Spam be Damned!
Remember that problem I had with spam? I’m not joking when I say I would typically get about 200 spam comments every 24 hours. I was using Askimet which caught most of the spam and put it in my spam folder, but it was still a giant pain in the rump, because every day or so, I’d have to go through and empty the spam folder after checking to see if any real comments were inadvertently sent to spam.
Emma had her mom send me an e-mail sharing a post about Disqus helping to cut down on spam and I meant to read it, I really did. But I didn’t. Part of the reason is I comment on blogs that use Disqus and for me (and speaking only for me) I can sometimes find it a pain in butt. I have to sign in using Google, or Twitter or something and sometimes I just want to leave a quick comment and Disqus is just one more step I need to take.
Some of you have that little box that says “check here to prove your human” I don’t mind that one in the least and I also like the little picture ones where you have to drag some coins to the piggy bank or something similar. What can I say? I like simple.
Maggie from Oh My Dog! shared a plug in she was using for security purposes to help prevent hacking and cut down on spam. I find it so sad that people will actually try and hack a site of someone they don’t even know just to share their ugly propaganda, but it happens. Anyway, Maggie shared that she used this plug in for WordPress called “Wordfence.” I immediately went to my dashboard and looked it up and it got five full stars! It’s a free plug in (of course you can upgrade to paid) and it not only stops security hacks, but it also prevents spam. So I figured what the hell? I emptied my spam folder and installed the plug in.
Guess what?
That was 9 days ago and yesterday I had my first ‘spam’ and it was actually a reader’s comment that accidentally was put in the folder!
After two days of using Wordfence I went in and deactivated Askimet. The only thing I don’t like about Wordfence is I get an e-mail every time I sign in BUT I also got an e-mail on Monday that someone tried to hack my site! But Wordfence prevented it! Woot, woot!!
Imagine clicking over for you dose of Heart Like a Dog and finding out that someone with a potty mouth had taken over? ‘-) I know, the horrors!
Delilah and the ‘puppy.’
Delilah and I have continued our walks around the neighborhood. Luckily for us, our neighborhood leaves us lots of options, so we don’t need to take the same walk every night.
The other day on our walk Delilah encountered something she had never seen before. Her reaction was so cute, I just had to take and share some photos.
Mama? Do you see what I see?
I’m not sure what it is. I think I need a closer look.
Dear Dog Mama! I think the Chamber of Secrets has been opened. This puppy has been turned to stone!
We have to help it!
It’s okay Delilah, it’s not a real puppy, it’s just a lawn ornament put there for enjoyment, and curious labradors!
This is my contribution to Thursday’s Barks and Bytes Blog Hop the blog hop for ALL Bloggers, hosted by 2 Brown Dawgs and Heart Like a Dog. Grab a badge, link up and make some new friends!
I am not a fan of disqus either, unless it allows me to put in comments as guest. I’m glad you were able to find a solution that helped 🙂
Spam be damned LOL. Glad you got it sorted out. Have a tremendous Thursday.
Best wishes Molly
wow that is some out of control spam! those pictures are very cute
retro rover
I must have left wordfence off that list of plugins I sent you as I use it as well and Mom has it on her two work blogs too. I hated those emails, but there is a setting that can turn off alerts when you sign in and leave alerts when others attempt. So glad you have your spam back in the can where it belongs! We hate all spam around here even though Spam comes from MN.
Glad you found something to help with your spam problem. Delilah probably couldn’t figure out why the puppy was just sitting there. 🙂
Hi Y’all!
So glad y’all have found a “cure” for spam!
Y’all come by now,
Hawk aka BrownDog
200 per day? Ha! That’s nothing…..they were hitting me at 500+ for a couple days there, to the point where my server restricted my account because it was using too many CPU’s! I tried two different things before hitting on one that has now chased them off, my spam queue has been empty…..but if a person leaves a comment for the first time they have to do the captcha thing. I know what a pain that is, even if it’s just once it could scare some commenter off, so I think I will look into Wordfence.
