Keith Goodrum

I have to say right up front… comment spam SUCKS!

I receive so much of it that I just went ahead & set this blog to moderation of every post. This makes it a pain for everyone. Because people don’t get to see their comments right away, and I have to moderate every comment. But, if I didn’t this blog would quickly disintegrate into a rolling male enhancement affiliate program. VIVA VIAGR... never mind.

I won’t go so far as to eliminate comments because I like the interaction with everyone. It’s nice feedback on what I’ve written. Plus, it’s fun to see what some people come up with.

Every once in awhile a spam comment lands in moderation that makes me laugh…

One that was hitting here a couple of months ago would go along these lines:

At first I didn’t agree with you, but at the end it really made sense.

Oh, by the way, check this out. I believe it will clarify what you are trying to say – (A link to some inappropriate site)

No brainer… Delete!

This next one falls under the category – Did You Really Read My Blog?!?

found your blog from a partner’s site and I have to say that I really like it. I was wondering if we could exchange links on your blogroll…

Slight problem… I don’t have a blog roll. Now what are we going to do?!?

Then there was this gem…

Great post. I completely agree, it seems there is one launch after another. You really need to pick and choose where you spend your time…

OK, you are thinking… what’s so bad about this comment?

Nothing, until you see the link to website is an affiliate link to the product being mentioned in the blog post. Thanks for including an affiliate link… because I’m here to let you siphon traffic off – SO, YOU CAN MAKE MONEY!

I guess if you throw enough of these against the wall… something will stick.

This past weekend was spent deleting or moderating comment spam. I couldn’t figure it out & it drove me crazy. All weekend long it was delete, moderate, delete, moderate…. on and on. Kept checking my settings, looking at my comment page in the admin section. Everything looked OK – it just didn’t make sense. How could so much spam be getting through?

Well sometimes I look so hard at the trees… I fail to see the forest!

Today I noticed while looking at the plugin directory that Akismet had been deleted. I did delete a few plugins Friday that I was no longer using, but I don’t recall deleting Akismet. Since no one else has access to the admin panel… theres’ no one to blame but me.

Bummer – It’s always funner to pass the buck.

Anyhow I reinstalled Akismet & made a few other changes to help combat comment spam. Akismet is a good comment spam plugin. However it does have one big drawback. It will occasionally mark as spam a legit comment. Therefore it requires me to go through the Akismet queue and make sure a legit one didn’t get caught.

There are some people who refuse to use Akismet for this reason. But like I said it hasn’t become that big of problem for me.

How to get Akismet

It simple… head over to Akismet, and download it. Unzip the file & upload it to your plugin folder. This is usually located in the wp-content/plugins folder.

Next you have to activate the plugin. Once you activate the plugin you should see a Akismet configuration. You will need to get an API Key from Wordpress.com. At Wordpress.com you will have to sign up for an account. Make sure you go to Wordpress.com & not Wordpress.org.

Once you are at Wordpress.com click on the sign up now button. Fill out the information, check the Just a username, please button, and click next. They will send you a confirmation email. Once you confirm your account you’ll get your API Key.

The last step is to take your API Key & add it to the Akismet configuration page on your blog. Hit update & Akismet takes over from there.

I like Akismet because for me it’s pretty low maintenance. Head on over & get if you’d like to get some relief from comment spam.