Geek news warning: sane people and anybody for whom such acronyms as PHP or GPL merely evocate some brand new drugs the kids might be into these days: you are probably better off skipping this one.
I’ll try to keep it short.
Spam Karma 2 is now released as GPL v.2. This essentially means you can do anything you want to it, except claim you made it (copyright and attribution notice must remain there). You should also note that any attempt at deriving some ill-deserved profit from it through harebrained web marketing schemes will earn you both my long-standing scorn and a nut-shriveling decrease to your actual karma.
I suppose another angle to that post’s title could be:
Officially discontinuing Spam Karma’s development: so long and thanks for all the fish
as this is what this truly is about.
But, such a title would be slightly misleading (and no doubt heavily quoted out of context): Indeed, I am hereby officially announcing that I will no longer support, maintain or further develop Spam Karma (beside some very occasional, very limited poking, until the transition to a self-maintained project is completed). However, thanks to the magic of free software, all the unsung heroes of the Open Source world will soon rise to take over and bring you a stronger, better, more closely supported version of Spam Karma!
Okay, what’s more likely to happen is that nobody will really bother taking over, except perhaps a handful well-intentioned but utterly clueless beginner coders who will quickly find themselves overwhelmed by the task and next be seen running away screaming at the top of their lungs. Hey, I’m not blaming anybody: I wouldn’t waste my time on a non-paying, open-source community project either…
But on the off-chance that you would (and trust me it won’t do anything to help you get laid either), I have set up a Google Code repository, which could become the jumping point to some magnificent community-based development effort (or not). If you are interested in participating in any way, contact me (mail or contact form) with a *brief* description of who you are, what you can do and what you wanna do. I don’t need a resume (I am not hiring), just a very quick idea of what level of responsibility you’d be willing to take on the project. I’ll put in the first couple people that seem to know what they are doing (and do not sound like they’ll be selling everything to Russian mafia-owned spam sites) as administrators of the project, and hopefully from there on, things will work by themselves…
If you think you’d like to tackle any aspect of SK2 development (including possibly porting it to other platforms), here is your chance. Speak now or go back to more fruitful and life-rewarding endeavours forever.
Oh, and as for the “reasons”, well, here they are:
1) Life.
Much as I love the challenge and excitement of coding an anti-spam filter and thinking up new tricks to defeat parasitic life-forms of the web, I just don’t have the time anymore. And to be honest, if I did have the time, I probably would have other challenging, exciting new projects I’d rather tackle. I’m fickle like that.
2) Wordpress
I will really try to keep that one short, because I could probably write a novel of that. And it wouldn’t be a very interesting read.
In a word: Wordpress kinda sucks nowadays. Its retarded upgrade rate makes it nearly impossible to keep up, in turn making it a constant security threat on my servers. And each time I finally cave in and install one of those “mandatory security upgrade”, it also installs 600 Ko of other theme compatibility-breaking fluffy crap that I never asked for in the first place. Usually setting the ground for the next cycle of security-exploit-rushed-upgrade. To sum up, it’s become incredibly bloated and tedious to support. Replacing it on my own servers is very high on my list of things to do (which means somewhat in the first 1000 items).
Having no interest for Wordpress anymore, I have thus very little interest for Wordpress-related development.
As for WP coming bundled with its own anti-spam plugin, I could also go on for hours on that. The fact that a community-based open-source project is used to distribute a commercially licensed piece of software doesn’t make me particularly happy. But frankly I haven’t cared and still don’t care enough to even raise a stint. At any rate I know lots of people (me included, obviously), aren’t convinced by the way Akismet works and are happier doing the filtering on our own servers, so there is definitely room for SK2-like plugins out there.
Anyway, thanks everybody for your support all these years and let’s gather a round of applause for our brand new Spam Karma GPL Edition!
Update: in addition to the Google Code-hosted project, there is now a dev mailing list set up on Google Groups, go check it out and feel free to sign up if you are interested in SK2’s future development!
2008-07-14 at 7.57 pm
[...] it often in blogging classes and now I have to figure out what this new development means. Dave cites the following reasons for this change in license: 1) [...]
2008-07-14 at 8.29 pm
What a pity, although i can fully understand your views on WordPress development. It just sucks, seems to follow Apple’s wrong decisions concerning their long-term user base, that starts to get annoyed by being fed a lot of bling bling while the product quality suffers. If only once fame didn’t follow the same old patterns…
2008-07-14 at 8.54 pm
I thought good when first saw the title, but I’m not sure after reading the post.
I hope some good programmers want to keep developing Spam Karma, otherwise it will die. I don’t want such a project to die.
