I've been using WP-SpamFree for over a month now and it has instantly reduced my spam to almost zero from several hundred a day! I've got several blogs, and it saves me SO much time and hassle. I use it with Akismet, and before I installed WP-SpamFree, I used to have to check the Akismet queue for legitimate comments that got tagged as spam. Not anymore...this thing kills spambots at the source. DEFINITELY recommended!!
WP-SpamFree is AWESOME!! (19 posts)
-
HeatherLA
Posted 4 years ago # -
saicode
Posted 4 years ago #Sounds good.
I'd check it out. -
From a cursory glance at the code, it appears to me that the plugin will also block all trackbacks and pingbacks, regardless of whether they are spam or not.
These "simple solutions" have been tried before. They have flaws. That's why we use more complex solutions.
I mean, I have no doubt that this will block spam. But it will also block non-spam. Just something to consider.
-
WebGeek
Posted 4 years ago #@Otto: I'll be happy to look at your suggestions. Akismet is great, but it still leaves alot to be desired. Complex isn't always better. For the record, EVERY solution has flaws...that's just how it goes. This one just plain works, and for most people, it's a great solution.
It's shouldn't block trackbacks and pingbacks - that could be the result of some upgrades in the latest version - I'll look into that. I know there's a ton that can be added to it, and I'm definitely going to be constantly improving it.
@Heather: Glad you like!
-
Posted 4 years ago #@Otto: I just released version 1.3.1, which fixes the trackback/pinback problem. Thanks for your feedback and suggestions. Much appreciated.
-
WebGeek: This line:
add_action('pre_comment_approved', 'spamfree_allowed_post');Should be this:
add_filter('pre_comment_approved', 'spamfree_allowed_post');Although this is a minor nitpick, really. Actions and filters are not all that different anymore. It's just something to keep in mind for future compatibility.
-
Posted 4 years ago #Thanks Otto! Just made that edit. Much appreciated!
-
dieselboy
Posted 4 years ago #Hello, i'm really interested in this plugin, i managed to download it and test it, however your site cannot be reached - it shows only a blank page.
I read somewhere that the plugin is compatible with WP-Cache. Is it also compatible with WP-SuperCache?
In the past 3 days i haven't received a single comment spam.
Thanks for the really hard work! -
I would've tried your plugin had I discovered it before my present solution (Akismet + Spamkarma + Recaptcha) which works fine for me.
-
Posted 4 years ago #@dieselboy: You may have hit the site at a high traffic time. I've had WP-Cache off for the last couple days to test a few things. WP-SpamFree is currently compatible with WP-Cache. (If you have any problems, please let me know as it willhelp in development.) I am waiting until WP-SuperCache is more stable (1.0) to test it with that plugin. You're welcome!
@srikat: I'm glad your system works for you. That is a database-heavy array of spam defenses, and you could be suffering considerable slowdown on your site. You could replace that with WP-SpamFree + Akismet and your site would probably run quite a bit faster, without the users being inconvenienced by captchas. (One of the reasons I created this plugin is that statistics show most people hate captchas - this plugin doesn't inconvenience users like captchas do.)
-
Also, if you're not running Bad Behavior, you really should. It blocks roughly 90% of spam instantly. It also reduces the load on your site, since it's blocking it from being hammered by spam bots.
-
Posted 4 years ago #I would highly disagree about running Bad Behavior - it has some serious problems that can negatively affect the SEO of a site. We used to run it on our sites until a major problem occurred with it a couple months ago, that caused a lot of people to start auditing the code.
A few reasons why I highly recommend against using Bad Behavior plugin now:
- It doesn't properly validate search engine spiders and can potentially block them.
- If Bad Behavior goes down, or its connection to its server, it can take down your whole blog. Because of this we stopped using it on all blogs we manage a couple months ago.
- It takes alot of server resources.
You need to read these two blog posts:
The author of the second article will be releasing a bot blocker called CrawlWall that will blow away Bad Behavior, so keep your eyes out for its release.
