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I’ m sure that there are plenty of posts on this topic, but we have had first-hand experience for several years in dealing with comment spammers. Each of the plugins below are in use by the EffortlessHR Blog and they all work in uniquely different ways to stop bots and spammers dead in their tracks. Today we are going to share our winning combination, in order of importance:
G.A.S.P. (GrowMap Anti Spam Plugin)
This plugin also comes installed with CommentLuv Premium. It’s very simple in design and adds a checkbox to “Confirm you are NOT a spammer” to your comment form. It also performs some validation and limits the maximum number of links that can be present in comment text. It can also enforce that the user is on the page for a certain amount of time before leaving a comment.
It is extremely effective at preventing automated spam.
Stop Spammer Registrations Plugin
I know what you are thinking.. Registrations? This plugin could use a new name, but there is no arguing with how effective it is, and contends with G.A.S.P. as being the best plugin. I just looked at my statistic screen for the plugin and saw this message — “Stop Spammers has stopped 66668 spammers since installation” — that should explain how great it is.
This plugin checks against StopForumSpam, Project Honeypot and BotScout to to prevent spammers from registering or making comments. The Stop Spammer Registrations plugin works by checking the IP address, email and user id of anyone who tries to register, login, or leave a comment. This effectively blocks spammers who try to register on blogs or leave spam. It checks a users credentials against up to three databases: Stop Forum Spam, Project Honeypot, and BotScout. Optionally checks against Akismet for Logins and Registrations.
Akismet
Akismet is what kicks in if/when a comment makes it past the other plugins, which does happen.
It performs further analysis on the comment information and visitor to determine if the post is legitimate.
There you have it, simple and easy. With this combination, we very rarely have to moderate or flag comments as spam. Almost all comments that make it through are legitimate and these plugins work in ways that result in very few false positives.
I only use Akismet. But since I also install commentluv to my blog, I think i’ll probably going to check on G.A.S.P. Sounds really interesting. Thank you for sharing.
I only use Akismet as well and it’s fantastic. I don’t feel the need to use any other anti-spam plug-in and I certainly don’t need to force my users to check a box before commenting. Akismet takes care of everything for me.
I *love* akismet–it’s amazing how many spammers are out there!
I use CommentLuv and Akismet. The extra checkbox annoys me oftentimes, because it disables my ability to hit tab and submit. However, I have decided to use the GASP one if I happen to be getting a lot of spam. So far, Akismet works perfectly. 🙂
I honestly didn’t give a lot of thought to anti-spam since Akismet seems to work so well. I’ve been using it since 2005 without a hitch, and I guess my not thinking about it is a good testimony to its effectiveness.
Now, I need something like that to filter my emails.
Todd
I only use Akismet, but I have GASP in the background, if needed. I’ve been blogging for over a decade and really have found Akismet works remarkably well.
Nice rundown!
Thank you very much for the information, now i,m looking for simple anti spam plugin and i found GASP from your page.. thank you
I use Akismet. But was thinking about installing Comment Luv so maybe I should be looking at G.A.S.P. too. Thanks – very informative post!
Not a plugin but more of a service — check out Cloudflare. You can set various security settings which will help prevent bad bots from reaching your site.
Great post anti-spam plugins are essential! We use Akismet 🙂
Spammers are always in the habit of researching appropriate resources and paste lot of links on that websites which are very bad for your website. It is very important to control over spams by installing anti-spam plugins for your website. All the people who are using WordPress CMS here is good news for them. They can install great anti-spam plugins and protect their website from the reach of spammers. I am currently running Akismat plugin for my website and it is very effective for me.
I use Akismet but have found that having CommentLuv works even better. I have the upgraded paid for version that I have found is totally worth the money. I have it set so you can’t use keywords as your name which is something spammers often do. I also have it so I have to approve all comments. That also helps cut down on spam. With CommenLuv it catches what Akismet doesn’t. Its like your cell phone with having to block numbers, you sometimes it takes more than one plugin to do the job. With being able to enable GASP settings it stops about 99% of the spam bots. Great post by the way!
Thanks for anti spam plugins. it will helpful for my blog.
I would recommend Akismet to anyone as i too using it with great success. it kicks out all the spammy comments from your blog.. Apart from it we should also use social sharing plugins and SEO plugins as well to make our blog popular..
I only use Akismet. But since I also install commentluv to my blog, I think i’ll probably going to check on G.A.S.P. Sounds really interesting. Thank you for sharing.