2008-07-14 at 9.34 pm
Thanks for all the work you’ve done on this, Dr. D. I’ve used Spam karma for years, and it’s been a great.
If I thought I were a good enough coder I would pick this up. I know enough to make some changes that I think would be improvements, but it’s mainly polish. I’m probably not capable of keeping up with the security end of it, which is the heart of the application.
2008-07-14 at 9.35 pm
first of all: a big THANK YOU for this great plugin … good work I enjoy very much!
2008-07-14 at 9.45 pm
Super plagin! I’m not spam
Big Thank, guys!
2008-07-14 at 10.56 pm
I know what you mean - it’s bad enough trying to keep up as a user with all the patches - I keep meaning to get round to 2.5 but then 2.6 is now on the horizon - so it must be 10 times worse as a developer.
The only thing missing from Spam Karma is certain PB styles that get through 95% of the time - the ones where the end of the URL runs into a word from the next post, which I now must give up hope of seeing fixed
Thanks anyway for all your time and effort; you save me at least 10 minutes and a lot of frustration every day!
2008-07-15 at 12.42 am
As I wrote around here earlier, even though it hasn’t been supported as of late, SK2 remains the only anti-spam plugin enabled on my dozen of running weblogs (some of them professionnal), and even if the project sadly dies in the water, I plan on keep it this way. Granted, I added the Akismet plugin to most installs, but still
I actually thought about asking to help you on SK2 dev a few weeks ago, but backed out quickly, knowing that I hardly have the time for personal projects these days, and that I haven’t used my m4d PHP skillz for quite some time… I guess I’ll have a regular look at the new code repository, hoping that some knowledgeable coders will take over, and lead the way.
So, again, thanks a lot for such a fine piece of software, and long live to SK!
2008-07-15 at 1.28 am
Despite not having been updated since March of 2007, Spam Karma continues to perform exactly like it should even on the latest version of WordPress. I really don’t see how Spam Karma could be improved too much as I haven’t had a false negative or false positive in many, many months. I suppose some genius will find a way to do it (perhaps integrating http:BL or some functions of Bad Behavior), but I’m very pleased with it.
Still, good call on making it a GPL project. It will inevitably need some code maintenance and clarifying that you won’t be the one to do it is very helpful.
I share some of your complaints about the vicious and often painful upgrade process of WP, a reason why I’m still on 2.1.3 and have been putting off upgrades for so long. Still, I don’t see that there are a lot of better alternatives in the marketplace right now. Typepad is a bit arcane for my tastes, Habari is still in its infancy and I don’t trust hosting my data on Blogger. Every platform has its weaknesses and I don’t consider WordPress’ to outweigh what is has going for it.
2008-07-15 at 3.19 am
SK has been the silent backbone of my website for years and will continue to be until WP messes up so bad as to make it non-functional.
Thanks for a great product and the work that went into it.
2008-07-15 at 3.29 am
Just want to say: thanks very much !
2008-07-15 at 5.20 am
Like Jesse said even though spam karma 2 hasn’t been updated since early 2007 it continues to function. Thank God for that. And like Paula said SK2 has been the silent backbone of my website for years and will continue to be until WP messes up so bad as to make it non-functional. I hope some great coders take it over and keep it running. I can understand your not having time to work on it, though. Just know this, it is the best spam plugin out there, and nothing could ever beat it. Akismet is crap, and doesn’t work. I guess the guys at wordpress must be making a fortune of it, to keep a useless plugin bundled with it all these years. Too bad I don’t know much php or I would offer to code it. Good luck with all your your future projects, and thanks for all the time you put into SK2. You will be sorely missed. God bless and have a great day.
2008-07-15 at 7.51 am
Dave,
I completely agree with Jesse Harris, Paula and staticbrain - SpamKarma is life-saver plugin! (I even wrote a post with a similar title a month or two ago
)
During almost two years of SK2’s hard work, I had only one false-positive. It’s *perfect* performance.
I would like to thank you personally for all the thousands of saved hours we - the users of self-hosted WordPress - saved thanks to your SpamKarma!
If you ever happen to be in/near Kyiv, Ukraine - I’ll gladly be your volunteer guide
(there’s a contact page on my blog, which also has my cellphone number)
2008-07-15 at 7.54 am
(Looks like my comment has just become the second false-positive over almost two years of using SK2…)
Thanks for the great plugin, Dave!
2008-07-15 at 9.52 am
Thanks with all love! Come on!
2008-07-15 at 11.57 am
I, too, would like to express thanks for your plugin which I have used for years. I have never tried askimet and don’t plan to start now.
