Spam is one of the most irritating aspects of managing a WordPress website. Tired of dealing with CAPTCHAs and stupid questions on your comment forms? Check out BotBlocker, a new plugin with a unique method of killing comment spam.
How does it work?
BotBlocker utilizes honeypot technology. Essentially, it tricks the spam-bot into identifying itself by performing actions that a human could not.
The best thing about this plugin is that it doesn’t inconvenience your visitors. It’s also very easy for you to use, since it works out of the box and there are no API keys required.
BotBlocker features:
- Automatically stops spam-bots from commenting
- Zero hindrance to users: no CAPTCHAS, math questions, passwords or extra input required
- Zero false positives
- Can be configured to completely block spam-bots or flag comments as spam
- Spam detection messages can be easily customized through the dashboard
- No javascript or cookies required
- Hooks into wp-comments-post.php to prevent spam-bots from directly submitting spam comments
BotBlocker should play nicely with most customized comment forms and should not conflict with other comment or spam plugins you have active. It also has a number of configurable settings. You can change the method for blocking spam, turn errors on or off, and set the level of randomness for how to hide the honeypot field. The plugin can also obfuscate the standard WordPress comment fields and rename them to make it harder for spam bots to figure out.
Of course, it takes a little while to see how effective a plugin is at blocking spam and this one is too new for gauging results. I am currently testing it and hope to see good results blocking bots over the next week or two. Make sure you’re following us on Twitter and we’ll post an update. Download BotBlocker from the wordpress.org or visit the plugin’s homepage for more information.
Definitely gonna give this a try…
Nice fine, I love the fact that it doesn’t add any extra input. Even the checkbox that G.A.S.P adds bothers me. I’ll be trying it out on a couple sites and see what kind of results I get.
Thanks!
This sounds great. All most to good to be true…
I am giving it a run on BlogLines.co.za
I’ve been using honeypot blocking with Gravity Forms on sites with over 50k uniques per month successfully for over a year, rarely do we see any spam come through. That is, of course, until the spammer figure out a way around this technique.
I installed this plug-in a few days ago. Since then, NO SPAM. Not one. I was averaging over 200 per day.
Give it a try — it really works!
Actually, same here – I am using it on one of my sites and have had only 2 spam comment attempts in the past 3 weeks – a significant decrease!
Honestly, it’s not that good thing. I tried it on some of my wps and it blocked legit comments. Kind of hated it and disabled it. But If it works for you why not.