Anyone who knows me, knows I love WordPress, especially if you can self-host your blog. It’s a simple yet powerful blogging platform. You can usually find a plugin to do whatever you need. One word of caution: don’t get too carried away with fun plugins, or your blog’s load time will slow.
One of the first things I activate on a new blog is the spam control. Akismet is a wonderful spam catcher. I’ve never had spam slip through while this is running. Take a minute to read 5 things every blogger should know about spam at the bottom of their How it works page – you might be surprised. Akismet ranges from free for personal use with the option to support them up to reasonable prices for businesses.
As much as I love Akismet, I found a couple of non-spam comments sent to the spam folder. Not many, but who wants to wade through spam to find the trapped good ones? Not me. Enter Peter’s Custom Anti-Spam plugin. I truly dislike the text spam control where you need a code breaker to figure it out. This plugin is easy for your visitors to read. Plus, you select the word list for it. Who wouldn’t smile when typing giggles into the spam control box? This plugin is also free, but you can give a small donation to support it. The button is on his sidebar at the bottom.
With both of these plugins, I rarely see spam pop up now. In fact, the ones I have seen are spam posts by people rather than spambots, but Akismet flagged those. No real comments have been snagged so far.
One note on comment moderation: my blog is set to only moderate the first comment. Once a person has an approved comment, their comment shows immediately. I don’t need to moderate all the posts thanks to my two spam plugins.
I have received no compensation for this post. I’m simply sharing two wordpress plugins I love, and recommend.
Craig says
as for me in my house (to quote the Bible). We will continue to choose Akismet – and continue to wade through all of the comments to find the occasional “trapped” one. 🙂 Some people even have on their sites that little box to click if you’re not a spammer –that’s really simple, but sometimes you don’t see it and get identified as a spammer – and then when it redirects you back – your comment is gone – SAD! I guess there’s no perfect system – it’s an imperfect world. 🙂 I smiled while reading this – thank you, Audra, and God bless and keep you and each and every one of yours!
Craig recently posted:Love understands “I want to give up”
Audra Marie says
Thanks for visiting, Craig. Akismet is such a blessing. 🙂 Yes, I miss those little check boxes sometimes, too. Drives me crazy. 🙂