I would have given up on WP due to their upgrade hassles if I hadn’t found a plugin that does all the busy-work for me. However, the plugin may only work in certain hosting environments, as my friends haven’t been as fortunate.
Thanks again.
2008-07-15 at 1.45 pm
Hello everybody and thanks a lot for your kind words and support: hopefully this is not the end of SK2 by any mean, merely a new life in the hands of a loving and dedicated community!
Now come on guys! Send me your Google account ID (via email: zedrdave @ gmail — seems my Contact Form plugin is acting up) and join in on the fun. Also: don’t let my rant above deter you, I’m sure this project can use absolutely all levels of code proficiency, especially at this point. Practically half the work right now revolves around packaging, organising and editing text, in order to create a fully standalone open-source project. No talent too small for that.
PS: sorry for anybody whose comment might have been held back (and notify me if it doesn’t appear after a while). This blog being under a constant barrage of automated *and* manual spam, the filter settings are set quite high.
2008-07-15 at 3.45 pm
Sorry to see you go, but thanks for all the work you put into this. I used to suffer countless spam assaults. Your plugin has made my life noticeably better.
Cheers!
2008-07-15 at 8.22 pm
Thanks a lot for your great work, which made my life a bit easier
2008-07-15 at 10.15 pm
Thanks for all your help in fighting spam so far. You have doubtless saved me dozens of hours worth of manually removing it from my blog.
2008-07-15 at 11.19 pm
[...] 2 vom Spam-Karma-Entwickler künftig nicht mehr weiter entwickelt werden wird. Stattdessen wurde Spam Karma unter GPL gestellt und wartet nun auf eine neue [...]
2008-07-15 at 11.49 pm
I just wanted to add my own thanks for such a wonderful product. SK2 works incredibly well, and I will continue using it for as long as I can. Akismet can go die a sad and lonely death.
2008-07-16 at 12.18 am
[...] for some sad news. Dr. Dave has called it quits on maintaining and upgrading Spam Karma 2. Of course, we all hold out the hope that this amazing [...]
2008-07-16 at 1.25 am
Domo arigato gozaimashta Dave for sharing your talent and skills with the WordPress community. Just an awesome plugin! I second the above commenters, hoping that WP developers won’t screw up the hooks or what-nots so that we can continue using SK2. If you’re ever in L.A., CA - sushi, kaiyaki and sake on me. Cheers.
2008-07-16 at 2.15 am
It’s too bad auttomattic can’t take some of the millions in VC money and get you laid- and keep us in a great spam filter.
Seriously- I totally agree with you that it seems stupid to not have an open source spam filter- and that the upgrade cycle is insane. The best thing would for them to fold SK2 into the core- and get it over with. But, that will never happen.
Thanks for all the hard work- you’ve saved us many hours of headaches- and for that, you should have an abundance of good karma.
2008-07-16 at 2.26 am
I’d like to add my own thanks for your years of work on this. The combination of SK2 and Bad Behavior has been my spam protection of choice for a long time.
I don’t know if I’ll have the time to explore the code and help out with the new project — I do know I won’t have time to run it — but I’ll try to at least keep an eye on it and help out here and there, if nothing else with testing.
2008-07-16 at 7.17 am
Great post dude. Thanks for all your hard work to initially create this plugin. It has made my life a lot easier and I thank you for that. And I totally agree with your words on wordpress.
Peace,
Jeff
2008-07-16 at 8.28 am
You’re so right. WP is screwing up too many plugins. I wonder if their upgrades really fill our needs. Also I wonder what they are up to. Selling their stuff and get away? Anyway, thanks a lot for your work, keeping the spammers away from us.
2008-07-16 at 8.37 am
[...] Spam Karma has gone GPL — After years of support Dr. Dave has decided to stop maintaining his spam plugin and turn it over to the open-source community. The project is now on Google Code. [...]
2008-07-16 at 2.51 pm
Just wanted to add my voice to the chorus. SpamKarma has been an absolutely marvelous bit of code and a total lifesaver for me. I’m sorry that WP is making things so difficult, because the community is losing a real and irreplaceable hero. Best of luck wherever life takes you next.
2008-07-16 at 4.10 pm
Thanks for your coding cleverness, skill and dedication, not to mention hard work. You created something badly needed and exceptionally effective and useful.
I share your lack of appreciation for Wordpress’ too-rapid update schedule. Some time back, I commented on the WP Web site that I was in no hurry to make the just breathlessly announced MUST-DO-NOW upgrade. It was one I’m fairly sure would’ve caused serious template/theme headaches. I respectfully pointed out that, for me at least, the point of using WP was blogging, not upgrading or replacing every few months an install of WP that meets my needs nicely and works well.
