My Akismet Overfloweth
I have been checking my Akismet spam stopper plug-in over the past few days and noticed that the number of messages getting caught has increased sharply. Up until recently, only a handful of messages were being flagged whereas over the past three days I am seeing that it has caught 20, 25, even more than 30 messages.
This means that Akismet is doing it’s job — good boy, Akismet! I have noticed, however, that it tends to be a bit overzealous at times: some of your comments are sitting in there as well.
So, I’ll keep an eye on Kizzie just in case the wrong messages are pulled in. I don’t want anyone to miss out on seeing their comments posted and lose a chance for some well deserved link love.
Linking Strategies | Matthew C. Keegan, 9 May 07
By Lillie Ammann, May 9, 2007 @ 4:23 pm
Matt,
I’ve had the opposite experience – only once have I ever found a legitimate comment marked as spam but sometimes spam gets through. I’ve noticed a “recheck queue for spam” option recently (I think it’s new, but maybe I’ve just been unobservant;-) and when I click that, the spam gets marked as spam.
By Matt Keegan, May 9, 2007 @ 5:08 pm
Lillie — Hmmm…I haven’t seen the “recheck queue” button yet. I’ll have to visit Akismet again to see if there was an update. Thanks for telling me! MattK
By Angie, May 9, 2007 @ 11:25 pm
I’m not using any spam tools on my blog, but I moderate comments. Spam is massive for my blogs for some reason — hundreds a day. Ick.
By Matt, May 10, 2007 @ 6:11 am
Angie, prior to my installing Akismet, this blog and one other were routinely over ran by spam. Like you, I moderated every comment but that got old fast. Akismet automatically whacks the spam leaving only good comments behind. Still, I check the spam file for the occasional message that slips through.
By robinson go, May 10, 2007 @ 7:41 am
wow lol. actually there are times that akismet blocks those comments that are not spam. lol hmph same as lillie. anyway all the best!
-rob
By Matt, May 10, 2007 @ 2:12 pm
Rob, thank you for stopping by. Gotta love that Akismet!
By Matthew, May 10, 2007 @ 2:39 pm
I use bad behaviour instead of aks.. works great, nothing bad gets through! Have you tried it?
By Matt, May 10, 2007 @ 2:42 pm
Dare I ask what that is, Matthew? Do tell!
By Ray Dotson, May 10, 2007 @ 3:00 pm
Hey Matt. I’ve been having the same problem. When I first started my blog last year, I rarely had any spam comments, but now I’m getting at least a couple hundred a day. I don’t know why this is happening, but the volume is so high now that I don’t have much time to look for false positives, though I occasionally find one or two. I agree that Akismet is awesome, though!
By Matt, May 10, 2007 @ 3:07 pm
Hi Ray. My traffic numbers are way up and so is the spam attempts. I guess “popularity” attracts the spam bots. As long as I have a readership, I’ll be happy to contend with the downside of it all.
By Mihaela Lica, May 10, 2007 @ 9:29 pm
Oh, this happens to me too! And I don’t know what to do. I’ve tried everything and nothing seems to work. I was hoping you have a solution.
By Cade, May 11, 2007 @ 3:08 am
I am grateful for my spam blocker too. I have not really been nailed, but enough that I am glad to get rid of that filth. Plugins are such good inventions, don’t you think?
By Matt, May 11, 2007 @ 8:26 am
Hello Mihaela. Your problem isn’t all that unusual. My recommendation is for you to “teach” Akismet which messages are legitimate by “despamming” them. I also ask people not to load up their messages with backlinks as that will cause Akismet to flag everything — they already get some “link love” when they fill out their URL. I hope this helps.
By Matt, May 11, 2007 @ 8:31 am
Cade, plug-ins rock. Without them, WordPress would be ho-hum, over run by spam, and a bad example of SEO!