Jan
Blocking Spam - It’s Not Rocket Science
There are a number of ways to block spam. If you have a blog, you’ve probably tried a few. If you’ve ever commented on a blog, you’ve probably seen a few in use.
I’ve been using Akismet since I started blogging, and I’ve been happy with it. But there are other ways. Captcha images, math plugins, questions, and more.
For now it’s “Is fire hot or cold?” and “What is the sum of 7 and 4?” but who knows what the future holds. Someone out there is probably working on an anti-spam plugin that requires you to solve physics and/or calculus equations!
Before you can comment, we have to make sure you are qualified as a rocket scientist. Just answer this simple question and your comment will be approved:
What is the cosine of an ultraviolet wave traveling at a velocity of 27 kilojoules with a frequency of 3, as it extends perpendicular to the angle of inference, in an isotonic solution?
While the grad students go try to figure that out, let’s look at what the people with street smarts are doing: WP-SpamFree
It’s simple. Few spam bots can process JavaScript, and few can process cookies. Ever fewer can process both. However, 99% of your visitors will have no problems with either JavaScript or cookies.
So they made a plugin that uses JavaScript and cookies to block the bots while avoiding the need for captchas and math questions. It’s not rocket science - it’s better than rocket science. I prefer to use the term practical. 
I’ve been using it for a week or so and it has blocked 100% of comment spam, giving Akismet a well-deserved vacation! The only thing that has made it past WP-SpamFree was trackback spam, but Akismet caught that with no problem.
WP-SpamFree gets Sucker’s Seal of Approval!
Photo credit: IRRI Images
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I’ve have tried the plugin and I like it more then for example Akismet! Thanks for sharing!
Pretty interesting concept. The site says almost 100% use javascript, well… that isn’t entirely true, especially depending on specific niches. Many techies simply turn off javascript to avoid ads and the US government even stated javascript should be turned off entirely while searching (although of course, not many follow this). Also, some schools, work places and government offices turn off javascript.
I’ve been using this plugin for a while too and love it. It just works!
@Gary: Regarding the internet usage stats, the author of the plugin is actually pretty acurate about how many people browse with javascript. You’re talking about small niches, instead of the big picture of aggregate internet usage. Those could easily fall within a half percent of total internet users. I’ve seen freely available usage stats that back this up. You should check them out. My blog readers have told me over and over that they hate captchas, and I like the solution wp-spamfree uses because there would be extremly few people it would inconvenience compared to other solutions. Even then, all would have to do is turn on JS for a minute to post a comment.
Good point Dean. I’m sure there are plenty of people who refuse to leave comments if they have to enter a captcha, so it’s a trade off.
Just today I saw a question “Who is buried in Grant’s tomb?” as part of the commenting process. Last time I heard that (years ago,) it was considered a riddle, and a lot of people over-think it and can’t get an answer.
Can you imagine trying to figure out a riddle when you want to leave a comment?
This is the first time I heard of this plugin. Thanks for heads up. I’m gonna test it out.
Haven’t tried this particular plug-in so installing now.. thanks for the informative (and very useful) post
I also never heard about plugin. I’m going to try it. Thanks for information!!!))))))))))))
Thanks for blogging about this. I’m been looking for a better solution than Akismet.
Its all a matter of volume. I dont want to spend every minute of my day checking for spam. Akismet works okay for me but lets through couple of spam frequently (especially the ones without links). And I hate captchas, I will never put one on my blog. So I wrote a plugin to block comment spam without resorting to captchas called WP Captcha-Free (Sorry for the shameless plug, I hope you dont take this as comment spam
). It uses a combination of time based hash and ajax to block spam (or atleast ensure the comment was manually posted). Like WP-SpamFree it uses javascript but the time-based hash (also known as Tima Based Tokens, TBT) adds another barrier. I use it myself of both my blogs and now get zero spam from an earlier 40+ per day. This doesn’t replace Akismet but does complement it very well. You can check it out at http://wordpresssupplies.com/wordpress-plugins/captcha-free/
Let me know what you think of it!
Hey thanks for posting this. I have noticed several of these questions when commenting on blogs. I hope don’t get any harder than simple addition–I am so bad at math–even worse at physics! Let’s hope your prediction does NOT come true!
I’m definitely going to give it a try. By the way your blog is from the very few original blogs in the niche. Keep it up!
Thanks SEO! I try to stand out from the crowd