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WordPress Spam Filters – How Akismet Determines Comment Spam

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Comment spam can become a huge problem for blog owners. But the systems that safeguard against comment spam can become your worst enemy if you find yourself being unfairly labeled as spam.

Currently, there are three legitimate bloggers that almost always end up in my Akismet spam filter on, and I’m sure that there are many more out there along with businesses who are using good commenting practices to build traffic and links to their websites. So this post is for all valuable commenters who have, for one reason or the other, been placed in the sandbox known as the spam filter.

What is Akismet?

Akismet is a system for WordPress blogs that checks incoming comments and trackbacks against a database to determine if the item is legitimate or spam. For self-hosted blogs built on the WordPress platform, it is a plugin that must be activated by the blog owner, and for blogs hosted on WordPress.com, it is automatically built in.

Awaiting Moderation or Akismet Spam Folder

How do you know if your comment has been shoved to the Akismet spam folder as opposed to simply sitting in the moderation area? There are a few telltale signs that I have come across, including the following.

  • Receving a blank page after submitting the comment.
  • Being redirected to the post page, but not seeing your comment with a message about your comment being in moderation.
  • Knowing the blog auto approves comments, but yours does not appear.
  • Returning to the blog post a week later and not seeing your comment.
  • Receiving a notice that your comment has been flagged by Akismet as spam.

Possible Akismet Flags

So how does the Akismet database determine if your comment is legit or spam? Items in the Akismet database are submitted by blog owners through their comment moderation dashboard. If a blog owner considers a comment spam, they can mark that comment as spam which adds the commenters’ details to the Akismet database.

The following are details of the comment analyzed by the Akismet system, as listed in the Akismet API, plus some observations on how they affect comments. Keep in mind when reading these that it is not always one particular comment detail that Akismet analyzes to determine if the comment is spam – it is a combination of details.

IP Address
The IP address of a commenter is always logged. If spam comments get past the Akismet check, blog owners can view the IP address of each comment, which can lead to comments from the same IP with multiple names and details being marked as spam.

If one comment from your IP address is flagged as spam, are all comments using the same IP going to be filtered? Not necessarily. The IP address in combination with the next comment details will determine if comments are sent to the spam or moderation folder.

Comment Type
Akismet monitors not only regular comments, but trackbacks and pingbacks as well. For some blogs, trackback spam is much worse than actual comment spam.

Comment Author
The name submitted with a comment can be a major trigger. For example, using a keyword phrase in the name field that has been often marked as spam, such as Viagra, can automatically send a comment to the spam filter. Sometimes, if you receive one of the signals that your comment has went to the spam bin, you can simply hit the back button, change your name (try something real like your actual name or Bob if you’re shy), and the same comment will go into moderation instead.

Comment Email Address
Email addresses seem to be a particularly sensitive trigger for Akismet, particularly freebie emails such as Hotmail, Yahoo, Gmail, Inbox, etc that spammers use frequently. Using an alternative address, perhaps from your own domain, may help bypass the Akismet. Of course, if you are spamming the comments section and getting reported under your domain’s email, then you may end up adding your own domain to the Akismet filters.

Comment Author URL
This is the URL you enter in the website field of the comment form. If a particular URL is marked often as spam, that URL field will trigger Akismet to bounce the comment into the spam folder. This determination is sometimes in conjunction with the email address, author name, and IP – changing these other variables could help the comment URL go through.

Comment Content
The actual body of your comment if analyzed. Common phrases such as “great post” or specific keywords may get a comment labeled as spam. Also, like the URL field itself, if the comment content contains links to a domain that has been reported as spam, the comment could get flagged as spam. So simply removing the URL from the website field and placing an HTML link in the comment content may not help a comment bypass Akismet.

What You Can Do

So what should you do if you feel like you are being unfairly marked as spam? As a commenter, you can try changing some of the above comment details such as commenting from a different computer, leaving out the keywords in your name, or using a custom domain email address.

To get the attention of a blog owner where you feel your comments are not being approved, simply try their contact form and let them know you have recently left a good comment on their post but think it may have been filtered into their spam folder. Also, make sure to have a Gravatar – a personal image definitely helps your comment stand out to blog owners who do review their spam filter often.

In the long run, remember that the more times blog owners mark your comment as not spam, the better your chances of getting out of the Akismet auto filter. Every valuable comment counts!

