WordPress News: Lots of WordPress Releases, Love Blogging and WordPress Contest, Scott Wallick, Akismet News, Permalinks, and More

This week’s Blog Herald WordPress News is WordPress News: Release Week News, WordPress 2.7.1, BuddyPress, WordPress MU, and More Releases, and I’ve covered a lot of WordPress news you can use: It’s Release Week. WordPress 2.7.1 Beta 1 released for testing. WordPressMU updated. BuddyPress Beta 2 released. WP Scanner beta released. WordPress.com releases January stats. […]

Are You Willing To Go Naked For One Day For Akismet?

Are you willing to let your blog go naked for one day? No, it isn’t time for CSS Naked Day. Mark on Akismet was intrigued by the announcement by Jesper Rønn-Jensen to turn off all comment spam protection on December 15, and now challenges all Akismet users to turn off Akismet for a day. It’s […]

When Akismet Goes Bad: What to do when Akismet starts spamming your own comments

The reason why I created Akismet Auntie Spam helper script was because I seem to have a problem few other people do — every couple of months Akismet decides that my own comments and trackbacks are spam. This is unforgivable and a fatal usability flaw in Akismet’s design. Comments and trackbacks from the blog admin should skip the spam check process. I challenge anyone who argues differently to have to deal with always having to double check if their own comments are marked as spam. The delay between posting a comment and it appearing in Akismet almost always assures that you will miss one or there will be an inordinate delay in responding to your commenters.

But enough of the ranting about my problems with Akismet. Here are two things you can do to help when Akismet is marking your own comments as spam.

Akismet: All Our Comment Spam Fighting Eggs in One Basket

Recently, Blog Herald’s Abe Olandres wrote “Are We Betting Our Blogs on Akismet?” and he’s right. Most of us running WordPress practically rely on Akismet to combat spam and according to its overall stats, 93% of all comments are spam (the real figures would be a bit higher than that). Today alone, there are close […]

Akismet Auntie Spam Firefox-Greasemonkey Page Viewing Script

My buddy, Engtech has come up with a neat Firefox Greasemonkey script which “shrinks” your screen view of Akismet’s comment spam page viewing. The Akismet Auntie Spam Greasemonkey Script for Firefox changes the way the comment spam caught by Akismet is viewed. Instead of viewing the whole comment spam, and scrolling down screen after screen […]

Winning the Battle Over Comment Spam: Akismet and Search Engines?

Brian Turner asks “Should search engines use Akismet?”, a fascinating question and one that could revolutionize the revolution against spammers. …The aim of the automated form spammers is to increase their search engine rankings – by forcing sites to unwittingly publish links which may be used by search engines to improve a sites ranking on […]

Akismet Kills 50,000 Comment Spams

Like the startling discovery that your car’s odometer has just turned over 100,000, today I hit the delete comment spam button on my Akismet panel on this WordPress.com blog and found this: Akismet killed 50,000 comment spams on my blog since it began in October of 2005. Incredible. Overall, the false-positive ratio for Akismet catching […]

At the Bottom: New Delete Comment Spam Button in Akismet for WordPress.com Users

With the recent high volume of nasty comment spam, most of which is caught by Akismet within WordPress.com blogs, I’ve been mentally chastising the developers for not including a DELETE SPAM button at the bottom of the caught spam list. I would scroll through 90 or more caught spam comments and get to the bottom […]

Akismet Smacked By Comment Spam: The Stats

Akismet, the official comment spam fighter for WordPress.com blogs and WordPress users has been working overtime to fight off an onslaught of comment spam bots. Akismet has a new Akismet Stats page with a chart to show you how hard it is working to combat comment spam. The chart measures the number of comment spam […]

Mystery Solved: Introducing Akismet Comment Spam Protection

The mystery of the API numbers in your wordpress.com Administration Profile panel has now been revealed. It is part of a new benefit package for wordpress.com users. Not only will you get a free blog on wordpress.com, but the future looks like it will also give you other goodies for being a part of the […]

Blog Exercises: I Don’t Trust That Site

I recommended an article to a student and they said they didn’t trust that site, thus shed doubt on my personal integrity. I asked why. “Because it’s on Blogspot.” Wow. I have to say that wasn’t the answer I expected. I didn’t expect someone, not web savvy in the least, would associate a blogger on […]

Blog Exercises: Taking Inventory on What Keeps You Blogging

The recent major desktop computer crash has left me reeling. I thought I had all my data backed up. For the most part, I did. What I didn’t have backed up was my programs. Getting back up to speed fast, I’ve had to prioritize the programs I had download and install. Yes, download. Who gets […]

WordPress Anniversary: Comment Spam Lessons

It’s hard to believe that I’ve learned much from comment spammers over the years. I’ve learned that they are among the most hated folks in the world, yet you have to respect them as well. As I look back on ten years of blogging with WordPress on this 10th Anniversary year, I realized that comment […]

The Brute-Force Password Attack on WordPress Sites

My mother emailed me and asked if WordPress was under attack. With all the news of last week’s attack of the Boston Marathon, the attacks on WordPress and other PHP-based web publishing sites was low on the priority list for myself and others, but this is something to take seriously. As we get back to […]

The Secret Recipe of Comment Spam Comments

Mr. Louis Vuitton just sent me a message in my blog comments I’d like to share with you. I share this touching message because it is highly educational when it comes to the art of spam comments, and serves to remind us of why we love having Akismet, the best comment spam fighter, on our […]