Comments on: Do you really need Akismet?

By: Bet Crooks

Bet Crooks — Wed, 12 Sep 2012 13:28:53 +0000

Thank you for suggesting a viable alternative to Akismet. I’m just starting to set up a blog within my website, and I was trying to decide how to protect it from content spam. Given that it costs quite a bit to legally use Akismet for a site with no visitors (!), I was checking out whether there is something more affordable. Finding out there are also privacy issues (you said above: “contents of the $_SERVER system array” etc.) makes me even more nervous. I’m having enough trouble writing a disclaimer about privacy without figuring out how to word all that.

I’ll check back to see if you review AntiSpam Bee again later. Many thanks!

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By: MoT

MoT — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 19:34:03 +0000

Anything that keeps my information MINE is appreciated. Whenever you’re outsourcing things of this nature it’s amazing how arcane or simply non-existent the terms of use are. Not much different than getting a loan from your local bank. I recently purchased a house and suddenly, “shazam….” in no time at all I was receiving physical mail to my address from countless companies offering me services. One can only wonder who let the cat out of the bag. Did I appreciate it? Hell no! So now I have to go the extra mile and contact my lender and get them to take me off their “send” list. Such is the world we live in. And I have little desire to let Automatic get a peek inside my affairs no matter how benign they think they’re being.

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By: Spam Protection

Spam Protection — Sun, 19 Feb 2012 12:34:59 +0000

In addition to I use Akismet anti-spam Bee WordPress Plugin, a really good Plugi to fend off spam can be successful.

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By: Mike

Mike — Sun, 12 Feb 2012 13:25:13 +0000

I was using Akismet because it was pre-installed on my first website i projected with WP, never thought of how it works. Due to your aticle, i deactived Akismet to try AntiSpamBee. It needs just about 0.36 MByte of Ram. (can see the amount of needed ram using the “WP-Memory-Usage” Plugin from Alex Rabe). Going through the configuration of Antispam Bee i saw the option that you can put countries to a blacklist.
And this opened my eyes to a problem i had in these days. Due to living most time in the americas i am now in southamerica and my comment in another blog has been rejected as spam…now i know why…so i have the option to install a free proxy that resides e.g. in the U.S. And i said to me: if i could do this, the spammer also has this option…

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By: name

name — Sat, 04 Feb 2012 06:05:03 +0000

I’m totally new to WP web development and am having tones of fun with my first page. Thanks for posting on a good alternative to fee based Akismet.

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By: marie, the EpicureanPiranha

marie, the EpicureanPiranha — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 22:39:14 +0000

Thanks for the detailed information on Askimet and for telling us about Antispam Bee, N. I agree with Alison Griffiths, it’s useful to be aware of the privacy issues when using Askimet.

Best,

marie

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By: Invest It Wisely

Invest It Wisely — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 16:22:37 +0000

I have had a lot of problems with Akismet, including being blacklisted for unknown reasons even though I can still comment on a bunch of sites that were kind enough to unspam me.

I recommend alternatives such as GASP, which uses a checkbox to do filtering. It’s surprisingly effective!

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By: MillaN

MillaN — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 16:05:04 +0000

In reply to Jonathan Haley.

I am testing locally bbPress Antispam plugin for now. If all goes OK (and it is for now) I will start using it on Dev4Press soon. As for the AntiVirus, I find that my GD Press Tools Pro with its many Security features is protection enough for the website. But, with any sort of exploit, it is good to have some extra options to protect website.

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By: Jonathan Haley

Jonathan Haley — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 15:56:53 +0000

I’m also going to give Antispam Bee a try based on your review here.

Two questions: First, are you also using bbPress Atispam which is describe as “bbPress Antispam for bbPress 2.0 is inspired on Antispam Bee and working similar.” Second, Do you have any thoughts on “AntiVirus for WordPress” by the same developer?

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By: MillaN

MillaN — Sat, 26 Nov 2011 00:11:55 +0000

In reply to Michael Atkins.

Thanks for the comment. I can’t notice any difference in spam detection after removing Akismet, so far Antispam Bee is great.

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By: Michael Atkins

Michael Atkins — Fri, 25 Nov 2011 16:31:37 +0000

I’ve deactivated akismet on my own site. I have been trying out antispam bee for about a month so far and it seems to be doing its job flawlessly. I’ll probably use it as part of my standard plugin bundle for new sites.

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By: MillaN

MillaN — Thu, 24 Nov 2011 15:58:55 +0000

In reply to Happy Hotelier.

Thank you for the comment. I don’t see that changing anytime soon. I don’t like invasive methods like captcha, but silent system like Anitspam Bee is a big step forward. I would prefer it bundled with WP more than Akismet.

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By: Happy Hotelier

Happy Hotelier — Thu, 24 Nov 2011 15:48:59 +0000

Ah this is thinking out of the box.

Recently started using bad behaviour, hoping it would weed out some spam…but that it doesn’t seem to do.

For me I’m still curious how WordPress can allow usually computer generated spam at all. Apart from the unwise use of chaptas there must be a clever thingy to prevent automated spam comment generating scripts at all….

Or is this wishful thinking?

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By: MillaN

MillaN — Mon, 21 Nov 2011 15:31:11 +0000

In reply to Steven Gliebe.

I am using Bee for almost a month now, and I don’t miss Akismet at all. I started switching all my websites to Antispam Bee.

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By: Steven Gliebe

Steven Gliebe — Mon, 21 Nov 2011 15:28:00 +0000

Thanks for this. I tried AntiSpam Bee for two weeks on a low traffic commercial site and found it to be sufficient. Just canceled my Akismet subscription. No point in paying for what is not needed.

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By: MillaN

MillaN — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 23:43:05 +0000

In reply to Alison Griffiths.

Thanks for the comment. Antispam Bee is excellent solution, and I hope to write full reviews and test results before the end of this year to gather as much data as I can.

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By: Alison Griffiths

Alison Griffiths — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 20:08:17 +0000

I started using Akismet when I first converted to WordPress but realised there were alternatives and changed to AntiSpamBee. I manage 70+ sites (not all WP) and need a system in place that is not labour intensive. I have found AntiSpamBee very accurate, more so than Akismet. Having Akismet bundled with WP does give the impression that it is the ‘official’ plugin. I think the commercial pricing model is flawed (from the users point of view) but if you think in terms of the traffic on their servers I guess it makes sense. Thanks for the heads up on the privacy issues – that was a surprise!

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