IMPORTANT UPDATE

Update 6-7-2010: Depending on your perspective, a huge flaw in the Akismet system has been recently discovered. Akismet is deleting certain comments without sending them to your spam filter, which means there are comments coming to your blog that you will never see. Read more about how Akismet is deleting comments.

Your Thoughts

Are you a good commenter who commonly who suspects you are being caught in the Akismet spam filter? What have you tried to get yourself out of it in terms of changing your details or contacting blog owners?

About

Kristi Hines is a freelance writer, ghostwriter, and copywriter who develops blog content, ebooks, emails, lead magnets, and website copy for marketing agencies, B2B, and SaaS.

Reader Interactions

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{ 92 Responses }

  1. Tommy Landry says:
    I have been having a problem as well, and just learned of it. Here is the page to request they reconsider including you in the database. Search for "blocked" and select "I think Akismet is catching my comments by mistake". http://akismet.com/contact/ I hope that helps! Tommy
  2. saroyo says:
    When you have an active multi-author blog, it’s important for authors to be able to quickly moderate comments on the blogs they are publishing. You don’t want to build up a backlog of hundreds of unmoderated comments, because it can stall activity and discussion on your site.
  3. Shan says:
    Hi, I am also a genuine commentator , but don't know why Akismet marking my comment as spam. Everytime i write comment from my heart but only to see that my comment is landed in spam box and many blog owner simple delete spam folder comment without even opening it. I am sure ,you will also see my comment in spam box. This is really frustrating. Sometime we write comment deep core of our heart ,expressing our thoughts and emotion with comment. :( . I don't have any more words. Thanks
  4. deb says:
    I'm a good commenter, but find that sometimes my comments don't get thru on certain websites. It doesn't happen on all sites, just certain ones.
  5. Karl Erfurt says:
    Thank you for addressing this issue! I have been struggling with Akismet repeatedly blocking my comments as spam since 2009 (yes, three years ago). Apparently during this period my blog's URL at Karlonia.com got tossed into Akismet's spam filter, and ever since then if I make a comment at almost any WordPress powered blog, I get the dreaded white screen or am redirected to the page with no message or indication that the comment actually went through. I am fairly certain that it is my domain that is being targeted because I can make a comment with almost any other site in the Website or URL field and it will go through -- even if I do quasi-spammy stuff like keywords in the name field and the like. But I can use my real name like I am doing here, and if put any page from Karlonia.com in the Website field or even in the comment body, it will invariably get blocked unless I happen to have found one of those rare WordPress blogs that is not running Akismet. One of the commenters above mentioned having a form letter to get removed from the Akismet blacklist -- could someone please provide a link to something like this? I would really like to get this mess cleared up because I am thinking about getting back into active posting again, and I would really like to start getting some traffic and engagement from legitimate blog commenting instead of having to rely almost solely on Google for the search traffic. Meanwhile, here is a tip for those of you who are like me and often end up writing relatively long comments for blogs -- before pressing that "Submit" button, ALWAYS copy your comment text to the clipboard! Even if you think that your comment will go through as planned, you might be surprised at what can go wrong during the time that it takes to compose your text -- power outages, technical issues with the site, DDOS attacks, slow Internet connections, and of course the dreaded spam filters and blockers can cause you to lose over an hour's work on a really good essay-length comment. So if your comment does not go through but you've copied the text to the clipboard, you can simply paste it into a text file (I use Notepad for this) and save it for later use or re-submission.
  6. Marco says:
    Akismet sucks. I've never spammed blogs, but IF I want to make a useful comment - BAM: I am called a spammer!
  7. Jason says:
    Your post is the best information I found about how Akismet determines whether a comment is spam and I learned a lot. I'm just wondering: where did you get this information from? When I go to the Akismet.com website, there is little to no info about their 'algorithm'.
  8. Steve White says:
    MESSAGE TO AKISMET: How does removing our ability to find out if our names or URLs are blocked by your plugin improve this situation? That makes this worse – not better – and makes you look guilty. You should be willing to TELL US that your plugin does indeed delete comments. If that is how you believe it SHOULD work honesty is the best policy.
  9. John soon says:
