Those who know me well, know that I’m very picky about my anti-spam plugins. I’m more concerned with the effect an anti-spam plugin has on my readers than I am with how effective it is against spam (so Captcha are completely out of the question). I have spent 24 hours using Spam Karma, and it has done a good job. But, before I commit to using it completely, would anyone wish to discuss any troubles or general complaints they have with Spam Karma, either when commenting or administrating the plugin? And, if you had troubles when you were in control, what did you have the overall treatment algorithm set at (or what was causing your trouble)? Also, if you have used both Spam Karma and Spaminator, which one do you prefer, and why? Thanks in advance!
Comments
6 responses to “Any Spam Karma Troubles or Complaints?”
Hi James,
I tried both these plugins and was disappointed with both! I have written about the issues I had in detail on my blog but briefly Spaminator had way too many false positives. I don’t get many people commenting on my site but when those who do get their legitimate comments trashed, then it’s time to change plugin.
I tried Spam karma after Spaminator and was pleasantly surprised at how few false positives I had. I did have them, but not as many as with Spaminator.
Spaminator had issues as well. Wierdisms, more than bugs usually. Some comments, for instance, would be duplicated within the comment surrounded by Spam Karma headers! Also, although I had moderation turned on, and Spam Karma set to check if moderation was on, comments getting past SK, were published directly, ignoring the moderation setting.
Then I noticed your post in the Support forums about wp-HashCash. I installed that, disabled SK and I haven’t looked back. wp-HashCash has been so effective for me I am now considering turning off the moderation!
Out of interest, why are you moving away from wp-HashCash?
Honestly, I am torn between Spam Karma and HashCash. I like to have feed back of what a plugin catches, and the current (beta) release of HashCash for 1.5 does not generate logs, no matter what you do. Spam Karma, on the other hand, provides a good amount of feedback, and I haven’t had any false positives since disabled RBL and IP checking. I’m going to enable HashCash for today and see how it does.
Be sure that you configure Spam Karma to email you in the event of a spam and to include the server variables and request headers of a comment that is not approved in the email – this will help populating your blocklist and .htaccess file.
Watch for false positives, though – that was why I disabled it (that and the few niggling errors I mentioned above)|
Cheers,
Tom
I just got home; WP 1.5 and your extensive bad words list caught 5 comments to moderate. 4 of them were spam, and 1 was a Gmail invite request (which was fine). I’m not using any plugins right now, and things are working great so far.
Congrats! I’m glad my list is working out (I should post an updated one). I think I’ve finally settled on a tactic. I’ll use the default tools during the day, and let Spam Karma run while I’m sleeping or away for extended periods of time.
I have been using Spam Karma for quite awhile and have been very satisfied with the results. It has done a great job killing trackback spam as well.