Comments on: Chronicle Comments: Spam Or Not

By: Bob Dively

Bob Dively — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 02:24:27 +0000

Spam-filtering and whitelisting (comment approval) are two separate functions in the software running this site (WordPress).

Spam-filtering is done by Akismet, a web-service that tests the comment against its large set of rules and gives it a thumbs up or thumbs down. If Akismet flags a comment as spam, all subsequent comments made from the same IP address are automatically flagged as spam. Comments flagged as spam go into a queue that can be checked by the website administrator for false positives (legitimate comments incorrectly flagged as spam). False positives released from the queue by the website administrator are sent forward in the publishing process. Additionally, a copy of the false positive is sent to Akismet to help it learn not to flag similar comments as spam going forward.

Note also that Akismet is a global service that examines millions of comments every day from many different sources. For that reason, you’re more likely to have a comment incorrectly flagged as spam when you post from publicly-accessible IP addresses (libraries, coffee shops, etc.). Many comments are made from those IP addresses, which increases the likelihood that someone using one of those IP address before you has made a comment which Akismet has flagged as spam, thus flagging all subsequent comments from that IP address – including yours – as spam.

WordPress’s whitelisting feature is based on user-submitted email addresses. Whenever WordPress sees a comment from a new email address, the comment is held in a queue for review by the website administrator. If the website administrator releases the comment from the queue, WordPress records the email address. Future comments from the email address bypass the queue and are posted on the website immediately.

Note that the Akismet spam-flagging process is executed before the WordPress whitelisting process. Even if the website administrator has already approved your email address and placed it in the whitelist, your comment can be flagged as spam by Akismet.

[The above is based on my admittedly limited understanding of Akismet and WordPress functionality. Caveat emptor.]

By: Larry Kestenbaum

Larry Kestenbaum — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 22:39:23 +0000

To users to delete their own comments, you need people to sign in somehow, so that only the person who left the comment has the privileges to delete it.

Pretty much all blogs have no comment delete option. If you want something deleted, you have to write to the webmaster and ask nicely.

By: Karen Moorhead

Karen Moorhead — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 22:14:55 +0000

A question I had recently about comments here: Will you allow the commenter to delete a comment? So far there is no way to do that and I took a chance one time with a comment and wondered if I could remove it later. I reworded my comment and thought I could live with it if I was wrong in my assumption. Anyway, I just wondered if you will allow that in the future, or maybe not because the “conversation” gets confusing if one is suddenly deleted.

Anyway just a thought.

By: Dave Askins

Dave Askins — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 21:49:45 +0000

Today I retrieved another legitimate comment from the spam folder as the result of a reader inquiry.

By: Dave Askins

Dave Askins — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 21:13:19 +0000

Re: resetting of “approved” lists

We haven’t re-set anything. To be honest, I’m not sure what that whitelist is keyed to — I assumed IP address, but maybe that’s wrong.

In any case, that comment has been set free and is visible here.

By: cmadler

cmadler — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 21:05:56 +0000

Did you reset the “approved” lists? It appears that a recent post of mine is being held for moderation.

By: Joel Goldberg

Joel Goldberg — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 17:07:23 +0000

Dave, one part of the picture I’d emphasize is the major problem that website spam has become. We’re all aware of spam when it arrives in our email inbox, but only those who maintain websites know the extent to which comment and registration forms have also turned into spam magnets. Readers should understand that it’s nearly impossible to fend off all the bad guys and let through all the good guys with 100% accuracy, unless you have the wherewithal to assign a human being to manually review every submission.