    Hey thanks for a great post
  10. Monique says:
    Kris, thanks for this information. I just hope that it will go a long way in helping me fight spam.
  11. Nasif says:
    Akismet is slowly overtaking by Growmap Anti Spambot Plugin !
  12. Rae says:
    This is really a helpful post. Spam filters looking forward to use this one.
  13. Richard Cummings says:
    This is a follow-up to my above comment regarding using Comment Luv to promote the articles that you have written for article directories. Kristi has written some great articles on this topic and it is a great strategy; however, Akismet does not seem to like it. Initially, I used a ymail address to sign up for ComLuv and, when I put this in the comment section, I was getting vetoed by Akismet. I then removed that ComLuv Account and created one with a domain email address that always gets through Akismet. Yet, Akismet still vetoes this and the only variable left is the domain name. It seems that Akismet does not like the author URL from ArticlesBase.com, but you have to use that author URL to get your feed. So, today, I simply want to declare immense frustration with Akismet. I do have a form letter that I have used to get off of the Akismet blacklist...but what a hastle. While it is disheartening to see everyone's frustration with Akismet, it's equally calming that I have company in my frustrations :) Cheers, Richard
  14. Richard Cummings says:
    Kristi, In doing research this morning, I have come across many of your articles that are very insightful. This morning I implemented the strategy you recommended for using Comment Luv to promote articles that you have written for an article directory. Everything worked...until I went to do actual comments and found that my comments were not being accepted. I tested a comment on one of my blogs (the quickest way to test by the way) and found that are of the comments are going into the Akismet Spam queue. When searching for the solution, I ended up coming across this article, another of yours :) After going through the article above, I must conclude that this is because I used a ymail.com address to sign up on the Comment Luv network. I'll now go back and have to re-sign up and/or change the associated email if that's possible. Anyway, thanks for this article. --Richard PS: You may want to warn your readers who follow your Comment Luv Article Promotion strategy to not use a public email address when signing up.
  15. Katrina C says:
    I really do appreciate you writing about this issue with Akismet, the article and the many comments on this page was an eye opener to the advantages/disadvantages Akismet's plugin for wordpress does and it surely will help me in deciding which spam plugin i could use for my own blog.
    • Donna says:
      Another Issue of Akismet is that when you try to submit your comment you will be directed to a white page or sometimes php error page. Imagine typing a very long comment then your message will just vanished at all. Donna
  16. Susan says:
    It's very disappointing to have comments put into the spam folder when they are not really spam. I don't know many people that check their spam folder, just on the reason that they didn't even know that they could! And now to know that some comments were sent into a "black hole"(deleted) to not even be redeemed and marked as NOT spam is sad. :(
  17. Jeremy says:
    It is a little disappointing when you take the time to read a blog post and leave a legit comment and have it instantly deleted or go to the spam moderation. Even if it goes into spam moderation I would guess a lot of bloggers don't check it or just delete it anyway. Thinking askimet must be right. I think askimet needs to come up with a better system and/or some modification to their algorithm thing. The other thing I wonder is say your keyword, email addy, site/link or whatever makes the askimet list for spam, just how long does it stay on there for? A week, a month, 3 months, a year, forever or what? Anyway this sheds a little on it, but I am sure we will never totally know all the criteria they use.
  18. balordo says:
    The main problem of course is that sometimes people don't even make it to the spam, they get deleted and you never know they even posted, I suffer that with some emails, and I have never spammen anything
  19. Ross says:
    I am having real problems at the moment with Akismet! My blog has been marked as spam for some reason (probably thanks to another blogger who I had a difference of opinion with over email a few days ago). I have contacted Akismet directly but with no luck as of yet and from what I have read on this comment thread, I dont hold out much hope for a response at all. The thing that is most annoying about this is that it stops me from writing comments on blogs that I am trying to build up a relationship with and so months of work is going to go to waste if I cannot get my comments published soon. Please if someone knows of a way in which I can be de-marked as a spammer then let me know! Ross M
  20. David says:
    Listen ye pro bloggers that teacheth blogging. Thou should teach other bloggers to check thy spam box too.
