A few questions/issues:

The plug-in “sees” domain names in addition to IPs — most of my “worst offenders” list are the domain names instead of the IPs. Since (I assume this isn’t possible) you can’t deny via a domain name (the plug-in won’t add domains to htaccess, only IPs), is there any way to set the extension to ignore the domain names? This way only bannable IPs will be listed, instead of falling off the top ten list because of domain names.

The plug-in doesn’t add the “Order Allow,Deny” and “Allow from all” to htaccess if they aren’t there — should it also add these instructions automagically around it’s ip list?

Appreciate any help/info.

Translation: Therefore I installed, Askimet,with a small modification, so that it makes still less work. Happy Spam Kill!

Do you have the appropriate allow-deny stuff around the list of banned IP’s? i.e. the “Order Allow,Deny” and “Allow from all” as shown in the download instructions?

Thanks for your reply!

I believe they are comming from the banned IP addresses, as sometimes I try to ban those listed, but they don’t get added (likely because they are already on the list of the .htaccess).

the spam are the usual, those poker stuff… could it be that either they spoof their address, or because the worst offenders try to ban the ip associated with the domain name, and they change it? just a guess…

I notice you’ve mentioned Banned IP’s so you’re not using this plugin, you’re using the htaccess extension which adds to the concepts described here… it’s also highly experimental, however it should not result in an increase in spam.

When you say you’re “receiving” 300 spam per hour can you be more specific? Are these spam messages coming from “banned” IP addresses?

Hi there!

Is it possible that this extension increases the number of received spam?

See, the first 2, 3 days after using it, it worked beautifully. Then, 3 days later, I started getting like 300 spam/hour, and the number of banned ip’s just got to like 200 so far! Hoe come they keep getting through, if they are banned? Maybe my .htaccess is misconfigured or something? It is indeed addind the ip’s there, but still lots of spam are getting through, which increases the traffic I get.

Now I am kinda afraid to get back to the original akismet plugin because i’ll have to quit my job to filter spam…

I’m sure itÅ› something to do with my setup, so could you guys give me a hint of what to do?

Yours,

oculos

Incidentally he/she/it found this site through a rather specific Google query for “.htaccess“, nothing to do with WordPress per se.

Sounds like they are the same loser who tried to spam my blog post about using this plugin with abusive comments (same source IP and the referrer to my blog post was from this article, so it seems they’re following the trackbacks). Looks like he wants to have a go at anyone who’s fighting spam..

I think we’re at stage 2 of the Ghandi scale.

cheers!
Chris

I’m delighted to note that at the time of writing, this little extension is on the front page of planet.wordpress.org thanks to Donncha’s favourable review.

The article relates to one of several plugins that I have written for WordPress, that I have given freely to the WP community. When time permits (which is less often that I’d like) I try and visit #wordpress on IRC and answer the odd question. I also try to support the plugins that I write, and answer as many questions as I can.

I’m sorry Akismet doesn’t work for you, so I’m pleased that the other plugin that you failed to adequately reference provides you with spam-free blogging.

Since you appear keen to help the community, please consider joining the spam-stopper mailing list where discussion surrounding the Akismet services and clients is ongoing. I’m sure your silver tongue will help cut through any bureaucracy that might be stopping Akismet from being a better tool than it already is.

So, to recap; your claims of “not crediting wordpress” have been firmly rebuffed, suggestions of “leaching” have been shown to be wholly without grounds and poorly researched and your irrelevant insults have been politely ignored.

BTW, you sound remarkably like an angry spammer who’s worried that this experiment might affect your profits; after all, you say you’re a WordPress user, but you’ve not given your name or the URL of your blog. People are bound to wonder if there’s an ulterior motive behind your anonymous barbed words.