Spam protection in WordPress: Plugin Antispam Bee 1.7 released
This post originally appeared in Sergej Müller’s Google+ profile (in German) and is no longer accessible there. It’s now kept here by the Pluginkollektiv.
Spam comments in WordPress blogs are a plague. Antispam Bee is a WordPress plugin and provides lasting protection against spam.
For as long as Akismet is part of the company behind WordPress and is forced to be installed with every system upgrade, the worldwide popularity of Automattic’s antispam solution will not change. Due to unstable data protection, Akismet had to give up its shares (mainly in German-speaking countries) to the WordPress plugin Antispam Bee during the year. On more and more blogs, the smart, buzzing extension keeps watch and separates comments without storing the commentator’s data centrally abroad. Version 1.7 brings further protection tools for professional bloggers.
Progressive development
Once again a plugin update, which exclusively brings new mechanisms to fight spam in WordPress blogs. While the last update of the application dealt with the adjustments to the announced WordPress release (WordPress 3.0), the current version number carries the focus on innovation and performance.
Research is the best “medicine”
Spammers are like industrious ants: they don’t gild a second, they “invent” sophisticated, complex tricks and nasty procedures just to be able to write “optimized” comments without interference and, at best, in relation to the topic. The vocation of an antispam plugin, on the other hand, is relatively simple: to be permanently one step ahead, to be able to recognize and sort out spam bots like chameleons in any situation.
With such a motto the development of a protection software must not stop. Research and testing must be constantly in motion in the background and, if successful, must be integrated into the productive solution in a timely, error-free and downward-compatible manner. This is the progress of Antispam Bee. Continuously, for over a year.
An insight into the changelog of Antispam Bee 1.7:
Comprehensible, grouped settings
The user interface of the free plugin grows with every version, so this time it has been thoroughly cleaned up and equipped with fold-out menus within the options. So the GUI gets more overview, the range of functions does not “kill” the user as extreme as its predecessors. Of course, each option point still has a direct link to the corresponding description in the online documentation.
In case of suspicion: Notification
Many of the Antispam Bee users do not know yet that the plugin has an efficient notification function that sends an e-mail with relevant information to the responsible administrator in case of suspected spam. Introduced a few updates to the multiple customer requests, the reporting functionality has been sensitively revised: In addition to comment values such as sender and post name, the e-mail content now consists of direct links for releasing and deleting the affected spam comment.
Antispam Bee also provides information about the reason for suspicion from the variety of implemented defense techniques that ultimately led to spam marking – upon receipt of the e-mail, the blog administrator immediately recognizes which filter has hit.
Blacklist & Honeypot
Fresh from the lab, these anti-spam techniques are designed to keep blog parasites at bay:
- Spam suppression from certain countries (e.g. China)
- Use of “Project Honey Pot” as a spammer source
Both methods are optional and are switched off by default, as blogs with above-average spam volumes will probably benefit from the measures introduced. At the latest these influential actions should reliably detect and ward off “slipped through” spam entries.
Update & Installation
Antispam Bee 1.7 is now available as an update via the WordPress internal update management. For first-time installations the tool is available for download in the official WordPress plugin directory.