I Have A Question…
- June 6th, 2008
- COMMENTS 12
Over the last month or so I’ve been running into one problem with WordPress. Unable to sort it out myself, I’m turning to you, my loyal followers, to help me out.
There is one post on my blog that is getting bombarded with spam comments. However, these comments aren’t being caught by Akismet. Instead, they get sent right to my “Waiting To Be Moderated” comment section. The problem with this is that my inbox gets flooded with emails asking me to moderate these comments.
Now, I’m really confused because Akismet has blocked thousands of obvious spam comments from getting onto Elite By Design. However, these comments on this one post are slipping through - even though the entire comment is 5-10 links to porn sites.
Is this a life-threatening issue? No. Is it annoying to get bombarded with dozens of these spam comments daily? Absolutely. If anyone has any clue how to sort this problem out, I would really appreciate your help!
Thank you.
I had the same exact problem, Brian. I finally solved the problem today. Unfortunately, my solution isn’t one you’ll probably want to do - I deleted the post. The issue was on my personal blog and not on Pop Critics so it wasn’t a big deal for me to get rid of it (I have it backed up), but I just couldn’t take the emails anymore. It was driving me crazy.
Got some sort of comment problems (not only porn links but also sql injection attempts) in the past especially with old posts as sometimes Akismet seems to has its leaks.
I am not sure if this can solve your problem but heard the buzz about http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/close-old-posts/ or maybe you want to give the new typepad anti spam a try?
@Jason - I figured that deleting the post was one option, but an unnecessary one. The emails are driving me nuts, but I’m not sure if it is worth getting rid of my hard work and writing. Thanks for the suggestion though. If I can’t figure anything out I may have to do that.
@Robin - I checked out the plugin, and from my understanding it would close comments on ALL posts which is something I don’t want. I guess I’ll keep digging through the plugin section to see if I can find anything similar but for one post. Thanks for the help!
If the spam is coming from a single IP or block of IP’s you can block them using an .htaccess file. However if you want a more permanent solution, it seems like you will need an anti-spam cocktail of plugins. Here is Arpit Jacob solution on The Clazh.
Although I have not used any of these plugins, the most common solutions that I found are:
WP-SpamFree
Bad Behavior
Spam Karma
WP-SpamFree appears to be the most current, tested to 2.5.1
@Brian, I believe the plugin Robin suggested does only close comments on posts, older than a specific age. I’m not 100% sure, but it’s easy to check it out, isn’t it?
@Skarld - Good idea on blocking the IP’s. I went through and dug up some of old emails I’ve archived with the spam comments. I found that they are coming from about 5-10 IP addresses. I blocked them all and will block any future messages. Thanks!
@Coen - Yes, but I don’t want to close comments on posts older than the one I’m getting spam on
Will it matter if you change the post date?
They are probably using proxies like the ones I was getting slammed with. I decided to use
Recaptcha They have a WP plugin at recaptcha[dot]net/plugins/wordpress/
It has worked like magic the only problem i could see with your site is the design of the tool.
I have had similar problems with posts in the past. I took a different approach, I turned the post into a page (no comments on pages). It still does well in the SE but without the spam.
BTW - Can’t you just turn off comments for that specific post?
@Robin - Perhaps. Its just a matter of moving around my posts and messing with how new readers view my site that bothers me.
@ifindtrends - Perhaps. I’ll take a look at the plugin - for now, just blocking various IP’s seems to be slowing down the spam. Thanks for the tip though!
@Sandy - That’s one option I could take. However, I still want to keep the post open to *real* comments. And I could turn off the comments, but that would be unfair to people who wish to get involved in the conversation.
Right now, I’ve blocked a bunch of IP addresses and the spam comments seem to be slowing down. I’m sure it will never be 100% perfect, but it appears to be getting the job done for now. Thanks for all the comments though everyone!
I think you blog too little as it is.
@Sandy - Thank you for your honesty. I realize that my blog posting frequency has dropped off in the last couple of months. I have been very busy building Elite Theme, managing multiple client jobs, maintaining a healthy lifestyle, and blogging. However, with the recent release of Platinum, and several more designs completed for Elite Theme, I should start having more time to blog here at EBD.