Akismet is a WordPress Plugin, which comes freely with WordPress for personal use. The plugin is easy to configure and only requires that the user has an API Key, which you can get, freely, from here.
Since I installed Akismet, it has caught 9,425 spam comments and from what I can remember, perhaps only 15 or so have managed to slip past it. It does, occasionally, catch real comments, but still gives you the option to ‘not spam’ these comments and proceed with your usual strategy for handling comments.
What I don’t understand, is why spammers don’t take the time to realise this. Thousands of spam comments come flying at my blog daily, but they’re all blocked, clearly someone is wasting a lot of time – which honestly I couldn’t care less, maybe it’s a good thing that they’re wasting their time targeting ‘safe’ logs?
My suggestion is that if you run a personal blog with WordPress, get Akismet, install it and activate it with your API key. Let’s create awareness and waste the time of the spammers!
Say NO to spam!
Spammers may know what it is, but spambots sure as hell don’t.
99.999% comment and trackback spam is generated by bots, which just keep posting regardless of protection measures.
Ye, damn annoying, thank heavens for Akismet!