Best of luck. I hope people capable and worthy of carrying on your SK2 work will step up.
2008-07-16 at 6.53 pm
Many many thanks for this great plugin, i like it so much better than akismet!
So i really hope that there will be someone to keep things going.
And i wish you, Dave, all the best for your future and i have to say that i regulary read your writings. I once came for sk2 and now i’m coming for your thoughts.
Kanpai!
2008-07-16 at 7.37 pm
What a shame…but I can understand the reasons.
WP today is nothing but upgrades and it turned into the same hassle with bug fixes’n’stuff that you get from Microsoft and their OS. Always something needs fixing.
Whatever you dive into next - good luck, and thanks for a great piece of security
2008-07-17 at 1.49 am
SK2 is without a doubt the best thing to have come to WP. I completely agree that WP has become too easy a target for attack. I dread each upgrade because I know it’ll break something but if I hold off too long, I am prone for attack. What the heck?
2008-07-17 at 1.59 am
Hey everybody, just a quick word regarding WP upgrades:
As we all agree, they are *way* too numerous, and tedious… *but*… you shouldn’t, nay, must not skip them! As long as you use WP, and if you don’t keep up with every new damn security upgrade, your server is a sitting duck waiting for the next script-kiddie to take over (chances are, you might not even realize it for months after your entire website has been filled with invisible spam links). Trust me: I have cleaned up enough friend’s installs to know…
So really, upgrades aren’t optional. Unfortunately, your only option is to write and whine to WP devs and demand that:
1) They make *extremely* clear which security features/exploit plugging (if any) are present in each new upgrade… something more than “PLEEEEEAZE UPGRADE KTHX”, that will let you take a decision, based on whether you want to spend two hours fixing your broken theme and plugins or are happy with the way they look.
2) They release security upgrades as *separate* upgrades (or at least provide patches for those who want them). As any sane software project does. Not to mention the fact that, while they may be working on the finishing touch for some brand new
bloatass-kicking feature to release along that next security upgrade, your servers are just waiting to get hacked…Anyway, not really my fight anymore, but feel free to take it upon your name…
2008-07-17 at 3.32 am
[...] Dave’s Blog » Blog Archive » Spam Karma goes GPL (tags: wordpress plugins spam spamkarma gpl karma) [...]
2008-07-17 at 11.26 am
Thanks for all your hard work, Dave. I’ll take a look at the code and see what I can do to help.
2008-07-17 at 12.39 pm
Thank you for the plugin.
I’m also thinking of ditching Wordpress after 4+ years.
2008-07-17 at 6.05 pm
I just wanted to say thanks for the plugin. I was being overwhelmed with spam, and now only see one or two a day of the little beasties creeping through, thanks to SK2.
I’ve gone to Bad Bahaviour on other blogs rather than Aksimet, which never wanted to work for me.
Best of luck with your next big project, whatever that is.
bruce
2008-07-17 at 7.27 pm
Anyway, thanks for your work. Good luck.
2008-07-18 at 2.33 am
[...] the excellent Spam Karma 2 plugin has been sort of discontinued. The plugin creator and developer, Dr Dave, no longer has enough time to dedicate to the [...]
2008-07-18 at 7.45 am
Spam Karma Is Now Open Source Software…
Good news: the world’s best WordPress anti-spam plugin has been released under the GPL. Bad news: the original developer is leaving the project.
……
2008-07-18 at 8.36 am
A genuine and heartfelt thanks to you for all the hard work you’ve done on SK. I hated, and still do, Akismet and nearly gave up on WordPress until I found your plugin. Now it’s the first one I install (at the same time as removing Akismet and Hello Dolly) and it doesn’t matter to me that it’s not been updated for so long - it works and that’s all that matters.
Hope your future projects work out well for you and hope you get laid soon
2008-07-18 at 7.29 pm
Thank you for helping my blog stop nearly 600,000 spams the past year or two. My blog would be dead without your help Dave and for that it owes you its life.
2008-07-19 at 5.28 am
[...] http://unknowngenius.com/blog/archives/2008/07/14/spam-karma-is-gpl/ [...]
2008-07-19 at 9.44 am
Without SK2, my life would be nothing more than a never ending stream of incoming spam that WordPress forces me to “moderate.” I cannot thank you enough for this life-altering plugin.
2008-07-19 at 9.57 am
Sad to see you go. Spam Karma is still the best.