  21. Aaron says:
    Good info Kristi. There is another plugin called Typepad Antispam that is a plugin for WP and works off the same API as Akismet. It tends to do a better job for me on WP blogs and I have run it and Akismet together and have had good results on my own blogs. Just thought I would mention it for those that have a big problem with comment spam.
  22. Satya says:
    Askimet Is the Best, My Web Using Askimet And Not Found The Spam :D
  23. Jennifer R says:
    Maybe the competitor will use spam to attack the specific website, like me, up to now my website address was black listed by Akismet, it's not good :(
    • David says:
      I agree with Jennifer that it is possible for a competitor to use your URL to spam other sites so as to get you banned. I've heard referred to as "Joe jobbing".
  24. Tammi Kibler says:
    Hi Kristi, Thanks for your explanation of the factors Akismet considers when evaluating spam. It appears that the auto-dump situation with Akismet spam has been corrected. I reinstalled it on my blog last week and it seems to be working fine. Tammi
  25. Gin Rummy says:
    I've suffered from Askimets over zealous patrolling of comments. I've got a couple of really great poker domains with a lot of potential, but have found it impossible to get backlinks through blog commenting because either the keywords or domain or both are being rejected by the akismet filter. I've tried commenting with different keywords but i'm guesing the URL still gets picked up. Frustrating when you are actually leaving legitimate meaningful comments.
    • Hesham says:
      Some times it's not akismet ! in this case it's simply me! I have approved your comment, but removed the link luv! I don't support your blogging niche!
    • Ned Carey says:
      Mr Rummy, it could be that bloggers are marking you comments as spam. 1) Many will simply because you use keywords instead of a real name. 2) The fact you are linking back to a poker site instead of another blog makes two reasons to mark your comments as spam. 3) You wrote "I’ve got a couple of really great poker domains with a lot of potential." While that seems appropriate for this particular comment it also seems like promoting you own sites in your comment. Three strikes you out. Are you REALLY surprised you hit the Akismet filter?
      • Hesham says:
        Thanks Ned for the great explanation!
      • balordo says:
        Ned, but now he could go around the net spamming people's blogs using your own domain and you'd lose it all as well, how nice would that be?
    • Dennis Edell says:
      Ned raised all really valid points; I'd like to add, gambling sites are on Googles "bad neighborhood" list. I believe they work with Akismet as well.
  26. ghh says:
    hey great post. i was wondering why i see a blank page when i reply or add comments to a site.
  27. David Kamau says:
    If I made a comment with my URL in the form box, it would never have been seen. I had left a more lengthy comment on this previously but I believe it never even got to the spam box. I have reason to believe that Akismet is blocking certain URLs from all Wordpress blogs that have the plug-in activated. The site owner/moderator doesn't even get a chance to decide whether it is indeed spam or not. This is plain wrong. And unfortunetly this problem is little known so pretty few people are complaining. You only get to know about it when you make a make a comment after another and they keep going blank as soon as you hit the submit button. Veeeery frustrating.
  28. Jason Jumat says:
    Most people are quite annoying to start their comments like this. 99% of the time, this is seen not as a real comment and Akismet identifies this immediately as spam. But even I immediately "permanently delete" such comments. They don't add any value and it's tends to give the idea that even though this comment would have been posted by a real person, that such a person isn't really reading my post/article.
  29. Mark says:
    I was very pleased to find this site.I wanted to thank you for this great read!! I definitely enjoying every little bit of it and I have you bookmarked to check out new stuff you post.
  30. Peter G. says:
    Took me time to read all the comments, but I really enjoyed the article. It proved to be Very helpful to me and I am sure to all the commenters here! It's always nice when you can not only be informed, but also entertained! I'm sure you had fun writing this article.
  31. Udegbunam Chukwudi says:
    I'm really not so sure that "the more times blog owners mark your comment as not spam, the better your chances of getting out of the Akismet auto filter". A few legit commentators on my blog with over 6 comments till date still have their comments shoved into the spam folder and I'm already contemplating deactivating Akismet for a week to see if Wp-Spam Free will be able to handle the spammers on its own without "assistance". .-= NEW from Udegbunam Chukwudi@Work Online Nigeria´s last blog ..StrictlyOnlineBiz's Top Blog Posts Of The Week 10 =-.
  32. Katie Tam says:
