RSS Desperate anti-spam measures
Filed in Blog, MetaI’m experimenting with a new plugin for anti-spam. Having just received 70 spam comments overnight on just this one blog, I’ve had enough. Akismet catches them, but I still have to go through them all to see if it caught any of my friends, too.
So, I’ve installed a new plugin. The problem with this one is that it requires both cookies and javascript. I suppose that is okay for about 98% of my readers, but if you’re one of the 2% that doesn’t allow cookies and surfs without javascript I really need to know. (See that contact form up top? Use that.) I’d rather turn off the plugin than risk shutting you out.
It would be soooo nice if Akismet had a setting to automatically delete comments with certain keywords, like the name of certain performance-enhancing drugss and some of the nastier pornographic phrases. I mean delete without moderation. Or delete comments with more than ten links, say. But it doesn’t. And I’m getting desperate and sickened by it all.
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7 Comments, Comment or Ping
beautyredefined (77 comments.)
Wordpress has a comment blacklist. (Or perhaps it did - I’m using 2.0.10 - not the fancy new version.) In the admin panel, under options, then discussion, there’s a box where you can enter a list of words that you want deleted automatically - without you ever seeing them. I haven’t tried it myself, but it looks like what you were looking for.
Apr 14th, 2008
Linda R. Moore
Argh! For heaven’s sakes, upgrade–the older versions are a security risk and full of bugs.
The blacklist function doesn’t help. It just sweeps them into a moderation queue, meaning I still have to wade through them. I just want them gone without ever having to look at them. :(
Apr 14th, 2008
beautyredefined (77 comments.)
Logan actually setup wordpress for me. He’ll only install the latest version in the debian packets for security reasons - he seems to think the newer versions are more of a security risk. ::shrug::
They must have changed the blacklist, then. On mine the blacklist and the moderation list are different. The blacklist says: “This is a list of words that you want completely blacklisted from your blog. Be very careful what you add here, because if a comment matches something here it will be completely nuked and there will be no notification. Remember that partial words can match, so if there is any chance something here might match it would be better to put it in the moderation box above.”
Apr 14th, 2008
beautyredefined (77 comments.)
I take it back. Logan doesn’t think the new versions are a security risk, he just doesn’t want to have to monitor the newest patches and things to fix newfound security issues. Debian backports security fixes to their stable versions.
Apr 14th, 2008
Linda R. Moore
Gotcha. Actually there’s nothing much to monitor…in the dashboard of Wordpress it lets you know if there’s a new patch. It takes me about half an hour to upgrade all six of my Wordpress installations.
Re: blacklist, I tried it today and it just sweeps the comments with blacklisted comments into the Akismet queue. I suppose it might work the way you describe if I disabled Akismet; but I’d still have to set up the blacklist. Do you have Akismet installed?
Apr 14th, 2008
beautyredefined (77 comments.)
I am using Akismet. Like I said, never tried the blacklist before. Sorry it doesn’t work for you - I was hoping I’d have the magic answer! :(
Apr 14th, 2008
Linda R. Moore
Well, so far it’s looking hopeful. Since I installed the new plugin I have had a grand total of one spam. We’ll see how that goes…
Apr 14th, 2008
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