Spam Protector Parameters

[Wandrin]

I would use capchas, but that has never worked. Always a message that incorrect string has been entered.

When I try to auto moderate, everything gets rejected --- valid along with spam.

If not using capchas, what parameters should be used so that valid comments get through to moderation and the spammers are rejected without my having to do it. I don't mind an occasional spammer, but I get more spam than valid comments.

These are the parameters currently specified -- everything rejects:
http://www.wandrin.us/Others/Top Half.png
http://www.wandrin.us/Others/Bottom Half.png

The site: http://www.wandrin.us/blog

[garvinhicking]

Hi!

Captchas should work for you - the only way it wouldn't is if PHP sessiosn do not work properly on your server. I could check that, if you temporarily enable captchas on your blgo.

Without using captchas, you cannot really block comment spam without moderating EVERYTHING. Captchas are really the only good way to go.

Regards,
Garvin

[judebert]

I find the Akismet options works pretty well -- the only problem is that your server must not be blocked from connecting to the Akismet server.

I sometimes turn off automatic comments. When I leave them on, I modify my .htaccess to block trackback bots. (Trackbacks appear in the comment section of your admin screen.)

CAPTCHAs are awesome for weeding humans from bots. The ideal solution, in my opinion, is Akismet and .htaccess for trackbacks (because you can't put CAPTCHAs on trackbacks) and CAPTCHAs for comments.

[garvinhicking]

Hi!

I'm not sure, I thought AKismet was only used for trackback spam?

Regards,
Garvin

[Wandrin]

Captchas have been turned on....

Looking forward to a solution....

Keep the balance...
Lloyd

[Don Chambers]

As long as we are discussing Akismet ...

1) once you have an akismet key, can you use that on more than a single blog/domain?

2) The WP version (according to their docs) retains trackbacks flagged as spam for a period of time.... I'm guessing like our list of pending comments. How can we mark one as "this is not spam" and hopefully report that back to akismet?

3) is there any "appeal" process with akismet if your site gets flagged as spam?

[garvinhicking]

Hi!

1) once you have an akismet key, can you use that on more than a single blog/domain?

I'm not sure, but I think I've read that API keys are unique to a domain.

Wandrin: Your problem simply is you annoucen www.wandrin.us here, but the url you configured in s9y is WITHOUT www. This mismatches cookies!

You need to either decide on a fixed domain, or enalbe the HTTP hostname autodetection in the s9y configuration.

2) The WP version (according to their docs) retains trackbacks flagged as spam for a period of time.... I'm guessing like our list of pending comments. How can we mark one as "this is not spam" and hopefully report that back to akismet?

This feature is currently not implemented, it would need coding first.

3) is there any "appeal" process with akismet if your site gets flagged as spam?

Phew, that you would need to ask at the akismet site. Since its community based, I figure it will be hard to appeal.

Regards,
Garvin

[Don Chambers]

Thanks SuperGarv!!!

I think Judebert once mentioned having a look at the akismet stuff, but I believe he is stacked up with other s9y tasks at the moment!

[Wandrin]

Garvin,

That resolved the problem. And such a simple solution.

Thanks for your speedy response. It is much appreciated.

Dank! (I hope that is right from the little German I remember.)

Keep the balance....
Lloyd
http://www.wandrin.us/blog

[judebert]

Since you get a free Akismet key with your wordpress.com account, and you can use it on your other-domained Serendipity blog, it must not be domain-dependent.

However, I'll bet it uses the number of keys reporting as spam to rank its spam. It'd probably be good to get an additional key for each domain.