Comments on: Case Study: How We Eliminated 93% Comment Spam

By: Carol

Carol — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 20:03:14 +0000

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

By: 50 Must Have Plugins for WordPress 2.7 « Blogging With Success

50 Must Have Plugins for WordPress 2.7 « Blogging With Success — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 10:24:09 +0000

[...] Bad Behavior: This plugin stops spam bots from visiting your blog and saves you time and bandwidth. It matches IP addresses to Project Honeypot database and blocks the request if found in http Black List. Further Reading: How Bad Behavior reduced spam by 93% on Blogging With Success. [...]

By: ROW

ROW — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 20:11:05 +0000

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

By: Mr. I

Mr. I — Sat, 28 Feb 2009 02:27:42 +0000

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.

By: Steve, show booths

Steve, show booths — Sat, 28 Feb 2009 00:43:13 +0000

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

By: Mr. I

Mr. I — Sat, 28 Feb 2009 00:16:49 +0000

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.

By: Steve, show booths

Steve, show booths — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 16:54:20 +0000

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

By: Mr. I

Mr. I — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 14:59:33 +0000

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.

By: iCan't Internet

iCan't Internet — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 10:57:22 +0000

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…

By: Eddie Gear

Eddie Gear — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 17:15:11 +0000

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