We were getting tons of comment spam!
Our blog once it got indexed by the search engines started receiving tons of comment spam in recent months. This is one of the major reasons we went through so many hurdles to get it to where it is today! First, our problem was with Tpo 2.6 so we upgraded our servers o/s and installed typo 4.0.3.
The spam continues...
Then we we're still getting spam with the latest version of spam filters so we tried writing in some filters.. no luck.. We were also getting large loads so we upgraded apache but that's another story altogether.. Needless to say we needed something that worked and that is when Tommy went ahead and setup Askimet along with our new theme (our old one was having display issues in Ie7).
Askimet: The Spam solution
Automattic Kismet (Akismet for short) is a collaborative effort to make comment and trackback spam a non-issue and restore innocence to blogging, so you never have to worry about spam again. The thing with Askimet though is that it is only free for now. They may start charging everyone for use, which is what I am guessing their marketting plan is. So please sign up for your ruby on rails blogs soon so you can use their service right away!
Some research shows that there are alternatives and ways to further enhance your spam protection...
Alternatives to Askimet standalone
a) SK2 with Akismet Plugin - works straight out of the box and blocks nearly every spam attempt. combines the Akismet with the strong Spam Karma 2 Engine ;)
b) Akismet + Did You Pass Math? + Trackback Validator
Testimonials:
"Been running Askimet for a week or so - easily identifies the 50-100 or so comment spam I get a day but does not misclassify the one or two real comments I get a month - basically Askimet works :)"
"Before Akismet I was spending more time deleting spam than creating content. Now I can focus on actually blogging!" — Sarah King