-
I have never had a problem with Bad Behavior. In fact, it's worked so well that I'm tempted to say that any problems you experienced are problems with your site and your site alone, and not with Bad Behavior.
However, it's possible that BB has issues. Nevertheless, it is frequently updated and works incredibly well in my experience, so I will continue to recommend it.
I will also continue to recommend against WP-SpamFree, as I feel it is a somewhat short sighted solution that will cause its users more difficulties in the long run, as well as being a potential problem for companies who need to remain ADA-compliant. I mean, more power to those who want to use it, but it's far from a panacea and a "solution" to comment spam using javascript is really flat out unacceptable for those of us who care about web and design standards.
-
Posted 4 years ago #@Otto:
Wow. It seems more than a little inappropriate for a Moderator here on WordPress.org to recommend against a particular plugin, especially one that helps a lot of people, and to recommend another plugin instead. That demonstrates bias, and moderators are supposed to be unbiased.
Just curious, but do you focus this much of your energy criticizing other plugins?
Constructive criticism is one thing, and I'm happy to receive it, but outright attacking a plugin that actually helps a lot of people makes no sense to me.
I thought the whole point of this place was to encourage people to share plugins they have created and let users decide what they like and don't like. If you have an issue with me personally, email me and we can discuss it privately, instead of publicly being so negative.
Regarding Bad Behavior, the problem was extremely widespread and was the reason for the release of Bad Behavior 2.0.11. I suggest you do a little more research before making uninformed comments like that.
The last part of your comment is ridiculous, and demonstrates that you have some kind of negative bias. No one will get sued for using an anti-spam plugin. On that basis it could be argued that any anti-spam plugin could be the basis for a lawsuit, which is ridiculous, so save the legal advice for the professionals. Also, this has nothing to do with web design standards...people need practical solutions, which this provides. (FYI...A lot of work is going into new features for future versions that would make those a non-issue.)
This is a 3-month old plugin! What if people went off on every plugin when it was just released? What if people went off on WordPress when it was a fledgling? It's had several years to develop and become what it is. Do you think it was perfect when it first came out? No. Do you think it evolved over time? Yes. If this plugin is popular, then it's because it actually helps people. People are smart...as soon as it stops being helpful to them, they know how to click the little "Deactivate" button.
I really can't understand why you are being so negative, especially because this plugin was simply put out there to help people. Just let it be.
-
Wow. It seems more than a little inappropriate for a Moderator here on WordPress.org to recommend against a particular plugin, especially one that helps a lot of people, and to recommend another plugin instead. That demonstrates bias, and moderators are supposed to be unbiased.
Huh. I don't know where you got that idea from. I'm perfectly free to be as biased as I want to be. I mean, I'm not moderating anything here, just giving my opinions and advice.
I thought the whole point of this place was to encourage people to share plugins they have created and let users decide what they like and don't like. If you have an issue with me personally, email me and we can discuss it privately, instead of publicly being so negative.
I think you're reading more into it than I'm putting there. I have no personal issues with you. I don't like your plugin much, and I very much dislike the way that it works, and I don't think it's a particularly good idea for any users to use. But that's it.
Look, I'm a coder, I write code, I evaluate code. I'm also a web designer, I design things for the web, I understand web standards. In my day job, I write high-availability mission-critical servers that handle billions of dollars of transactions a year, although that's less relevant.
My point is that I'm a mega-nerd and I think about programming and standards and this sort of thing a lot. And I dislike WP-SpamFree entirely on that basis. No personal animosity is intended. Didn't mean to get under your skin, I just don't like the basic idea of the plugin itself, as a mega-nerd who thinks about this sort of stuff a lot. :)
Regarding Bad Behavior, the problem was extremely widespread and was the reason for the release of Bad Behavior 2.0.11. I suggest you do a little more research before making uninformed comments like that.
I'm well aware of the problem that caused BB 2.0.11 to be released and indeed the causes of the problem. We had many users here asking questions about it. However, the problem did not happen to my own site, and it only lasted all of a day or so before it was fixed for all users. So I think that making allegations like the ones you linked to are unfounded. I also don't like the attitudes of people whose posts you linked to, but you didn't write them so I have nothing to say to you on that score.