2008-07-19 at 10.55 am
Did you have to choose GPL? I want Spam Karma for Habari, and to exist in Habari’s “extras” repo it must be ASL compatible
2008-07-20 at 2.33 am
Cannot blame you for moving on either. Getting weary of the tedious and continuous WP upgrade process. Please let us know what platform you decide to move to, if you’re not writing your own.
And thank you for the best spam plugin evah.
2008-07-20 at 2.52 pm
[...] Spam Karma is GPL - Spam Karma, one of the more popular WordPress anti-spam plugins that aren’t called Akismet, is going GPL, in part, because WordPress is becoming too much of a hassle to support Share and Enjoy: These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and discover new web pages. [...]
2008-07-20 at 11.01 pm
Spam Karma was one of my favorite plugins. Thanks man. And someone please tell these WordPress guys to cool down their update rate….
2008-07-21 at 4.04 am
[...] the author of the terrific-fantastic-makes-blog-comments-possible-I’ve-donated-to Spam Karma has decided to call it quits on the project. He’s opened it up as GPL. I certainly hope that someone picks up the slack. [...]
2008-07-21 at 3.28 pm
I’ve also used Spam Karma for years. Just wanted to say thanks for the good work, and great call on making it GPL. Best of luck to you in the future.
2008-07-21 at 10.24 pm
You’re so right. WP is getting too overloaded. Every update makes some plugins worthless and WP simply cannot expect from all those plugin writers to keep up their pace without getting anything out of it. So much hassle. Anyway, thanks a lot for your contribution. Peace.
2008-07-22 at 4.00 am
Thanks to SK, I haven’t gone on a massive homicidal rage and killed everyone.
Seriously though, I probably would’ve deleted my blog YEARS ago if SK hadn’t saved it. This is one of only two factors keeping me on WP, the other being automated updated from the WP subversion repository. I’ve been using WP for long enough (first installed version was 1.1x line), I know how bad the upgrade cycle has been lately.
Lately I’ve been exploring the feasibility of Habari instead of WP - I have it installed to my test domain, and so far I’m fairly happy with it. Should be a good software once it ‘grows up’, hopefully soon someone will port SK2 over to Habari…
2008-07-22 at 11.00 am
Dave, What software will you use to replace WordPress? There are so many: http://cmsmatrix.org/ As a WordPress fan, I’d love to know where you are going.
Spam Karma has been a life saving plugin. Many thanks for your great work! I do hope it lives on.
2008-07-22 at 11.35 am
Sorry to see you go, but you got to do what you got to do. I too have not always been updating WP as I should be, and was worried about breaking SK, but I’m happy to read it still works with current WP versions. And when you think about it, that’s really amazing considering you have not updated SK in so long. I guess it’s a testament to your good coding… and a little luck. I’ve used SK for a year or so and it’s eaten over 90,000 spams on one blog alone! Good luck and thanks Dave!
2008-07-22 at 12.45 pm
Everybody:
Regarding a potential choice for a WP replacement: this is a lengthy topic, and probably warrants an entry of its own, some day [2010-2011, by most estimates].
The short version is that I can’t blindly recommend any platform at the moment, though I see a couple very worthy alternatives starting to reach maturity. As for me, it will likely be homemade and not for public consumption. For which I am sorry but have no choice.
To (sorta) sum-up the rationale:
1) WP *still* is the best compromises around. For a couple reasons, most of which have nothing to do with current lead dev: long dev history, huge volunteer base, massive plugin/theme/hacks repository… The pros are so huge that it’s hard for the cons to outweigh them (though it’s been doing a great job at filling the gap lately).
2) There are a couple alternatives out there (including quite a few, started by people fed up with the way WP was handled). Most still lack maturity, but they are on a good path and will likely give WP a run for its money in no time…
3) When I finally manage to drop WP, it will likely not be for any of the currently existing solutions. While some are nicer than other, absolutely none of them (WP included) seem to justify in my eye the investment I like to put in the software I use (diving into the code and contributing/hacking my way through). Until a truly groundbreaking new platform arise (see 5), I am more likely to stick with my own hand-rolled piece of software. A solution I wouldn’t recommend to most (see 4).
4) Rolling your own web software often seems a good idea to people fed up with the way all existing software doesn’t comply to their every need. It’s even somewhat of a recurring joke in the OSS world (cue 35454 different implementations of Hello World-style PHP scripts). Although there are cases where it all works out (SK2 being one, hopefully): more often than not, it’s a complete waste of time.
