Problems with Akismet anti-spam: update
p2pnet news view Freedom | P2P:- Wotcha, all:
Earlier today, Automattic Kismet (Akismet) has been my principle anti-troll, anti-spam, app ever since p2pnet went over to WordPress, not all that long ago, I posted.
But, “I’ve just discovered, and cleared, several fairly recent comment posts flagged by Akismet as spam, but which never should have been blocked, and I have absolutely no idea why they were,” I went on. “Nor, unfortunately, are they the first.”
I was really surprised to see this post from Mike Cane »»»
When you see a Comment in the spam queue, it can be that the person left a Comment elsewhere that was snarky or bitchy or even spammy and was *manually* marked SPAM at *that* site. From that point on, Akismet will treat that Commenter as spam across all blogs and sites using Akismet.
Spammers are in effect followed around? Really?
Suggested another Reader’s Write, “I’d check if Spam Karma 2 works with whatever version of WordPress you’re using. With the Akismet sub-plugin and a little tuning, you can get it so there are no false positives and maybe one or two false negatives per year.”
I posted in reply »»»
^^ SK2 is no longer developed – http://unknowngenius.com/blog/wordpress/spam-karma/.
I found it after a long search – http://www.ditii.com/2007/06/30/spam-karma-2-plugin/
Plug-in [ http://blog.ftwr.co.uk/wordpress/sk2-simple-digest-plugin/ ] [ http://blog.ftwr.co.uk/archives/tag/spam-karma-2/ ]
I’ve installed it, so stay tuned.
Looks good so far – lots of filtering choices. Pity it’s no longer being developed.
So we’ll see what happens, although I’m wondering how having SK2 on board will make a difference to whether or not Akismet finds false positives.
Anyhow, Cheers (and fingers crossed 
)
Jon
March, 2009
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March 4th, 2009 at 7:09 pm
I just got this. Just before this new article pop’d up:
Submitted comment 968920 to Akismet.com as spam (Akismet said it’s ham)
Warning: Cannot modify header information – headers already sent by (output started at /var/www/htdocs/p2pnet.net/wordpress/wp-content/plugins/SK2/sk2_util_class.php:208) in /var/www/htdocs/p2pnet.net/wordpress/wp-content/plugins/SK2/spam_karma_2_plugin.php on line 1033
Warning: Cannot modify header information – headers already sent by (output started at /var/www/htdocs/p2pnet.net/wordpress/wp-content/plugins/SK2/sk2_util_class.php:208) in /var/www/htdocs/p2pnet.net/wordpress/wp-content/plugins/SK2/spam_karma_2_plugin.php on line 1034
Sorry, but your comment has been flagged by the spam filter running on this blog: this might be an error, in which case all apologies. Your comment will be presented to the blog admin who will be able to restore it immediately.
You may want to contact the blog admin via e-mail to notify him.
March 4th, 2009 at 7:17 pm
I’ve had to turn it off – it’s flagging just about everything, including the post above.
Obviously needs more work from me, although I thought I’d tuned it carefully.
Cheers!
UPDATE Back on, but hopefully less demanding
March 4th, 2009 at 7:49 pm
testing 123 test
March 4th, 2009 at 7:50 pm
This is my 4th anon posting test
March 4th, 2009 at 7:50 pm
nope. Doesn’t work.
March 4th, 2009 at 8:27 pm
I still can’t post.
March 4th, 2009 at 8:36 pm
DAMN!
I switched it off again.
Back to the drawing board.
Kicks cat, throws computer at wall, computer bounced back and breaks nose.
Cheers!
March 4th, 2009 at 8:38 pm
You’re computer has a nose!
oh my…
March 4th, 2009 at 8:40 pm
seems to be a delay now. weird
March 4th, 2009 at 8:42 pm
I BEG your pardon! (Kicks cat again – cat bites ankle, causing deep puncture wounds).
It should, of course, be, ” …computer bounced back and breaks MY nose.”"
(Storms out of the room and falls down stairs.)
Cheers!
March 4th, 2009 at 8:45 pm
PHK!!!!
Even THAT’S wrong.
“…computer bounceS back …”
(Throws dog downstairs and kicks wall, breaking toe)
Cheers!
March 4th, 2009 at 9:45 pm
On SK2 a very handy plugin is the moderation plugin which will enforce the commentator must have a previously approved comment…
Moderate – Strength: – Author: Peter Westwood – Version: 0.75 beta [@] [?]
Forces comment moderation based on settings in WordPress admin panel. Enforces the following settings:
* An administrator must approve the comment (regardless of any matches below)
* Comment author must have a previously approved comment
http://blog.ftwr.co.uk/wordpress/sk2-moderate-plugin/
March 5th, 2009 at 5:53 am
That’s not how Akismet works at all — you can’t get people banned like that. The system is now 4 years old and maintains over a 99.9% accuracy rate. You don’t stay that high by crude blacklisting methods!
March 5th, 2009 at 7:59 am
A final word on Akismet:
It’s giving me a few problems but it’s a great app. It’s saved me all kinds of agro and these current difficulties notwithstanding, it does a better than good job of killing spam.
Trolls are just an unfortunate fact of life, like spam.
Cheers!