hated taxman; thanks to the losses you’ll make, we guarantee you’ll pay no tax, whatever your income. We’ve been ripping people off for 2 years now, so the security of your swindled thousands is absolutely guaranteed in my pocket!
Interested? Get on the blower now. 1800 666 666. Remember, this is an exclusive coup for geekrant readers. Act now or be forever disappointed. $625 000* is an absolute bargain. Remember get $1000 back today and pay nothing until 2006, or wheneve the building is finished, whichever is sooner, so it’s a great deal.
* Does not include promotion fees $53,299 payable on completion.
P, you’re just too human.
World’s cheapest meds. Supa cheap vi@gra get your hopes up and extend your fun. Online prescription. Hot XXXX Banned DVDs. Lose weight. Free ipod. cheap airfares. cable descrambler. Make $$$$ from home. Add sparkle. Woo ladies. Quit smoking. New diet to lose pounds. Designer breast enlargement. FREE. Enter and Win!
extend your member with vi@gra
extend your member with v-i-a-g-r-a
three blind mice three blind mice see how they run
v i a g r a cheap!!
Those latest attempts all got through SpamKarma, but were picked up by the internal WordPress filter.
SpamKarma seems to be very successful with comments. It is less so with Trackbacks, some of which are getting through. I’ve considered disabling trackbacks completely, but they can be quite handy, so I’m reluctant to do so. Will do some more tweaking with SpamKarma though, and it looks like they will be improving its Trackback filtering facilities.
My SpamKarma doesn’t do anything with trackbacks which is why I’ve turned them off completely and bounced all requests to them to ‘localhost’ for now 🙂 I’m working on a more ‘evil’ bounce back – any ideas … you could reply to my request at Webmasterworld.
Via Gara is cheap!
That got thru!
What about if you won the Jack Pot million?
I now bounce all requests for /trackback to the originating IP, and I bounce all known bad referrers, taking care to add some suitable text in the filepath so it shows up in their server logs and it doesn’t benefit them by loading a real page. See my WordPress forum article on bouncing requests if you’re interested.