    For a while most of my comments were caught in the spam filter. I was stop using Website spot and This seems to have done the trick.
  33. Scott "Social Media" Allen says:
    I've got this problem. I've never spammed blog comments myself -- in fact I'm a strong advocate against comment spamming, shilling, etc. As a result, though, I ended up the target of an angry spammer and got joe jobbed a couple of years ago. That's my best guess as to how the problem started. I thought it had fixed itself, but it seems to have resurged lately. I've contacted Akismet about it, but haven't received a reply yet. Hopefully some more positive comment activity and it will fix itself again. We'll see. Hassle in the meantime. .-= NEW from Scott "Social Media" Allen´s last blog ..Think You Can Catch Up on Sleep? Think Again! =-.
  34. Worthless commoner says:
    Hi, Pretty much every one of my comments get the awaiting moderation tag. I have contacted the owner of the service and their reply was. "your posts are always full of urls -- Akismet (the spam catcher) only likes one, or at most, two, so it puts them up for moderation.That means I have to manually approve them. That aside, they're often somewhat long, I f you could shorten then, that'd be good." So in relation to this I still get every one of my posts sent to the moderation. The message I sent to the owner "It appears that Akismet has taken a disliking to me being as any post I submit either, small, large, with.without links it forwards for moderation" the last reply I have had is "As I said, I can't see why, but I'll try and figure it out, Also, you're doing an awful lot of posts. You should think about maybe writing an article." Is the fact I can read information digest it and find facts on that issue digest those and then post a civil comment a issue? if so computers must think we are thick slow and stupid being as I am the slowest reader I know. And does alot of posts come into it aslong as the content isnt spam? Or maybe being as my spelling is not always 100% acurate a issue? would love to know as I am posting on a site that is about things like freedom of speech etc and this just underminds the whole concept when every comment is "awaiting moderation" and so far they have all been approved!
  35. Karan Singhal says:
    This is the reason why I don't use Akismet. Good comments end up with the spam. There should be a level of "strictness" for the blacklisting of comments. .-= NEW from Karan Singhal @ Trafficke Website Optimization Consulting Firm´s last blog ..Is Twitter Truly Powerful? =-.
    • Kristi Hines says:
      I think there should be a personal level of control - like being able to tell Akismet to use it's own database or to form a custom one based on what you mark as spam or not. That way everyone can have the coverage that is right for their own blog. .-= NEW from Kristi Hines´s last blog ..Is Your Content in Need of a Refresh? =-.
      • Karan says:
        That's a perfect idea, anyone else think so? .-= NEW from Karan @ SEO Consulting´s last blog ..Site Speed Now Officially Important =-.
        • David says:
          I agree 100 percent with Kristi. Akismet should give site owners the option of blocking certain commenters as they deem fit. This should be at the discretion of the site owner, but Akismet should not universally block anyone. This is plain wrong. Just for example, if I get banned from one social newtorking site, say Face Book, I should not find myself blocked from My Space, Twitter and others too. The collateral damage (blocking legitimate commenters) should be enough to tell Akismet that their system needs re-considering, if they care to listen that is, without being all self-righteous and using the assumption that "this is what bloggers want" in defense of something totally wrong. I have never used Akismet on my blogs and at this rate I don't think I ever will. I would not want even one of my good commenters treated in such a shoddy manner because of the bad ones.
  36. mimi says:
    I am totally sick of akismet! i have a legitimate personal blog about wedding flowers with no advertising but it seems that if i even use my url to comment it goes straight into spam, even though my comment was legitimate. Akismet think they are spam warriors but they are hindering the little people everyday. The effect is...I just stay away from wordpress blogs all together, so now people with such blogs will not receive any traffic from me!
    • Kristi Hines says:
      It happens to bloggers too. I know that it is a pain, but have you tried changing your email address, computer, or contacting blog owners every time it happens? I have had commenters contact me about their comment going into spam, and 9 out of 10 times they have gotten approved for that extra bit of contact, proving they are a real person and not just a drive by spammer. .-= NEW from Kristi Hines´s last blog ..Is Your Content in Need of a Refresh? =-.
  37. Ned Carey says:
    I was flagged buy Akismet early on and I sent a request to them as well as having some bloggers mark my comments in Akismet as Not Spam. That did the trick. I suspect I was sent there before I know commenting Etiquette. .-= NEW from Ned Carey´s last blog ..Purple Cow =-.
