How Do You Deal With Spam?

[NaturalWriter]

Greetings to all!

I'm curious to know your ways of avoiding those wretched spam bots! Have you had the misfortune of being over run with them? Share with us your experience, and what you had done, or what your doing to combat it. Tell us the tips and tricks to keeping our websites clean of pesky varmints, and critters!

I'm hoping this thread will help others figure out the best ways to avoid having problem or at least be able cope with it a bit better.

I'll start it off by explaining what I do to avoid spam.

I make sure I:

Activate my Akismet plug-in, as it provides a protective shield over my sites.

Moderate my comments myself, and check them ofter. THIS is important, as you want to make sure the comments are spam, but checking them often ensures the search engine bots won't crawl the text either.

Have a captchacode for my subscriber form on your website, and have them verify their subscription through email.

I haven't been over run by spam yet, and I hope to avoid it. How about you? What are you doing currently? What have you done in the past? Tell us your stories about SPAM!

 

[hoangvu]

I'm also curious a bit about which platform are you mentioning? wordpress, joomla or custom website design?

I like Captcha code for my forms but best way is having security questions to allow post comment or submit content on my form.

what do you think about CAPTCHA verification code when today it could be bypassed by super spam programs ?

 

[hipcat]

hipcat

There are some good forum plugins that allow you to create your own captcha question and I like to create weird ones that real people must think about to answer. First day I added it and my spam registrations went to ZERO

There's also a good plugin for Wordpress called "Sabre". Even though Akismet for WP has been the default for years, it still has a long way to go before it's truly perfected.

 

[NaturalWriter]

I'm also curious a bit about which platform are you mentioning? wordpress, joomla or custom website design?

I, myself only have experience with WordPress, HTML and some PHP. My knowledge goes only so far, but I hope to expand upon it more and more.

What do you think about CAPTCHA verification code when today it could be bypassed by super spam programs ?

Eek!!! The sound of that scares me! The captcha codes I have seen recently are so elaborate. They have to be, because of the `Super Spam`.

lol When I say Super Spam, it makes me think of little tiny bots with capes...lol

 

[themajor]

Akismet plug-in, is the best way to deal with it

 

[RobinYork]

Akismet plugin should be best way to fight against spam, and configure the Comment settings in Wordpress, dont let Guests leavin comments, and ofcourse try to use recaptcha.

 

[TejasWebHosting]

TejasWebHosting

There you go, in a nutshell, this is the process you should use.

Not all recaptcha's are a pain, but the bad ones definitely are. If tweaked a bit they can be user friendly...

 

[HostNurse]

Installing captcha be using Akismet or BadBehavior plugins should be effective in preventing spam.

 

[Quadrivium]

If you know some php check out "botscout." They offer an API service where you can check your user's submitted form data against a huge blacklist of known bots/spammers. It's not perfect, but it does do quite a good job. I'd say it probably gets like 90% to 95% of the spam posts.

 

[ElixantTechnology]

I thought that this thread was intended to discuss how to fight spam as a whole, but it seems that the OP is only speaking in regards to Wordpress. There are many plugins that will help with preventing spam, however, a properly maintained server with Mod_Security rules will help further as well. Web spam is a very easy thing to fight, you just need to not take any shortcuts when putting together your website. Email spam however, is something that needs to be discussed and faught.

 

[NaturalWriter]

NaturalWriter

Thank you for your input. I was only speaking about WordPress because of my knowledge base. We are always open to hear and learn more about the various ways to keep the pests out so we can welcome visitors without the risk of virus or spam spam spam.

Tell us more of your experience (no matter what it is:WordPress, etc)!!

 

[nkthen]

I don't know if you face this, but if you do use Askimet for about one year, you will need to PAY?

It came to me after one year, so I change to anti-spam Bee. Works just as well.

 

[hipcat]

hipcat

Sounds like someone is trying to con you, as Akismet is free, and always has been. There may be some sort of upgrade feature that gives you stats or something that you could pay for, but I've used it for 8 years on over 100 sites and never paid a dime...ever.

 

[timezoned]

I am agreeing with many of you guys: Akismet plugin is really good. But it also depends on the platform I am using.
However it also depends on what you mean in terms of "spam bot". The one flooding your comment fields? They are using scrapers which automatically picks up your site by searching for foot prints related to your platform. Like wordpress, vBulletin or whatever leaves the footprint "Powered by Wordpress/vBulletin" and therefore these platforms are often flooded by spammers. Therefore I use a plugin to hide your platform. You can read about it [URLnf="http://www.elegantthemes.com/blog/tips-tricks/how-to-hide-the-fact-that-your-website-runs-on-wordpress"]here[/URLnf].

And well.. Captcha ofcourse. But you know that there are indians working for $2/h just constantly solving captchas?

 

[lovefoxycharms]

I couldn't agree more! Meanwhile, for Email spam, there are several ways that I have learned and been using quite some time now. One is not publishing your email address in forums or websites and never clicking on any links or provide any personal information in any suspicious e-mail. Also, never reply to spam if you are already suspicious about it. Hope those things help.

 

[ismailix]

using Yandex mail. you're not doing anything. he's doing it for you.

 

[hostguy]

You have to secure your application to prevent from spamming. You can use captcha form for your page. Also you have to use STRONG and complex password for all your email accounts to prevent from spamming.

 

[hipcat]

hipcat

How does a strong password prevent you from receiving email spam?

 

[hostguy]

hostguy

Its for, if spamming occur from your end.