I created a blog for each of my 2 daughters and unfortunatly both blog start to be popular... way too popular. Each blog gets over 5 spam comments everyday. Some are really aweful and discusting. I use Wordpress 2.0.2 with Akismet and a Wordpress key (before Akismet it was 25 spam a day). I can forbid commenting but the goal is to use the blog as communication with older brothers, grand-parents, friends... Any tip?
I approve every comment before it shows...Some of the spam plugins are pretty good but to me, full moderation is the only way to go
I do that too but when my 12 and 10 years old login they see the comment to moderate. We have a solution to log first as an admin, moderate then let them go to their blogs. I'm sure I'm missing a config like: girls = no moderation Mom/Dad = moderation
WP does have a setting like that but it's set so the admin has to approve EVERY comment, which sucks. There's 2 solutions I use. One is to set comments to be held if the user hasn't commented before. This becomes a kind of "sign up" process, so to speak. Should any spam come my way, I note the IP and add it to the textbox under "Comment Moderation", then mark it as spam for Akismet to handle. You'll also want to look into "captchas" (or "capcha", no T). These are those images with random characters a user must type when submitting a form. There are a few at http://www.wp-plugins.net
Perhaps the source code can be edited to remove the comments from the pages that your girls login to and only have the coments show on the page /wp-admin/edit-comments.php
I'm surprised that foul stuff gets through Akismet, I get very few through using that (WPv1.5). I'd turn moderation on and make sure hte girls don't view comments in the moderation queue. It's interesting to share your experiences. We're planning a big trip later this year and I wanted to get my guys a blog for the same purpose.
That's the problem, moderation is on and moderates every comment. Akismet catch 98% of the Spam. When girls login they see the moderation queue and the Akismet log. I tried every possible Role, Subscriber can't post, and the next level Contributor can see queues. May be that's the solution, a plugin called kids-access. where they can post but don't see any queue. This morning I emptied the Askimet queue and boy some people are really crazy when it come to get backlinks for their new porn site.
plmerlin - I know this thread is old but I finally got fed up with deleting up to 20 a day so I went to Options - Discussion and down in the last box (Blacklist), I entered the following list viagra valium sex adipex advicer baccarrat blackjack bllogspot booker byob car-rental-e-site car-rentals-e-site carisoprodol cialis coolcoolhu coolhu credit-card-debt credit-report-4u cwas cyclen cyclobenzaprine dating-e-site day-trading debt-consolidation debt-consolidation-consultant discreetordering equityloans fioricet flowers-leading-site freenet-shopping freenet gambling- health-insurancedeals-4u homeequityloans homefinance holdempoker holdemsoftware holdemtexasturbowilson hotel-dealse-site hotele-site hotelse-site incest insurance-quotesdeals-4u insurancedeals-4u jrcreations levitra macinstruct mortgage-4-u mortgagequotes online-gambling onlinegambling-4u ottawavalleyag ownsthis palm-texas-holdem-game paxil penis pharmacy phentermine poker-chip poze rental-car-e-site roulette shemale slot-machine texas-holdem thorcarlson top-site top-e-site tramadol trim-spa ultram valeofglamorganconservatives viagra vioxx xanax zolus adult dating Code (markup): It cut my spam from 20 a day to 1 (You could get more agressive and cut it further). Best of all, the rude ones are deleted right away without hitting the moderators queue.
I also installed the WP Bad Behavior. Most spam is automated and dumped on your blog by robots. Bad Behavior stops them before they are able to even leave comments. I haven't had a problem with spam since installing it though 1-2 still get through every once in awhile. I highly recommend it in addition to the other suggestions given.
If spam is a major issue and you are not too attached to wordpress, switching to textpattern is an option. Spam is a non issue on my textpattern blogs, which is part of the reason I use it.