A is for Akismet
By AndrewBoyd • Apr 8th, 2008 • Category: Blogging tips, Recent postsThe blogiversary for Facibus Reviews has come and gone, and I am reflecting on lessons learned after a year of fairly intense blogging.
I’m starting a new series today to pass on some of the things I’ve noticed from the wonderful world of blogging: an A-Z of blog tips.
While I’ve not been a huge fan of the WordPress gang of late, I do have to applaud them for this wonderful little tool. I thanked them for Akismet in November last year when the above screenshot was taken,
Akismet does one thing and one thing alone: block spam comments.
I estimate that Akismet has stopped better than 100,000 spam comments in the last twelve months across all of my blogs. As at 27 March 2008, the tally was:
- Facibus on Blogging: Akismet blocked 23,088 spam comments,
- On Blogging Australia: Akismet blocked 19,100 spam comments.
- Facibus Reviews: Akismet blocked 14,162 spam comments.
And that is just on my three most popular blogs.
For more information, please see the Akismet website.
AndrewBoyd is a consultant by day and blogger by night. He loves good food, good wine, and discussing faceted classification schemes with friends.
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No, Akismet blocks me too!
I not a spammer….. 
Okay, now I’ve had my sook. It is good. As long as people remember to check their Akismet folders for the occasional genuine commenter who for some reason has gotten caught up in Akismets web.
Me too - I like Akismet and just on one blog alone I’ve had over 100,000 spam comments captured over the past couple of years. But what I’d really like to see them do is automatic deletion of any spam comments that have more than 4 or 5 links in a comment. I mean, how many real commenters leave line after line of links and no text or commentary? I did ask the Akismet people but they said they have no plans for that at this stage.
Hi Kathie,
thank you for your comment.
I think that automatic deletion would be a truly great thing - so long as it was implemented in a humane usable way.
Best regards, Andrew
Can you explain to me why these faceless people DO it? Surely they can’t expect that anyone would actually buy a product from them?
Is it a fetish? an obsession? or do these spammers (who must scoot around with an IQ of room temperature) just do it for a laugh?
It’s beyond me
Hi Canny Granny,
thank you for your comment.
I like to think that spammers starve - but truth be known, some of them make millions. If you find a copy, there is a book doing the rounds of the remainder shops at the moment called Spam Kings (my copy is elsewhere at the moment, but it was published by O’Reilly) that tells some of the stories about spammers and the people who hunt them.
Best regards, Andrew
Hi Lightening,
argh! I just noticed you in my spam folder, sorry.
Yes, it does most surely suck to be falsely accused of being a spammer, even if it is by a piece of code.
Best regards, Andrew
aaaahhhh, I look forward to the day when I’ve got enough traffic that I’ll need Akismet, lol
Looking forward to instalment “B” of your A-Z series.
Anita
Hi Anita,
I am looking forward to installment ‘B’ as well
I followed your link to your blog - good luck with the book, it looks like a really good one
Best regards, Andrew
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