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Everyone hates spam.
When we migrated from Blogger to WordPress, one of the first things we noticed was spam. The volume of comment spam made us understand why people love Akismet.
But we had to check regularly for false positives. So we decided to find a good companion for Akismet that would improve spam blocking. Our target was to block spam bots without affecting user experience.
We chose 2 plugins for the study: Yet Another WordPress Anti Spam Plugin (YAWASP) and Bad Behavior.
I started out with YAWASP. And within 4 hours, we got this mail:
Hi there, I tried to comment on one of your posts today and received a message saying " You are a spambot". Is this something wrong with the site or you have blocked me from Commenting on your site? Cheers, Eddie Gear
We can accept anything but blocking reader comments was no solution. So we dropped YAWASP from study.
Next, we left blog with only Akismet enabled. In 3 days, we got 60 spam comments. One spam comment was not caught. So, we got 61 comments as spam in 3 days.
For next threee days, we enabled Bad Behavior, along side Askmet and waited for results. Result was pretty good. Just 5 spam comments. Only 7% of normal spam!
Results are pretty impressive.
We like the approach of this plugin towards blocking spam. It analyzes the header of incoming requests and looks for suspicious information. It also matched the IP address with Project Honeypot database to see if that IP is identified as suspicious. If found suspicious, this plugin does not allow the IP to visit your site. Even if the bot pretends to be something legitimate, it can block them by using their signature.
Which WordPress plugin do you use to combat spam? Tell us through comments.
Update: After questions of some readers about how it can serve others who don't care about Spam and delete it without taking a look at it for good comments, I decided to update the post.
Other Benefits:
1. Bandwidth: Since the suspicious requests are banned, bandwidth use is reduced.
2. Security: Suspicious URL doesn't mean that its a spam bot only. It can be a dangerous script too. So, this plugin also provides additional level of security.
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{ 11 comments… read them below or add one }
I only use Akismet and so far, it’s been great.
It hasn’t let through any comments that actually are spam.
And of all the comments it designates as spam, I’d say that it’s 99% accurate.
((knocking on all sorts of wood around me))
Akismet does a pretty good job for us too. But we still have to check for false positives. Bad Behavior stops bots and saves a lot of time. Give it a try, you will surely find it useful.
Hi there,
I been using Akismet on my WordPress blog for the last three years and have found it to be very effective. Even though at times I do find some spam comments not being bloced, I does some pretty extensive filtering. I feel it’s safe as it keep you from shoving away potential readers.
Cheers.
Eddie Gear
I used to use Akismet alone, and it had about 95% accuracy. So, still had to check for false positives indeed.
Now I also installed Bad Behaviour, and it seems to be doing a pretty good job, although, I am a bit scared that it also blocks good comments…
Probability of blocking good comments is very low as it matches IP with Project HoneyPot DB and unless your visitors leave a lot of spam, they won’t be blocked.
hi Mr I,
Interesting study.
1. Are you saying that akismet let through 60 spam comments? I haven’t had that experience, but my blog is new and small.
2. It seems like you are saying the problem with akismet was the “false positives”. Are you able to check what bad behavior dumped to make sure is isn’t doing the same thing, or is the key that it blocks the people altogether and no one has mentioned being blocked?
3. can you run akismet and bad behavior at the same time. I like the idea of blocking spammers in the first place. Steve, show booths
Steve, Your answers:
1. No, it caught 60 and let through 1.
2. Well, the chances are very-very low (almost 0). Bad Behavior uses Project Honeypot’s http BL (Black List) to match visitors IP with suspicious ones. If the IP is involved in spamming many sites, it will be blocked.
3. Yes, infact we are running it. Even Bad Behavior is not 100% spam proof. 8-9 comments slip per week(and Akismet hadnles them well) but that is better than 100 spam comments per week.
hey Mr I,
i think my confusion is that I think a lot of bloggers don’t bother to go through their akismet folder and just let the stuff in it auto dump. But it sounds like you do go through it.
so in the old days with just akismet you would have a hundred to sort through, but now because you have bad behavior running also, it completely blocks about 90 of them, and you then only have about 10 to sort through.
so for people that look through the akismet spam folder, this will make it easier, but for those people that don’t look thorough it, this wouldn’t make any difference. Am I right?
~ steve, show booths
Well, yes. If you don’t see spam folder, you will not see the difference in comments.
But the plugin saves bandwidth also as spam bots are blocked right away and don’t get to visit blog.
I am seeing a lot of such posts around the net these days and incidentally I also wrote a similar post some time back.
Seems all bloggers are after spammers now
Spam! well before i started blogging i didnt know what it was, what was everyone worried about, in the last two months i have been blogging i have had enough of sapm to last me a life time i use askimet, it catches them but also good comments to. so i am going to have a try with this one, thank you for listing these plugins
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