redsand

Hi guix69,

I’m sorry to hear about the issue you’re having and I’ll be happy to help.

If you haven’t had a chance to yet, please take a few minutes to work through the Troubleshooting Guide and FAQs, as these solve 90% of issues users have.

This particular error is not likely to be a problem with the plugin.

Please note that it’s extremely rare for users to have this particular issue after working through the Troubleshooting Guide and FAQs. We ask that all plugin users please make reasonable effort to do some troubleshooting on their own, as there are far more of you than there are of us. 🙂

Please take special note of Troubleshooting Step 9 and FAQ #9 as they relate specifically to the issue you are dealing with, and will give you the steps to proceed forward.

From the Troubleshooting Guide:

If this message comes up consistently even after JavaScript and cookies are enabled, and after clearing your browser cache, then there most likely is an installation problem, site configuration issue, plugin conflict, or JavaScript conflict.

If those don’t solve the issue for you, we’ll need a bit more info from you on the specifics, and we’ll need to email back and forth, so please head over to the WP-SpamShield Support Form, and take a moment to fill out a support request. That will allow us to take care of this as quickly as possible for you.

– Scott

Please note that the WP-SpamShield Support page is our main support venue, not the WordPress forums here, so that will always be the best way to get a quick response and resolve any tech support issues.

You’re welcome! 🙂

– Scott

Hi ferglamanta,

How’s it going today? I’ll be happy to answer your question. 🙂

For the built-in contact form, you can enter one email address. The built-in form is meant to be very basic, and easy to install. You can get around that limitation if you setup a specific Gmail account (or similar free email) for your form, and then set it to forward to multiple addresses. Or if using company email, you can setup an email address that forwards to a specific group of people.

If you need more complex form options, WP-SpamShield will protect all other 3rd party contact form plugins, so I would recommend something like Contact Form 7, which allows you to customize it to your liking.

Hope that info helps!

– Scott

Hi wxia0822,

I’m glad you were able to figure out the solution. 🙂

Just to put your mind at ease, WP-SpamShield is a good WordPress citizen and when the plugin is uninstalled, it will remove 100% of itself from a user’s website, including all files, settings, and database data. There will not be a trace of it left after this. 🙂

(Just keep in mind – not everyone realizes this – that the uninstall process only works when done through the WordPress Dashboard. If a user removes a plugin via FTP, then the uninstall scripts for plugins don’t get a chance to run and can’t remove their data from the database.)

Let us know if we can ever help with anything else!

– Scott

Dan,

The only person here who seems to be attacking…is you. I’ve never attacked anyone online. I stand by everything I have said anywhere online, and can back it up with fact. When I’m wrong, I am happy to admit it, and have done so.

As a plugin developer, I’m not out of line for feeling that it is completely inappropriate to post a negative review without submitting a support request first. That’s just common decency. Many more developers feel that way. I’m not afraid to say what I think. If I get flack for stating my opinion publicly, so be it. Again, I’m proud to stand by everything I’ve said online.

C’mon now, don’t misstate the facts…I did not email you incessantly. I merely responded to your email with a quick reply, and said to take care.

I have nothing but goodwill towards you my friend, so, like I said, I’m not going to argue with you.

Take care.

– Scott

Hi Dan,

I’m sorry to hear that you had an issue.

However, I have to ask, why would you post a negative review without even submitting a support request first? You have submitted a support request in the past for a different issue, and we resolved the issue within a day, so you already know that we provide excellent support. I’ve even said that you could email me directly instead of submitting an official support request if you ever had another issue in the future.

To say this plugin is “bloated”, is simply not accurate. If you’re relying solely on Varnish for your website speed optimization, then you’re doing it wrong. When optimizing a site for speed, the server side caching should be the icing on the cake, not the meat and potatoes.

The plugin is extremely optimized and will actually speed up your site. Benchmarking and speed has been a primary focus from the beginning.

If setting a cookie – a very standard element of websites and web development – is causing your site to slow down that dramatically, then your site development practices have some fundamental problems. Even so, you can choose not to have the plugin set a cookie, by using Compatibility Mode, which we have noted, may help users who wish to use Varnish.

Varnish is known to cause a lot of problems with WordPress. This is a fact, not my opinion. Simply do some web searches on the topic if you don’t believe me. Unfortunately Varnish is known to have issues with Cookies and PHP SESSIONS. It will have issues with many plugins or web apps that use these. So, it’s not specifically the plugin that isn’t compatible with Varnish…it’s the fact that Varnish can reduce PHP functionality and impact these very standard features of PHP that WP-SpamShield uses. Use of Varnish will conflict with many open source web apps (including WordPress and many of its plugins). It’s better used, IMO, on a site that is specifically designed to be used with it, and coded to work with its unique characteristics.

You would be absolutely incorrect to say the “top managed WordPress hosts use Varnish”. I know exactly which hosts you speak of, and there are many web hosts out there that offer better performance without Varnish. Yes, some do use it, and interestingly enough, they have no problem functioning with the plugin. Many web hosts recommend our plugin, which they would not do if it was “bloated” or hindered performance as you say. I’m not against server-side caching altogether…there are other better server-side caching options IMO.

WordPress site slowdowns are most often caused by undiagnosed PHP errors, configuration issues, memory issues, database issues, missing modules, old mySQL versions, and old PHP versions. Slapping a caching mechanism on top of these can mask the issue but it’s not fixing the real problem.

Please take special note of FAQ 15, as it specifically addresses your issue:
“Q: Will WP-SpamShield slow down my site, and is there anything I can do to optimize my site for it?” Real the full FAQ: http://www.redsandmarketing.com/plugins/wp-spamshield/faqs/#faqs_15

Excerpt from the FAQ:

A: WP-SpamShield will not slow down your site, and no further optimization is necessary. It is a very efficient plugin and has been optimized to use a very light server load. Because it keeps spam out of the WordPress database, and helps prevent database bloat, it actually speeds your site up in the long term compared to a site that does not use it.

Clients hire us day in and day out to optimize their sites, and we write plugins that help improve PageSpeed, so that’s one area we specialize in and would never let a plugin slow a site down.

Here is a breakdown…

For the rest of the FAQ, please click here to read it.

If you want to resolve the actual issue on your site please head over to the WP-SpamShield Support Form, and take a moment to fill out a support request. That will allow us to help you diagnose this, find out what the real issue is, and get things working right for you.

Please ask yourself this…When developers spend so much time developing free plugins for the WordPress community, is it really ok to post a 1-star review without making any reasonable effort to receive support? That’s simply not the right way to handle things.

If you have an issue with something, submit a support request first, and give the author time to respond. We provide free support for our plugins…all you have to do is submit a support request at the WordPress Plugin Support Page. We provide some of the best support out there.

You might want to take a moment to check out these two posts:

• There’s a wrong way to give plugin feedback on WordPress.org
• How to Leave a Good Bad Review

I would understand the negative review if what you were saying was accurate, or if you had submitted a support request and we had treated you poorly or not resolved the issue. However, that is not the case.

I would ask that you reconsider your rating, as it simply isn’t accurate.

– Scott

We got to the bottom of it. Fixed in version 1.9.7.2.