The last part of your comment is ridiculous, and demonstrates that you have some kind of negative bias. No one will get sued for using an anti-spam plugin.
Companies have been sued for using CAPTCHAs before. Successfully, I might add. The ADA is a law with teeth to it.
Reliance on javascript to allow commenting eliminates the possibility of all clients that do not support javascript. Since many clients for disabled people do not use javascript by default, this is a potential ADA violation if you're somebody who has to follow the strictures of the ADA (a US company, basically).
Also, this has nothing to do with web design standards...people need practical solutions, which this provides.
And there's my real answer. If it's on the web, it should adhere to acceptable design standards. Anything less is unprofessional. I realize that you're all about the practical, and that's fine as far as it goes.
However, I am a professional. I do this sort of thing for a living. I could not recommend your solution because it is a very unprofessional one, for reasons that, in my opinion, are more important than "it works for now".
That's all I'm saying. Nothing personal.
I really can't understand why you are being so negative, especially because this plugin was simply put out there to help people.
You badmouthed a plugin that I like and highly recommend. So I felt obligated to give you my true opinion of your own work. Nothing more than that.
-
Posted 4 years ago #@Otto:
I'm a web developer and a professional as well, and I own a web development company. I've been in web development since 1996, when the web itself was young. I'm a mega-nerd too, but a mega-nerd that keeps practicality for users in mind.
You're not under my skin. I just think you're demonstrating a lot of unfounded bias. You can think what you want about being a moderator, but the whole concept of moderators involves lack of bias.
Regarding legal issues, there are a lot of ways to keep something like this in place, and accommodate everyone. Properly written "Terms of Use" or "Legal" pages do a lot to protect site owners as well. Your point about CAPTCHA's goes right along with my philosophy about CAPTCHA's inconveniencing users.
I criticized Bad Behavior because it has real problems - it can both take down a site, and hurt the search engine rankings of a site...those are serious issues. You were recommending it on a thread for a plugin that you were criticizing (WP-SpamFree)...It's not like I went over to the Bad Behavior plugin page and started bashing it. I used to love the plugin, AND recommended it to everyone. My eyes got opened with the 2.0.10 crash and many of us started auditing the code.
I'll go one further about the reliance on JavaScript - it's not a permanent solution, because future evolutions of bots will be able to process JS and it will no longer work as a filter. It works right now, and that's what people need - right now. That's where I go back to the fact that it's a 3-month old plugin and continually under development. I have quite a few things that I'm working on for future versions.
-
Heh. Moderating on these forums basically just involves deleting missed spam and occasionally editing a long post. It's not a task that really requires a whole lot of effort. ;)
And my point about captcha and legal issues was that there exist other web browsers than Firefox and IE and Safari and Opera. Browser made for disabled users often do not process javascript. And so your idea is fine, if you want to ignore blind users entirely.
What I'm getting at is that your idea here has been tried before and rejected for a lot of reasons, and though it works for your particular cases, those reasons are still valid.
Also, my opinion is not biased, I have actual valid reasons for not liking it. Here's my main problems with the concept:
1. It's not actually blocking "spam". It's actually blocking input from clients that do not process javascript code. Now, that happens to catch spambots, sure, but that's not guaranteed to be the case for the immediate future, and it's also not what the plugin claims to actually do in the very name of the plugin. A plugin that blocks spam should actually be attempting to target spam, not just targeting any client that has doesn't do javascript. There's been lots and lots of man-years put into spam recognition techniques, because the goal is to sort out what is spam and what is not. That's what Akismet attempts to do.
2. It's relying on the client to tell you whether to block something or not. Obviously, this is easily bypassed because you cannot trust the client. Now, Spam Karma uses (or can use, I'm uncertain here) a similar technique where it sends the client some random piece of information and checks for that information on the return trip. But Spam Karma does not block entirely based on that, it just uses it as one possible factor.