    • Kristi Hines says:
      That probably happens a lot to new commenters. Someone just starting out may not see anything wrong with just writing great post because that is what they really think, but bloggers assume that is simply spam. .-= NEW from Kristi Hines´s last blog ..Is Your Content in Need of a Refresh? =-.
      • Ned Carey says:
        That is why I am somewhat lenient on approving comments. I do click through on questionable ones to see the site. But I also use Lucias Linky Luv and have it set for 3 comments before they are do follow. So I figure it's OK to approve a questionable comment. I Will certainly be able to tell after three comments whether they are a spammer or not. .-= NEW from Ned Carey´s last blog ..A Base Hits Beats A Home Run =-.
  38. WebTechWise says:
    Very interesting read. I check my spam queue every single day and sometimes find legitimate comments. The main feature that should be added by Akismet, is sending a notification to Akismet databse to consider removal form blacklist, once a blogger clicks on Not Spam for a comment. .-= NEW from WebTechWise@for bloggers and webmasters´s last blog ..FireBug Tip – Switching Elements Quickly =-.
    • Kristi Hines says:
      Definitely. I mark some of the same people as not spam every time they comment (which is several times a month) and they still end up going into the filter. At the very least, it should at least have a custom option to make sure they are auto approved on my own site, if not everyone else's. .-= NEW from Kristi Hines´s last blog ..Is Your Content in Need of a Refresh? =-.
  39. Tola says:
    Nice article Kristi. I think I've been quite lucky with my spam detectors for my own site. Its other people's sites I know I run into problems with every now and then. Especially when you know you're trying to leave a good legit comment and it keeps on coming up with a spam checker blah blah. Had that recently, I just got frustrated and left. I'm not saying we shouldn't have spam checkers but we should be careful so you don't end up driving people away... After all, not everyone is going to be patient enough to send an email or continue going back to cross-check what they wrote. .-= NEW from Tola @ SEO for Beginners´s last blog ..Guest Blogging Sites - Great for Bloggers =-.
    • Kristi Hines says:
      Some sites go a bit too far. I was trying to comment on a site just yesterday that had an impossible captcha - I even tried the audio version and still couldn't understand what the characters were that needed to be typed in. .-= NEW from Kristi Hines´s last blog ..Is Your Content in Need of a Refresh? =-.
  40. Gautam Hans says:
    I particularly use name and the keyword in my name. Along with that I make sure that the comment is valuable, so that it is not marked as spam. Once you have good comment and good name, 99% chances are that your comment will not be flagged as spam .-= NEW from Gautam Hans @ Blog Godown´s last blog ..Content is the Real Superstar =-.
    • Kristi Hines says:
      Using your own name definitely helps, along with not having a business website link. I think that some people, no matter how good the comment is, will mark the comment as spam simply because of the link over anything else. .-= NEW from Kristi Hines´s last blog ..Is Your Content in Need of a Refresh? =-.
  41. Harsh Agrawal says:
    Great Post Kristi and seriously this will help a lot to readers to reduce spam and how to fight the Akismet blocking issue.. Akismet has always been my fav. Spam filtering tool but I always find it a headache as I have seen many of my regular commentators comments in spam folder. They should add a feature, in which comments from specific IP, Email or URL should be directly accepted.... .-= NEW from Harsh Agrawal @Blogging Tips´s last blog ..Shoutmeloud Monday Morning Round up: 12th April-18th April 2010 =-.
    • Kristi Hines says:
      That feature would be nice... my site is set to auto approve if a person has two previously approved comments, but even that doesn't stop regular visitors from being sent straight to the spam filter. They should create a personalized "safe list" for blog owners to manage! .-= NEW from Kristi Hines´s last blog ..Latest WordPress Hack – Symptoms, Solutions & Resources =-.
      • Harsh Agrawal says:
        I personally moderate every comments because I have seen many users, used to make 2-3 legit comments and after that they start abusing the system by spam comments. Agree with your point on Safe list option.. :) .-= NEW from Harsh Agrawal @Blogging Tips´s last blog ..A Follow Up Article is Really Great Article for Guest Posting =-.
        • Kristi Hines says:
          Oddly enough, the few abusers of that policy have always automatically ended up in my spam filter. Of course, people who definitely don't abuse it end up there as well, so my auto approves thusfar have always been good commenters. .-= NEW from Kristi Hines´s last blog ..Latest WordPress Hack – Symptoms, Solutions & Resources =-.
      • Udegbunam Chukwudi says:
