Crenk

For nearly the last two years I have been blogging, writing nearly a thousand articles.  Lots of time, energy and creativity go into these words I write, and I publish them in the hopes that others will not only read them, but enjoy them, apply them and leave comments or ask questions.  The one evil of the Internet is Spam though, and over the last few years Spam bots have been attacking blogs like no other.  This is partly due to the number of new blogs being created.

The problem is comment spam.  These are comments that are left on articles that usually point to some website that tells you how she’d like you to be thicker and longer lasting, or how to find a great deal on your next new car.  Nothing of value, in face, these types of comments detract from the credibility of your content and worse, possibly lead to your readers leaving from clicking on a bogus link.  There is help.

Shortly after one particular article got bombarded with tons of traffic from several social bookmarking and networking sites at once, the comment spam started to roll in.  Using WordPress, my preferred platform for blogging, I set out to find some sort of Captcha system to add to blog posts to help cut down on the spam.  Generally speaking, I don’t like anything that interferes with a users experience, but this plug-in is a must have.

Did you pass math? adds a small math question to the bottom of your comment box, above the submit button.  It prompts the commentator to do a very simple math equation, like 7+3= [fill in the answer].   The plug-in can be found here: http://www.herod.net/dypm/ - and while it hasn’t been updated in two years, I don’t see that as a problem, it simply works.  To install it, simply download to your computer from their site, unzip the files and upload [via FTP] two PHP files (English is default, but support is there for dozens more).  Login to the admin section of WordPress, activate the plugin and you are done.

Since installing the Did you pass math plug-in, my comment spam has been near completely eliminated.  As an added bonus, there was zero negative feedback and no backlash from the my readers after installing.  Some even thanked me for not using a true Captcha system, since they can often be very hard to read.  My suggestion would be to install this when first setting up a blog, so you aren’t in a situation like me, trying to fix a broken problem while it is being broken even harder.