3. WP-SpamFree blocks entirely. It doesn't take into account the fact that it might be wrong. Other spam plugins set the approval code to "spam" in order to shove it into the spam section. Now, granted, I understand that this is desired behavior in your case, but I see it as a rather poor way to behave. Spam recognition is not 100%, with this or any other technique. Also, by using the wp_die and returning that rather ugly page, you give a rather poor user experience when somebody is unfairly blocked. I use NoScript on my browsers, the first time I comment on your site, I get that ugly screen telling me to turn on javascript. Instead, I close the tab and don't bother leaving my comment, just like I do when I get blocked due to a captcha or some other inane thing. You can say that this is an insignificant percent of your users, but that doesn't help those people who get bit by it. That doesn't make my comment get onto your site. Anything that limits your users or discourages real commenting by real people should be frowned upon, IMO.
There's some other reasons as well. I dislike the use of a cookie when adding a input to the form would be simpler and would not leave any tracks behind, for example. But the main reason is the concept itself. The basic concept is to have the browser verify that it's not a bot by doing something bots don't usually do. Regardless of the fact that bots can later be upgraded to do that thing, the whole idea is flawed from the beginning because you should be trying to detect "spam", not determine what kind of thing is sending you this potentially valid comment.
Look, if users find that it works for their use cases, then they're free to agree with you and use it. I still would recommend against it, but hey, that's just my opinion.
-
cartermason
Posted 4 years ago #A plugin that blocks spam should actually be attempting to target spam, not just targeting any client that has doesn't do javascript. There's been lots and lots of man-years put into spam recognition techniques, because the goal is to sort out what is spam and what is not. That's what Akismet attempts to do.
With the exception of a very early release of wp-spamfree, I've had zero real comments blocked on my site as a result of wp-spamfree, but automated comment spam has virtually disappeared.
I agree with the original author of this thread, WP-SpamFree is AWESOME!!
Also, Akismet has blocked many legitimate comments in the past. I do use Akismet in conjunction with wp-spamfree, but I simply do not have the time to go through hundreds of spam comments in Akismet without wp-spamfree. If a legit comment from a human gets flagged by Akismet now, it's pretty much the only comment there for me to read, since I do not get targeted by human comment spammers very often.
WP-SpamFree blocks entirely. It doesn't take into account the fact that it might be wrong.
Isn't there a way around that for a future release? Perhaps by modifying the blocked page with a way to prove you're human. Just a thought... it seems like your criticism--especially since the core of it is that this might not work so well for a long time even though it works great right now--is a thing for the developer to keep in mind for future releases to make this absolutely amazing plug-in better rather than a reason to not use it on your blog.
I think even the ADA criticism could possibly be handled with this plug-in by tweaks rather than abandoning the concept.
And, by the way, I read your earlier comment about Bad Behavior. I had two blogs which were taken down because of that incident. A spam tool which can take down your entire blog is FAR more dangerous than anything you've listed here. Besides losing a modest amount of AdSense revenue, the downtime is freakin' embarrassing!
And as someone engaged in the SEO industry, I was pissed to read what programmers wrote (correctly, I might add) in the posts WebGeek mentioned and elsewhere about Bad Behavior not properly validating search engine spiders properly. Blogs are a key tool for many SEO strategies. Using Bad Behavior would be irresponsible for anyone in charge of gaining traffic for a company through search engines.
wp-spamfree works, is being actively developed, and won't take down your entire site even if it does block an extremely small number of users. Though I don't have stats to back it up, my experience would lead me to believe Akismet would block more real users by sending real comments to its spam area which is too intense for most of us to give a regular thorough checking than wp-spamfree would deny real human comments.
-
genevaeagles
Posted 4 years ago #I installed the plugin on my site a week ago and the spam comments are gone. I use it in combination with Akismet and there's no more need to even moderate comments. Although I don't know if it's taking out any real comments - but I can't give any statistics on this since there are almost no commenter on my site.
Anyway, I love this plugin - great job!
Topic Closed
This topic has been closed to new replies.