A one-man effort in such a large project as a blog platform is likely to get dropped before it even reaches a usable stage. A better idea is to try and gather a team around your idea and start an actual OSS project (see Habari). Unfortunately, in those days where everyone is full of ideas but utterly devoid of time or skills to realise them, finding that team isn’t easy either.
There can be cases, however, where rolling your own private version of a large public software means infinitely less code (since you do not have to tailor your code for mass use and can only work with the features you need) for a very similar result. It is still a “waste” of time, in that your time would probably be better spent coding reusable code that serves the community, but しょうがないね.
5) I won’t spend hours tinkering with any new blog platform (WP included) because it is completely unexciting. The reason most existing blog software, when not outright sucking, is just boring, is that it is completely outdated.
If you look at it, blog systems are over 10 year old now. Their UI have barely evolved since the first versions. Their backends only kept up with technology in the most pavlovian way (usually sticking to bells and whistles while ignoring actual useful stuff), their frontends merely managed to stack heaps upon heaps of useless boxes that nobody clicks or looks at anymore. There is a bad need for a groundbreaking platform that would get rid of ten years of accumulated UI habits and bring something else than a 200th variation on the original Movable Type/LiveJournal interface…
I once started jotting down a couple ideas in that direction and toyed with the idea of launching my own project last year. Then I realised that web dev wasn’t the direction I wanted to take with my life for the foreseeable future, and that I had to make a few choices, pick one thing and do it right. So it ain’t happening from my side. But I have every confidence that I am not the only one thinking that way and, soon enough, somebody will come up with tomorrow’s way of blogging that makes WP, MT, Blogger and every other appear as the quaint legacy tools that they are. It will happen, as it always does… as Apple, Google, etc. have happened: when everybody thought they were doing fine with what they have.
2008-07-22 at 4.09 pm
I’m sorry to see an end to your era. I’ve gained a lot from SK, and as a faithful adherent I’m sad to watch it pass on to other hands. Many thanks for all the years you’ve put into it, and all the best you in your other projects!
2008-07-23 at 10.46 am
[...] comments on my blog. first, i received over 1,200 spam comments on my blog last week alone. second, spamkarma2 is no longer in development by its creator and eventually someone will crack it. so if you want to email me directly its [...]
2008-07-24 at 5.35 am
Many thanks to you for all the work in the past and probably the most useful wordpress plugin ever!
2008-07-24 at 10.48 am
[...] surprised that I didn’t see more about this around the blogo-sphere. The owner of the Spam Karma plug-in is giving up the code and making it [...]
2008-07-25 at 9.40 pm
Hey Dave, just wanted to leave a comment to express my gratitude. SK2 has been my favorite WordPress plugin for years now and I’m sad to see you go. Best of luck in your next projects!
2008-07-26 at 2.06 am
Just got my WP 2.6 upgrade done and looked under SK settings, saw the link to this news. Thanks for the plugin. I hope it keeps working because I’m planning to stick with WP even though I don’t like the frequency of updating either. Thanks again for all the time you put into this.
2008-07-26 at 2.40 am
OMG. I feel like I am being broke up with. “It’s not you, it’s me…”
Oh the things I have taken for granted and Spam Karma was top of the list.
2008-07-26 at 7.11 pm
no matter what u do. it’s ur chose and great . and thank so much i use spam karma in day 1 up now.
thank you .
2008-07-27 at 2.45 am
Hi Dave,
Really thanx for SK2! I dod NOT want to use the bundled Akismet because I wanted to use a stand-alone anti-spam and SK2 is THE plugin I wanted…
So, I understand your choice, I’m not a developer and I can not help for anything in SK2’s future, I just hope its development will keep on going on. As long as SK2 will work with WP and will do its job well, I will keep using SK2..
Thanks Dave
Regards,
Johan
2008-07-27 at 9.34 am
[...] The State of WordPress’s Upgrade Cycle→ [...]
2008-07-27 at 11.47 am
[...] man behind our main line of anti-spam defence is hanging up his hat. Indeed, I am hereby officially announcing that I will no longer support, maintain or further [...]
2008-07-27 at 9.41 pm
Bisous, mon ami. Et merci …
2008-07-27 at 11.35 pm
[...] click the spam karma page today when setting up my brother blog, although is about 2 week later , spam karma 2 goes GPL. I start using spam karma 2 for antispam then after some time by some plugin help i mix it with [...]
2008-07-28 at 4.27 am
[...] software is discontinued, and this week whilst installation a new WordPress site I was shocked by a message on the Spam Karma screen - the “major announcement” was that development of the plug-in was being discontinued [...]
