Say Good-bye to Blog Spam!  AnExtraordinaryDay.net

Spam.  Nobody likes it.  With the latest changes in email filters, we all are experiencing much less spam.  Or are we?  If you’re a blogger, you are undoubtedly feeling overwhelmed by the amount of spam hitting your comment box.

Wouldn’t you like to know how to fix comment spam?

It’s really very simple.  Turn off comments.

What? Turn off comments?

Am I crazy?

Don’t click away….stay with me to see where I take this.

When I set up my blog originally, I installed a WordPress plugin called Akismet.  It is supposed to be the premier plugin to prevent comment and trackback spam.  

Yet, when I check my WordPress dashboard I see this…

Akismet has protected your site from 174,203 spam comments already. 
There are 692 comments in your spam queue right now. 

Arrrgh!

I couldn’t let those bad boy bots give me a bad day.  Nope.  I needed to take matters into my own hands.

What did I do?

I thought long and hard about this.  It isn’t a good idea to install all kinds of plug-ins on our blogs, just because they do great things.  [sigh]

Regardless…the spambots were getting my goat and so I took a deep breath and installed a plugin called Growmap Anti Spambot Plugin.

That plugin worked fabulously until those wonderful email spam filters went to work.  Then I started getting spam comments by the thousands which got caught by Akismet, but landed in my spam folder/queue.  It became a dreaded task everyday to run through the spam comments checking for that lovely commenter who thoughtfully took the time to leave some very sweet words and put a huge smile on my face.

I had to do something.

Something that doesn’t require a plugin.

Something that’s super easy.

Something that did a super job of eliminating almost all those awful bad boy bots…

Something that worked!

 

Here’s How I Fixed My Comment Spam

 

I went back to my WordPress dashboard and….

  • clicked Settings
  • then clicked Discussion Settings
  • and then under other comment settings
  • checked Automatically close comments on articles older than [blank] days.  I chose 90 days.  You may need to adjust that according to the number of spam comments that you will continue to get.
  • Scroll to the bottom of the page and hit save changes.

Did this eliminate ALL spam comments?

No, it didn’t.  With that in place I get a small number of spam comments per week, not a cajillion every day.

It’s a remarkable thing.  I feel like I can breathe.  Before, if I didn’t run through the spam comments at least once a day they would get out of hand and I would fear that I missed an important comment.   Now I have my sanity back.

 

What’s interesting about this is that Copyblogger says it’s more than okay to turn comments off.  In fact they encourage their peeps to leave comments on social media, especially Google Plus.  I guess I could encourage you to leave comments on Facebook or G+.  They also suggest, that instead of replying with a comment, write a post in response to the post with more detail than a comment would warrant and link back to the original post.   That’s food for thought.

I chose to close comments after 90 days.  That gives a fair amount of time for those who read in hunks and chunks to catch up and still comment.  Hopefully the others will pop by Facebook or email their thoughts.

 

Have you been overwhelmed with bad boy bots and their creepy, nonsensical, spammy comments?

Hopefully this has been a helpful tip on how to fix comment spam.

I’d love to hear how you deal/dealt with this annoying problem.

 

Note:  I am not an expert.  Today I’m just sharing a tip that worked great for me and didn’t take any technical expertise to implement.  And that makes my day.  Hope it makes yours too.

Thank you for stopping by today.
I appreciate you and your sweet comments make my day.

Wishing YOU an extraordinary day!
Diane

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Comments

  1. Kim says

    I on Blogger, Diane, I am not sure if I have the option to turn off comments after a certain time. I will have to look into that. what I do have it the opportunity to moderate my comments and refuse to publish those that are spam. I have to say that it is time consuming, but it has cut down on my spam enormously. Now I only get a few each day! I hope your fix continues to work for you! 🙂

    • Diane says

      I’m so glad that you don’t have an issue Kim. It’s surely not fun.
      Best wishes for an extraordinary weekend!

  2. Kim says

    Great idea, Diane! Since I love getting comments, I chose not to close comments on older posts. You’ve convinced me to re-think that. As I look back, the only comments that come much later are the spam comments. You are a genius! 🙂

    • Diane says

      Haha! I’m not so sure about that genius remark….but it sure takes away the stress of having to plod through a cajillion spam comments. 😉 Hope you had a great time away. [hugs]

  3. Great tip, Diane! I turned mine off at 30 days but I may rethink it to 90. I’m the same as you ~ I was getting so much spam it was absolutely ridiculous. *pinning this fabulous nugget of wisdom

    • Diane says

      Thanks Mary Beth! Truly!
      I’ve discovered that 90 days works well, I surely don’t mind having to sift through a handful of spam comments, and it’s not but a very few more than 30 or 60.

      Best wishes for an Extraordinary start to your week! [hugs]

  4. Good idea. I may have to do this because the spam is killing my time! Besides, I have noticed that most of the spam comes from posts at least 90 days old. Thanks for the tip!

  5. I read this at the perfect time because my spam folder is starting to become unmanageable. I love this tip and will be trying it today. Thanks for sharing!

  6. Katie says

    This is great advice – thank you! My blog is pretty new so I’ve been able to keep up with the Spam comments so far, but this is good to keep in mind for the future. I’m all about working smarter, not harder! (PS: I’m visiting from the Living Well Spending Less link party.)

  7. I really love this, I did it when I set up my blog, but I think I set the number of days too high as I’m still getting more spam than I want. Will need to rectify this very soon, thanks for the reminder.
    I also really like to “answer a question with a post idea” Not only will it give you another post and answer the question, but with the link back you actually draw more attention to the subject you are talking about. Love this, may have to start implementing this on some of my comments.
    Thanks

  8. Kathy says

    Great solution, Diane – I’m going to check this out!!! I appreciate you sharing with Home and Garden Thursday,
    Kathy

    • Diane says

      Thanks Kathy! I hope it helps you, too!
      Blessings!

  9. Kim says

    Diane, guess what? I just switched over the WordPress…as in today…and I already have a load of spam. I remembered your post and I came back to read it again and thank you for the tip!! 🙂 Have a great night!

    • Diane says

      Yay! I’m so happy you remembered. I still get a little…but not a hundred pages worth!! Congrats on the switch! I’ll be over to see! 🙂

  10. susie says

    Hi Diane I am trying to leave a comment on your dining outdoors blog today and I can’t find where to leave one. your table with the plaid is so very pretty and serene you captured the Fall colors remarkably I really enjoy your blog.Susie

Trackbacks

  1. […] to the crazy amount of comment spam….comments have been closed. Your sweet comments make my day and I read every one. Please […]

  2. […] to the crazy amount of comment spam….comments have been closed. Your sweet comments make my day and I read every one. Please […]

  3. […] to the crazy amount of comment spam….comments have been closed. Your sweet comments make my day and I read every one. Please […]

  4. […] months ago I shared a fix that worked for me.  It took a total of three plugins to almost stop my comment […]

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