Well, it didn't take very long at all. Within two weeks of launching a new blog I am getting flooded with comment spam. Okay, perhaps flooded is a little over the top, but 15-20 per day. Fortunately Wordpress has comment moderation so it never makes it live, but it is none-the-less annoying. There is a very easy solution; CAPTCHA. I did this before with my .text and Community Server blogs, but this has been by far the easiest set up (taking literally 15 minutes to generate, test in dev, and deploy to my production site).
http://www.protectwebform.com/plugin_wordpress From their page:
How to install:
- Create account at protectwebform.com. To do this, just go to the registration page: signup.
- Generate your CAPTCHA type with all the desired parameters.
- Follow the link "install" under the new CAPTCHA.
- Choose the "Wordpress Plugin" section and download the file.
- Place this file "wp-content/plugins" directory of wordpress installation.
- Go to the "Plugin" section in admin area of your wordpress installation.
- Find the plugin "CAPTCHA From ProtectWebForm" and click approptiate "Activate" link.
That's it!
What especially intrigued me on this version of CAPTCHA is their smart feature. Knowing that blog spam is generated by 'bots, it follows a simple algorithm to see if the sender does not supports JavaScript (meaning it is not browser based) and whether its from a suspicious IP address. If the answer to both is yes, it displays the silly little box (complete with audio read-back). If not, no CAPTCHA. Pretty cool stuff! We will see shortly how effective it is...