Balls and Walnuts
more than you ever wanted to know
Oh, you who are wise in the ways of spam . . .
As some of you know (those of you who snoop the bottom of the page), I use Spam Karma 2 to gobble my spam. And it does a damned fine job of it, too, with one exception: Nokia Ringtones.
I hate these bastards. Somehow, they’ve outwitted my every attempt at blocking them. Daily, I get anywhere from 1 to 30 trackbacks (trackbacks, not comments) from “Super Blog” expressing insightful sentiments like, “Hey nice site” or “Free mosquito ringtone.” Incidentally, I can’t imagine anything more heinous than a mosquito ringtone.
These trackbacks come in from multiple IP addresses, but they’re all from one URL, “Super Blog.” Since they’re trackbacks and not comments, blocking the URL does nothing. I suppose I could block all trackbacks, but then I wouldn’t have anyway of knowing what y’all are saying about me!
Any bright ideas?
D.
Switch to the Akismet Plug-In built into WordPress 2. I’ve found it nearly flawless. It’s nabbed nearly twenty thousand spams and I’ve only caught two or three legit comments it missed. It’s only missed two or three legit spams, which it tossed to moderation, and I easily deleted. I hesitated at first, but I whole-heartedly endorse it now.
Akismet. It is Teh Rox0r. I think I’ve had 10 or 12 slip through in the six months I’ve been using it, and so far I haven’t found a single legitimate comment that has been shit-canned.
Right now there are 773 sitting in Akismet’s holding tank. That’s two week’s worth, so I get about 1500 per month, probably about 10,000 since I started using it. I’m very, very happy with it.
Thanks! Now all I have to do is find my API key since Akismet looks all set and ready to go.
Hehe, that’s what you get for being such a publicity whore. 😀
Blogger word verification blocks most comment spam, and for the rest I don’t even have a hit counter let alone things like checking out who visits my site or trackbacks.
To find your API key, you’ll need to sign up for a free WordPress.com account… Not a bad thing in and of itself, since it makes participating in the WordPress support forums a little easier.
Also, I’ve found that while Askimet is, as others have said, truly Teh Rox0r, it can be improved by adding the Bad Behavior plugin which stops spammy behavior dead in its tracks before it even gets to Askimet. I get at most 3 or 4 spammy nuggets every couple of days, while another (Askimet-only) blog I help run gets dozens per day.
I’ve got Akismet and another plugin called “Bad Behavior” installed, and I have been spam-free lately. Also, I found a plugin called “Autoclose Comments” that I’ve set to shut off comments after 21 days, since virtually all of my spam was coming in on old posts.
Thanks! Akismet it is . . . and I didn’t have time this AM to do all the stuff I needed to do for the API key, but I will. Thanks everyone 🙂
I did it. I installed Akismet and Bad Behavior.
Die, Nokia Ringtones spambot scum!
Am imagining a mosquito ringtone…
Yep. There goes my phone in a perfect arc as I throw it across the room.