2008-07-28 at 4.46 pm
I’ve always loved Spam Karma, ever since I found it long ago. Thanks for all your time and effort over the years - it’s been very much appreciated. Good luck with further projects!
2008-07-29 at 9.37 am
For anyone wondering, I think it is worth taking Habari for a spin. It continues to grow by leaps and bounds.
Most importantly, Habari is built with the latest technology in mind, which means complete OOP and PHP5. Definitely ripe for extension and development.
it is also worth taking a look at 0.5 which introduces a completely revamped admin.
http://habariproject.org/en/0-5-released
2008-07-29 at 3.26 pm
[...] Dave’s Blog » Blog Archive » Spam Karma goes GPL [...]
2008-07-30 at 1.44 pm
[...] Dave’s Blog » Blog Archive » Spam Karma goes GPL [...]
2008-07-31 at 10.30 am
Thanks for your hard work on Spam Karma. I’ve really appreciated all of the work you’ve put into SK, making it one of my favorite WordPress plugins.
I wish you the best of luck on your future projects.
2008-08-01 at 4.33 am
Thanks for all your support over the years. This has been one of the rockin-est plugins ever…really.
I wish you the best in whatever you get into next.
- Sean
2008-08-02 at 9.42 am
Oh this is a shame
You’re plugin is great! I hope someone picks it up
2008-08-03 at 9.56 am
I just caught onto the news, and I wish it wasn’t so. However, your previous posts from many moons ago also had you venting about how WP was making it harder for you to do a good job. Yet you still continued to do a good job, despite the difficulties!
Thanks for all the protection from the spam all these years, and good luck with all your future projects! : )
2008-08-06 at 5.06 am
I’d always turned to Spam Karma over Akismet. I hope someone does continue with the project. Thanks though for all your time and effort over the years Dave - Good luck with your future ventures.
2008-08-06 at 12.31 pm
Thanks for the service & contribution Dave
All the selfless coders who help hopeless non-techies (me)
are a tribute
2008-08-07 at 7.58 am
[...] this blog is Spam Karma. Three weeks ago, Dave, the author of the Wordpress plugin, announced that Spam Karma has now gone GPL v2. I have been using this plugin exclusively for my comment spam since this blog has been up and [...]
2008-08-08 at 11.11 am
SK2 is great - I’ve never had the urge to try any of the other anti-spam options out there.
2008-08-08 at 8.06 pm
Really sad to hear this, but thanks for the hard work Dave. Hope any capable programmers out there will pick this up…really don’t want to see SK die just like that~~~
2008-08-08 at 9.00 pm
[...] this blog is Spam Karma. Three weeks ago, Dave, the author of the Wordpress plugin, announced that Spam Karma has now gone GPL v2. I have been using this plugin exclusively for my comment spam since this blog has been up and [...]
2008-08-09 at 5.14 am
keep on your good work, and thanks for everething!!
2008-08-10 at 6.29 am
Thanks so much for SK, Dave. Your plugin has stopped nearly 19,000 spams in less than a year. The time you spent writing and publishing this free software has been saved a million times over by everyone who uses SK and we all appreciate it greatly. Best of luck to you.
2008-08-10 at 3.04 pm
Thanks for what you’ve done. Though you didn’t profit from this financially, you saved thousands of people, including me, from the perils of spambots, erectile dysfunction, teen porn and who know’s what other kind of spam. You’ve got a major positive credit in the karma department in my book.
2008-08-13 at 4.13 pm
[...] Ochnö, sonscheiss. Der Entwickler von Spamkarma, der meiner bescheidenen Meinung nach besseren Antispam-Lösung für die Wordpress-Installation, hat die Schnautze voll. [...]
2008-08-14 at 5.30 am
I’m not a coder so I can’t help, but I just wanted to say thank you for this wonderful plugin, it’s been saving me from spam for many years now. Best wishes for whatever you do next….
2008-08-17 at 1.22 am
Dave, thanks so much for your work on this plugin. I’ve had it for many years now… it was my first and last answer to spam on Wordpress since I started blogging. I will continue use it until it is no longer compatible with a WP update (and yes, I agree, there are so many friggin WP updates flying out so often it feels like I’ve only just finished one round of updating all my blogs and then it starts all over again. Thank god I’ve now got Automatic Update installed and it works like a charm.)
With much love and gratitude and I wish you all the best in your endeavours.
May the Open Source community carry this baby of yours along for many years to come.
Jonathan
2008-08-19 at 12.30 am
I also wanted to add my thanks for all of the hard work. Your plugin has kept my blog site(s) spam free for years and I can’t thank you enough. I agree with your genral sentiment on WP and their updates. It is frustrating as a user, and I can’t imagine how it must feel as a developer trying to hit that moving target.