Delilah and the puppy was too cute!
Glad you found a solution that worked for you. The statues do seem to make the dogs curious. I have a gnome garden and Bailey and Katy are always checking them out.
I’m glad wordfence helped with the spam. I installed it too just as a preventative form jerks.
Oh i’m so glad you finally found something that works for your spam issue. It’s weird, I always hear everyone talking about spam in their comments, but I have only ever got one spammer. It was for a gay man and he wanted a sexual partner! haahahahaha! I don’t think I was what he had in mind! BOLOLOLOL!
ღ husky hugz ღ frum our pack at Love is being owned by a husky!
We are going to have to check that plugin out! I have to empty my spam folder every day and sometimes twice a day. It would be nice to not have to deal with all the spammy comments! Thanks for sharing.
I’ve seen a big increase in spam comments to my blog lately as well… ugh!
Great pics!
I’ll have to check out WordFence – thanks for the info! I don’t get a tonne of spam – a few comments per day – and they range from “check out this pron” (yes, misspelled to pron) to “your on-page SEO is missing factors” to gibberish in other languages. It’s mostly just a pain in the ass to have to go in and delete them while making sure real comments aren’t accidentally caught up in there too.
So cute that she had to investigate the statue! Mine seem to ignore the few dog statues we’ve seen around, but Moses is a little wary around big horse statues (we live in Calgary, there are more than a few of these around).
We hate spam too and we got hacked last year…it was a bad time. But since then we’ve been using WordFence! Steve handles that stuff for us and he’s kind of a fanatic about security now, so I think it gets 5 stars from SlimDoggy too!
Typepad had a severe case of spam for a while, but they seem to have worked it out. I haven’t had any spam in over a month. Some of my legitimate comments are put into my spam folder, but it is not a problem to check it every day.
My dogs are always intrigued by dog statues, but when they get close enough to smell them, they seem to get disgusted with the smell
I just saw a 5 paragraph comment on a fellow bloggers page all about Jesus!
Lily & Edward
“Imagine clicking over for you dose of Heart Like a Dog and finding out that someone with a potty mouth had taken over? ”
BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!! I can’t even imagine. I use a plugin in addition to Akismet, Anti-Captcha. Been using it for months and very happy with it. No sign ins anywhere for anyone, including myself.
I’m SO glad it helped!! It’s so frustrating the people even try to pull that crap with our sites in the first place, but I’m relieved it’s been a good solution for you!
At least she was trying to make friends with the statue. Mia barks at reindeer statues around Christmas.
I get frustrated with things like Disqus because sometimes they won’t let me comment from my mobile device. I also get weird spammy comments on old posts. You know those fake ones that say, “Great post! This is the kind of information we need more of.”
Delilah is so cute with the “puppy.” Silas had a similar reaction to my Mom’s ceramic cat statue.
I’m glad you got your spam sorted out! I find Akismet pretty adequate, but my blog is much smaller than yours.
Aw, that is too sweet! I wonder how she would have been with a real puppy sitting there?
Thanks for the info re Wordfence! I might go check it out, even though Askimet has served me well so far.
Gosh, I get so much spam too. Apparently I should look into that plugin! So thanks to Maggie for letting you know about it.
And those pictures are adorable! It’s like she really thought it was a real animal. So cute! 🙂
Isn’t it wonderful when something actually works?! So glad the spam has diminished for you.
Love the pictures of Delilah. So sweet and innocent. Gus calls me Mama, too!
Gus’ Mom
We don’t know how we missed this post. Glad that you put the SPAM in the Can.
hahaha she has a new friend, so glad I don’t have the spam problem. Good luck
I thought I was the only one who was put off by Disqus. Anyhow, I’ve been using the paid version of Akismet for a while now and I wouldn’t mind trying something that is free. Even the paid version of Akismet is not perfect and they have their good and bad days.
Thanks for the tip! I’m going to check out WordFence and probably look around for at a few other alternatives.