The Better Solution For Fighting Spam
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Yesterday I installed a plug-in that I probably should have installed long ago: Spam Karma 2 (SK2).
Until now I had used Akismet and I was satisfied using it. Every time I logged in at my blog, I just deleted the spam messages that Akismet had discovered. That was easy, only…
The last two weeks the number of spam messages have increased drastically and all Akismet does is list them as spam.
Remarkably enough, lots of them came in through the comments. I honestly have no idea what these slime balls try to achieve, as I moderate the blog and therefore their posts are always deleted. Why they still take the trouble to do so is beyond me.
Anyway, I desperately wanted another way of dealing with this phenomenon, saving me time and giving me more control as to what, where and how. Hence, Spam Karma 2!
Why this one?
Easy. Right now I’m so involved in the creation of a group product over at the Inner Circle, that I didn’t have time to do a thorough research.
But smart me! I remembered a recent post by Andy Beard about Akismet - Auntie Spam. And that post referred to another one, titled “Akismet False Positives & Spam Karma Configuration“!
On that very page, Andy shows in detail how to set up a basic Spam Karma configuration.
Installation of SK2 is a breeze (download, unpack, upload the folder and activate), but the initial configuration can be quite overwhelming. It has a lot of options.
Well, Andy’s page is the solution for that problem. That makes the whole process a no brainer.
Now, I must confess I have to look deeper into the working of Spam Karma 2. I didn’t because Andy made it very easy for me, but for the time being I think it works remarkably well, even after only one day. If you only look at the log files, it’s impressive what this plugin does.
Andy also discusses a few other plugins, including Akismet, that you can use in combination with Spam Karma 2.
I didn’t install any of them yet and I disabled Akismet for the time being to see what SK2 does.
We’ll see what happens on the long term.
For showing me in detail how to configure the whole thing and save me tons of time: Thanks Andy, most appreciated!
Do you have any experience with Spam Karma?
If so, let me here it. Post your comments.
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September 29th, 2007 at 4:57 am
I’ve heard about Spam Karma 2 but never had a look at it. At the moment I’m using a math plugin (like you do) and Askimet. Works fairly well for me, but if Spam Karma’s that good, I guess I’ll give it a go! Thanks, especially for the links to Andy’s pages.
September 29th, 2007 at 6:58 am
Stephen,
Funny thing is, your comment was initially blacklisted. SK2 shows your comment under one tab and your IP and domain name under the blacklist tab.
Andy predicted that something like this would happen.
As soon as I approved this false positive, your comment appeared here and both your IP and domain name were whitelisted.
I guess your next comment will pass the filters.
Others stay on the blacklist and I don’t have to lift a finger!
How’s that?
EDIT: And it sends you a nice email with the stats too!
September 29th, 2007 at 4:19 pm
Thanks Case!
I had recently installed the Math Comment Spam Protection plugin installed but something just wasn’t working correctly because my readers were complaining of receiving an error page. Oddly enough though, spam comments were making it through? I’ll have to give this one a try.
Oh and by the way … does this plugin have a time limit? The last reply I made, I’m assuming timed out (and it did take me a long time to make it due to interuptions). The message I received after I hit Submit Comments was that I had apparently not passed math and the question was Please add 1 and 1l. Hopefully 2 was the right answer for that one, lol!
May I ask what you use for your comment subscriptions?
September 30th, 2007 at 5:00 am
Hi Anita.
No, it doesn’t have a time limit, as far as I know. Maybe the cookie expired?
Try the new version 3.1, as it solves a bug.
For comment subscriptions, I use Subscribe To Comments
September 30th, 2007 at 10:08 am
Hmm … I’m not sure then because the second comment I had left did the same thing. I had even thought that maybe I had just hit the wrong number key but, I was super careful the second time and it did the same thing?
October 1st, 2007 at 3:06 am
Anita,
It may have been a little bug, I don’t know.
However, I’m so confident about SK2 now, that I de-activated the Math plugin, so that will solve any problems you may have.