        Please I'd like to auto approve comments after 3 previously approved comments. How do I do that? I can't find that feature anywhere in my admin area.
        • Hesham says:
          I think there is option to decided how many comment before auto approve!! But you can set that to auto approve after ONE approved comment by you! Go to Settings>Discussion> Check "Comment author must have a previously approved comment" I hope this help!
  42. Zack says:
    Another good post Kristi. Akismet is a great plug-in for authors but still some good one's fall through the cracks. You're right, Gravatar helps. .-= NEW from Zack´s last blog ..Are you Limiting your Brands Reach? =-.
    • Kristi Hines says:
      That's how I really spot the good comments - simply by Gravatar or whether they have a CommentLuv link in their comment. Certainly makes it faster! .-= NEW from Kristi Hines´s last blog ..Latest WordPress Hack – Symptoms, Solutions & Resources =-.
  43. Dennis Edell says:
    I get thrown around from time to time, and there was recently 2-3 weeks where I was constantly thrown in. Luckily for me, I comment on regular blogs; it's no problem to contact him/her and ask them to please check. .-= NEW from Dennis Edell @ Direct Sales Marketing´s last blog ..Do You Have 5 BURNING Questions? =-.
    • Kristi Hines says:
      Yeah... you can always contact the blog owner, regardless of whether you know them to let them know you think you may have ended up in the spam filter. Many will see it as a sign that you are not a spammer simply because you're taking that extra time to personally reach out. .-= NEW from Kristi Hines´s last blog ..Latest WordPress Hack – Symptoms, Solutions & Resources =-.
  44. Latief says:
    Until today I have problem like Karen :( I think the spam filter just a tool to help us, to make our blogging activities easier when dealing with comment and at the end blog owner will decide who is the spammer. Thanks Kristi for sharing with us. .-= NEW from Latief@AnotherBlogger´s last blog ..Why We Need A Blogging Plan? =-.
  45. Dev says:
    Useful Post kristi. I got more spam than comments. currently i have 3000+ pending ..spam and 1200 comments. :) .-= NEW from Dev | Technshare´s last blog ..Weekly Roundup #3: Link Love to Blogging Friends =-.
    • Dennis Edell says:
      Duuude, you should go through them regularly to see if you catch anyone legit. :) .-= NEW from Dennis Edell @ Direct Sales Marketing´s last blog ..Do You Have 5 BURNING Questions? =-.
    • Kristi Hines says:
      Yes, out of that many, you probably have some good ones mixed into the bad bunch. Also, it's a good idea to regularly trash your comments - I let mine build up to where I had over 13,000+ comments that were pending that I never planned to approve. It was a long process deleting them. .-= NEW from Kristi Hines´s last blog ..Latest WordPress Hack – Symptoms, Solutions & Resources =-.
  46. lawmacs says:
    Askimet does a good job but the best thing for me blocking ip addresses works best for me the problem is that most spammers today are actually humans been paid to post comments on blogs good explaination .-= NEW from lawmacs´s last blog ..Simple Writing Tips For Beginners =-.
    • Kristi Hines says:
      They are humans, or humans running software. I was unsure how effective IP blocking was with the availability of software that can mask / block / redirect IP's. I don't know how it works, but I have seen some spam comments from the same person using completely different IP's. .-= NEW from Kristi Hines´s last blog ..Latest WordPress Hack – Symptoms, Solutions & Resources =-.
  47. Gera says:
    I'm an indirect user of Akismet via Intense Debate and I'm seeing all these points in my own spam filter. Although some commentators are legitimate over and over came to the filter, no matter if I told it that this was not spam. Other cases, after a while the system recognized them and they didn’t come to the filter…. I know that programs work like that ;) Now I understand a little more the internal machine of it, thanks Kristi! Cheers, Gera .-= NEW from Gera @ SweetsFoodsBlog´s last blog ..Best of the Week: Foodies - Blogging - Social Media - Health =-.
    • Kristi Hines says:
      You're welcome. It was interesting to find out how they separated legit comments from spam. .-= NEW from Kristi Hines´s last blog ..Latest WordPress Hack – Symptoms, Solutions & Resources =-.
  48. Kharim says:
    On my blog I have almost 200 spams blocked and 186 comments. More spams than comments. Thanks to akismet :) .-= NEW from Kharim´s last blog ..Become A Friendly Blogger =-.
    • Kristi Hines says:
      I have over 200+ spam comments from just the last 2 weeks. Probably about 5% are legit, so it definitely makes a difference in comment moderation. .-= NEW from Kristi Hines´s last blog ..Latest WordPress Hack – Symptoms, Solutions & Resources =-.
  49. Dave Doolin says:
    Super useful! I haven't written on Akismet since last summer, now I want to go back and check out what I wrote. At the moment, Akismet is the only spam protection I have, and it's working great. .-= NEW from Dave Doolin @ Website In A Weekend´s last blog ..Super or Total? Money Talks But Cache Rules =-.
