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Administrative Note – I’m Fed Up

by Flexo on March 7, 2006

in Administration

It’s an understatement to say my time is pretty limited. Writing entries for the blog is difficult enough, but I shouldn’t have to spend so much time deleting spam comments. I’ve had it with junk. The spam filter built into this blogging software, Movable Type, does not function properly. Almost all of my other blogs have been migrated to WordPress, but I’m not too happy with their out-of-the-box spam solution either. To truly combat spam on WordPress, I’ll need to install Akismet and/or Spam Karma.

This will be a big project, mainly due to WordPress’s user-unfriendly template system. That is, I don’t want the site to look like the majority of other WordPress-powered websites I’ve seen, and the software doesn’t make that easy. Sure, I could just “drop” in a pre-defined template, but I have yet to find one I like.

I don’t know when I’ll have time to do all of this, but I certainly don’t have time to delete spam comments.

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About the Author

Flexo, the owner and creator of Consumerism Commentary, has been blogging and writing for the internet since 1995 and has been building online communities since 1991. Find out more about him and follow him on Twitter.

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  • I use Hashcash for WordPress. I used to get a ton of comment spam and now I don't get any. It installs as a plugin so I didn't have to modify anything, I just had to go into the admin and activate the plugin.
  • I feel your pain.

    Other blogs? =)
  • I, too, feel your pain. I'm only now beginning to play with Wordpress 2.0 for a couple of other projects. The templates might as well all fall out of a can. I found nothing I really liked, so I just cleaned out the default theme and started from scratch.

    Wait -- were we talking about taking too much time?
  • When I was using Wordpress, Spam Karma seemed to work very well with its default config. It was easy to install too. Not sure what to do about MT.
  • I feel your pain. Wordpress has been an absolute nightmare for me. I mean, in THEORY it should be the most beautiful blogging program in the world, but in practice the themes are so fickle. Adding a link or a photo can shove your sidebar to the bottom middle of the page or put a huge gap in between your header and your posts. And I've started getting a little spam as well, though nothing like the scale you're encountering, it seems like.
  • NickV
    Customizing templates in Wordpress is a pain. I think there are actually people who'll do it for a small fee. On the other hand, Akismet is awesome.
  • FMF
    I know what you mean -- I have the same problem.
  • Tim
    I'm using WordPress mainly because I don't want to spend a lot of my time working on the layout. I agree that 99.9% of the themes suck and look like amateurs made them. None are professional looking.

    Best of luck to ya. Sorry to hear you get so much junk.
  • I may be totally clueless here; but can't you have word verification like in blogger and other sites?

    Usually spam is sent by a computer (not a human) so it can't read the alphabets drawn on the small image. I though word verification is pretty strong tool to ensure there is a human posting the comment.

    Karthik
  • Tim, if you've found a nice-looking and reliable theme, I would LOVE to hear about it. The themes I try are constantly giving me fits, and although I've got a decent one working right now, I have no doubt that the next time I post an image it will go U-shaped again.
  • jim
    Man I love Word Press, Spam Karma's been working like a dream though the last day or two there have been a couple ones that have made it through. Nothing with links in the text but a couple authors from random-url-about-prescription-drugs.com but nothing major.
  • Sooooo, I guess this would be the wrong time to talk about the benfits of herbal Viagra?
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