• Hi all,

    All of a sudden I get a lot of spam comments on my site.
    I’ve included a (simple?) captcha, whereby commenters need to complete simple arithmetic (e.g. 1+?=3).

    How is this done? Certainly you need to be “human” to understand this simple captcha?

    thx
    Chris

Viewing 9 replies - 1 through 9 (of 9 total)
  • There’s plugin that can help you reduce Spam comments in WordPress:

    I hope this helps!

    You’ll get mixed feelings about captchas (mostly negative). Personally, I don’t comment on any site with that.

    What spam plugins are you using? I would try that first. Akismet seems to work fine for most folks.

    Thread Starter chrissmit

    (@chrissmit)

    Hi,

    I have a spam plugin, and it works fine now.
    We really need one, otherwise we get spammed silly…

    try the cookies for comments plugin
    http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/cookies-for-comments/

    It stops a lot of the automated spam bots
    I refuse to use a captcha also, an the cfc plugin has been a huge help

    Thread Starter chrissmit

    (@chrissmit)

    I’ve installed the plugin.
    Now let’s wait and see what happens…

    thx for the tip!

    Sure, it doesn’t do a thing against human spammers, but it stops the automated spam bots which target your comemnts template file directly. Which is most of them in my experience!

    Also, (and I’m not sure if this applies to you) don’t confuse track/ping backs with comment spam.

    Track/ping backs can flood you if you get scrapers stealing your content. Those will show up as a sort of summary/excerpt in your comments area. Some themes don’t show them, some seperate them, etc

    I’ve installed the plugin.
    Now let’s wait and see what happens…

    You’ll have to confirm that it’s setting the cookie, otherwise it will not help any. I’ve had sites where it doesn’t set the cookie, and I haven’t figured out the reason yet.

    I don’t mind captchas, but a lot of people are lazy and will just move on instead of completing one. If you use a captcha make sure it’s legible and/or simple. That’s the big problem with captchas. Users don’t want to spend their day trying to figure out what’s being shown to them. I know a lot of users that don’t like captchas, but if they’re really committed to submitting a comment, they’ll spend those few extra seconds to complete it.

    Moderator Ipstenu (Mika Epstein)

    (@ipstenu)

    🏳️‍🌈 Advisor and Activist

    but if they’re really committed to submitting a comment, they’ll spend those few extra seconds to complete it.

    If they can read it.

    Captcha’s aren’t friendly to visitors with poor vision, and they’re not usable (in many implementations) to people who rely on text readers.

    but a lot of people are lazy

    It’s less about being lazy and more about the terrible user experience.

Viewing 9 replies - 1 through 9 (of 9 total)
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