Akismet day 1

Jan 30, 2006

There seems to be a few weird comment spam came through my blog for the past few weeks. Most of it are some sort of a valid comment entry, linking to a valid website e.g. imdb movie. I couldn’t figure out any logical explanations behind it.

Since I got better things to do rather than dealing with this nonsense, I’d decided to activate Akismet spam plugin. Well, it has been lying there in my plugin directory for ages now, mostly because Akismet is bundle together with WordPress 2.0 along with “WordPress Database Backup” plugin.

Actually, my main purpose is to submit this brand new local spam; referring affliate spam from “Tsunami Wang” to Akismet database (if it’s already submitted, then that’s great news!). Got some smart ass submit and advertise this crap “Get-Rich-Quick Scheme” in my comment box. Damn you idiot!

How to use and activate Akismet?

  1. Sign up for an account at WordPress.com.
  2. Logged in to your WordPress.com blog.
  3. In the administration panel, click on Users tab.
  4. At Your Profile tab, you’ll find “Your WordPress.com API key is: xxxxxxxxx. Don’t share your API key, it’s like a password.”. Copy the API key and go to your WordPress blog.
  5. In your WordPress blog admin panel, proceed to Plugins and activate Akismet.
  6. You’ll be prompt to update your Akismet setting. In the Akismet Configuration tab, insert your API key that you copied from your WordPress.com blog and click “Update API key”.
  7. The Akismet plugin should now be running on your blog.

For the time being I’ll play with Akismet and see how Day 1 goes.. I hope that it doesn’t return a false positive against a legitimate comment.

10 Comments

GeminiGeek
Jan 31, 2006 • 5:14 pm

the reason i didnt use akismet is because it catches my own comments at my own blog as spam. And what’s bad about akismet is that it doesnt notify your email when akismet catches any spam/false positive. It’s a big fuss to go trough all the wordpress admin panel and click all the way to akismet’s spam.

Making it worst, it automatically delete those spam/false positive after 2 weeks (if im not mistaken). These settings cant be changed. You never know TMNet is suddenly down for 2 weeks and there’s actually good comments caught as spam by akismet and automatically deleted. That’s bad isn’t it?

Spambots is getting smarter nowadays. My SK2 is not working great recently :(

ZEO
Jan 31, 2006 • 8:13 pm

GeminiGeek, woohoo catches your own comment? That’s bad, but weren’t a logged in user shouldn’t be filtered?

Akismet will automatically delete comments marked as spam that 15 days old. But I see no problem with that yet. My blog rarely get huge amount of legitimate comment perday by the way. The only active commentator is that bloody spammer.

I guess if you have any problem with the plugin, filed a ticket on it. Choosing another plugin for the same purpose, should be your last resort. Right now my day 1 seems ok, catches 5 spam already.

azmie
Jan 31, 2006 • 9:27 pm

i posted my own comment on my own wordpress blog…so far nothing like you said (geminigeek) happened yet…infact my recent problems with the “penis enlargement” spam has been solved…thanks to akismet…

Aisyah
Jan 31, 2006 • 10:07 pm

Is the akismet plugin worked. If yes, that’s good. I got a spam from the bloody hell casino thingy. Stupid spammers

ZEO
Feb 01, 2006 • 12:21 am

azmie, probably you really need to join the “penis enlargement” program :)

Aisyah, yes it work. If not then why it should be there in the first place and bundle with WP 2.0. Can’t guarantee anything but it’s worth trying.

Shahab
Feb 01, 2006 • 2:06 am

Hmm.. Ive been using Akismet for some time now .. Got very less false positives as yet .. Btw .. There was a nice post about this “new wave” of spammers on the Akismet blog .. You might wanna read it …

azmie
Feb 01, 2006 • 8:44 am

what for? mine is as fine as it is…:P

aisyah you should really try this plugin…

shahab, new wave os spammers? interesting…

Shahab
Feb 01, 2006 • 6:07 pm

Hehe Azmie .. You are lucky that you dont get comment spam .. or find them interesting :P .. Or ask those who have to cope with it daily :( ..
New wave of spammer .. That was the term used by Dr Dave on his post which Matt has linked in the Akismet page I linked above …

Btw.. Zeo … Instead of putting those Technorati tags in List (vertical list) consider putting them in cloud (horizontal list) …. It will decrease the amount of scrolling needed to see the contents .. :P

Take care ..!

ZEO
Feb 02, 2006 • 12:04 am

Akismet just caught 1 innocent trackback today :(

Shahab, Thanks for the suggestion but that’s my way to force visitor to scroll down :). The “new wave” sounds like my old time favourite TV series “First Wave”.

Btw, I looked into Akismet source (akismet.php) and I think you can increase the default(15 days) automatic “x number of days” delete.


function akismet_delete_old() {
        global $wpdb;
        $now_gmt = current_time('mysql', 1);
        $wpdb->query("DELETE FROM $wpdb->comments WHERE DATE_SUB('$now_gmt', INTERVAL 15 DAY) > comment_date_gmt AND comment_approved = 'spam'");
        $n = mt_rand(1, 5);
        if ( $n % 5 )
                $wpdb->query("OPTIMIZE TABLE $wpdb->comments");
}

Haven’t tried to modified it :)

GeminiGeek
Feb 02, 2006 • 12:19 am

It’s weird when I, as the logged in user is caught as spam, for like 3 times I think.

Hmmm… Looks like I can try to increase the default 15 days period before a spam is deleted. If I use akismet, I will be using 3 anti-spam plugin in my wordpress. With that 3 protection, I do hope those spams cant go through :P