2008-08-19 at 11.56 pm
Dr Dave, many thanks for what you did, my website is small and not very useful but I know that I don’t have to worry about spam much - only if whoever it is is posting is an actual human writing spam does it get through - so far only five posts out of Zark knows how many thousands…
I also installed another plugin that is meant to deny spam robots automatically and that has drastically reduced SKs workload to around 10/day from 100+.
Re WP becoming bloatware - what frustrated me the most is that the promised photo integration is frankly, carp. I don’t have the time to write my own code to do these things but it looks like that is what is needed. Nextgen is too bizarre (but it works :), WP2Gallery is just total junk. so I am not sure about bloatware, but I think flapware, lots of strange stuff going on in a not necessarily well thought out fashion.
Good luck with the future endeavours, sayonara, domo arigato!
2008-08-20 at 5.51 am
I’ve always preferred your sk and sk2 over others. I am sorry to see you go as yours is probably my most valuable plugin. I can understand your reasons and wish you all the best.
I’m glad to see I’m not the only one a tad annoyed w/WP as of late. I still prefer it over the rest but it each addition seems to get less and less useful to me.
2008-08-20 at 10.07 am
[...] bad new is here. While wordpress comes with askimet askimet isn’t nearly as effective and powerful as SK2 [...]
2008-08-20 at 11.53 am
It’s notable that Matt “The Steve Jobs of WordPress” Mullenweg has said:
“Very glad to see this plugin get some much-needed attention and become
GPL. Maybe now we can look at integrating bits of it into core…. ”
I think a plugin-based antispam framework for WordPress would make an awesome addition to core. And what nicer fate for SK2 than to become the official antispam?
(On the wp-hackers mailing list, a whole lot of people said they use Akismet only as a plugin for SK2. I am included in that number….)
2008-08-21 at 7.15 pm
Although I never got a lot of traffic or gigantic wads of spam on my blog, it was SK2 that did keep me from nuking the whole thing when Akismet’s “success” rate was topping no more than about 65 percent. I can certainly understand all the reasons why you’re retiring from active SK2 development–but your contribution to blogsters has been great.
2008-08-22 at 10.40 pm
Thanks for all the work you’ve done on Spam Karma!
I have used Spam karma for a long time and love it.
I hope some qualified people takes over developing it, “we” don’t want it to shade away.
However I fully understand your reasons for not spending the time and energy it takes to keep it up to date.
Thanks!
2008-08-24 at 11.53 pm
[...] 原作者看來沒辦法繼續維護SK2 (Spam-karma 2) 而把SK2已GPL授權釋出~ [...]
2008-08-25 at 10.25 pm
THANK YOU!!!
Ironically, yet another upgrade of WP drove me to this site to check for the latest and greatest in combatting WP spam… sorry to hear the news, hope it all works out for the best for everyone.
Certainly, all your good efforts have brought you much good karma!
2008-08-25 at 10.26 pm
P.S.
100th!
2008-08-31 at 4.18 pm
Dave,
Thanks a lot for your work so far. I totally share your feelings about the “joy” of keeping up with Wordpress. I’m with Wordpress since it was version 0.91 (or something). Things have gone better, but now they’re a little bit annoying. Upgrading, although quick, still takes 1-2 hours (with backup and everything). Developing for WP should be even bigger PITA.
I totally respect your decision. You’ve gone great licensing SK2 under GPL. We’ll see now if all the talk how “GPL projects cannot die if they’re useful” is right or wrong.
Wish you all the best in your future endevours!
2008-08-31 at 4.30 pm
[...] в блога на Дейв прочетох, че той се отказва от по-нататъшната разработка на Spam [...]
2008-09-01 at 5.29 am
Hi I understand - and can read between the lines of your words.
And yes I understand and totally respect your decision.
Have a nice time, good days, time to do what you like to do and if you have enough time - Austria is a wonderful piece of our world. It would be great to drink a cup of coffee with you
thanks for all the hours and your knowledge
Monika
2008-09-02 at 9.24 am
hi Dave,
thanks for the support you provided for SK2! I feel the same way about WordPress, and will pursue something like Habari when it fully matures.
2008-09-03 at 1.03 am
Thanks for the great software Dave.
Best wishes in your future work.
2008-09-03 at 1.05 am
[...] of my favorite add-ons for Word Press is now floating in the abyss. Dave’s Blog» Spam Karma goes GPL So long and thanks for all the fish [...]