    • Kristi Hines says:
      It does do a good job - it just requires that little extra bit of attention to make sure legit commenters don't get stuck in the spam folder. If nothing else, the fact that it blocks 90% of the trackback spam is good enough for me. .-= NEW from Kristi Hines´s last blog ..Latest WordPress Hack – Symptoms, Solutions & Resources =-.
  50. Onibalusi Bamidele says:
    This is a great post! I have decided never to use any spam filters again because it seems all the spam filters out there blocks legitimate comments (which i don't even see). Glad to know how akismet decides what is spam, but as for me, I will not be using any spam filter again. If an ip address is spamming me too much, i might decide to block it. Thanks a lot for the great post. .-= NEW from Onibalusi Bamidele´s last blog ..The one lesson the Holy Spirit taught me about blogging =-.
    • Kristi Hines says:
      I didn't want to use the spam filters for the longest time - the thing that finally got me to using Akismet was the trackback spam. I wasn't on top of deleting all of the ones that came through, and when I needed to export certain posts, I found out how having over 10K+ "pending" trackback comments affected the size of the export file. Cleaning them out took forever, and now I just rely on Akismet to dump unapproved comments after 30 days, keeping my database cleaner. At the same time, I have to make sure I regularly check the comments to make sure they are all legit. .-= NEW from Kristi Hines´s last blog ..Latest WordPress Hack – Symptoms, Solutions & Resources =-.
      • Onibalusi Bamidele says:
        Hi Kristi, I don't think trackbacks add any value to comments in a particular post, in this case, it would have been a better option if you disabled trackbacks. I understand that your blog will be getting more traffic and comments so it would be a better option to use a spam filter (just that they often block legitimate comments) or can you just imagine waking up to meet a thousand spam comments waiting for approval (it is really frustrating). How i wish i knew how to program, I would have come up with something better to use on my blog. Thanks a lot. BTW: How about my guest post. Thanks a lot. .-= NEW from Onibalusi Bamidele´s last blog ..The one lesson the Holy Spirit taught me about blogging =-.
        • Kristi Hines says:
          I like to keep the trackbacks open because I think it's nice to include when people link to your posts on their site. It shows visitors that other people liked the post enough to link back to it. I don't include the spam trackbacks or Twitter comments and such, just the really good posts that link back to me. Will email you on the post! .-= NEW from Kristi Hines´s last blog ..Latest WordPress Hack – Symptoms, Solutions & Resources =-.
  51. Ryan says:
    Helpful questions Kristi. For a while most of my comments were caught in the spam filter. I said the hell with it and provided my twitter account. I moved back to using my blog URL and decided to visit higher profile blogs. This seems to have done the trick. Spam is a personal topic. One person's spam is another's content. I comment where I feel like commenting, provide as much value as possible with my feedback, and move on to the next blog. I aim to establish a relationship with each author but know that some will reach out and others won't. .-= NEW from Ryan´s last blog ..How Can Cash Gifting Programs Prosper You? =-.
    • Kristi Hines says:
      Changing some of the information you enter will eventually help break you out of the spam filtering. What bites about the system is it may not be you spamming - if you work in an office, it could simply be someone else on the same IP that gets you in trouble. Glad you have found a way to get by that problem! .-= NEW from Kristi Hines´s last blog ..Latest WordPress Hack – Symptoms, Solutions & Resources =-.
  52. Karen says:
    I've had a few of my regular commentators landing in the spam box on my blog recently and though I do click "not spam" they still end up in there, so it is important to check your spambox regularly to see if anyone has ended in there who shouldn't of, but, it only takes one blogger to say "I don't like that comment" and SPAM it instead of trashing it, to make Akismet believe that you are a bad commentator. .-= NEW from Karen @ Blazing Minds´s last blog ..How to get traffic to your blog =-.
    • Kristi Hines says:
      I have several commenters as well that always go to the spam folder, even after months of telling Akismet they are not spam. I agree that it probably just takes a few people to put someone in the spam filter, and many to get them out of there. .-= NEW from Kristi Hines´s last blog ..Latest WordPress Hack – Symptoms, Solutions & Resources =-.
      • Karen says:
        I check my Spam box everyday, just in case, hopefully Akismet will get the idea that they are not spammers and stop putting them in there ;) .-= NEW from Karen @ Blazing Minds´s last blog ..The Top Jobs Kids Want To Have =-.