There are three must-have plugins for every WordPress blog to stop blog spam:
Akismet, Bad Behavior, and Math Comment Spam Protection.
Bad Behavior is your first line of defense. This plug-in evaluates who is visiting your blog and then kicks them out if they are using known spam tools – such as Java agents. Spammers are rejected before they have a chance to submit blog comments.
Akismet is your second line of defense. Once a blog comment is posted it is looked at for spam characteristics. If it appears to be spam, and Akismet is really good in its evaluation, it is held and not posted. After 15 days it is automatically deleted.
You need Bad Behavior and not just Akismet because Akismet will show you a list of all the spam comments it is blocking. The list can be huge, making it difficult to find any real comments. With Bad Behavior the spam bots are blocked before they can even post their spam, so you never have to review it.
Finally, the third plugin is the Math Comment Spam Protection. This adds a simple math question to your comments. To use the plugin you add it, then get the code at — and copy it into your comments file where you want the math question to appear. While copying the code and editing the file from within WordPress is not ideal, I’ve found this to be better than other similar math-based options, and it gives me complete control over where this appears.
I like the math question instead of the word questions because it is easier for more people, there are no weird letters or background that make it difficult to read, and it is quicker to type. At this point all we’re excluding is the bots – not a human spammer (which will be caught by other methods).
Finally, within the Discussion settings simply choose to moderate any comment with 1 or more links. Voila – any human spam is now caught for review.
Combining these plugins will result in a significant decrease in blog spam.
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Hi I can learn a lot here. Especially about having my spammed comment caught by a moderator and the link to my website deleted.
Lovely blog! Thanks for the useful information.
No problem. And thanks for trying to spam your proxy listing on a post about stopping blog spam. Unfortunately for you, all comments are moderated and your link was deleted.
Remember, to stop blog spam use Bad Behavior, Akismet, and moderate your comments.