Important
As of January 1st, 2009, I am no longer developing, maintaining or supporting Spam Karma. If you want to contribute to its code or download the latest GPL release, you can check out the code repository, over at Google Code.
Thanks.
1. Overview
Spam Karma 2 (SK2) is an anti-spam plugin for the WordPress blogging platform. It is meant to stop all forms of automated Blog spam effortlessly, while remaining as unobtrusive as possible to regular commenters. Spam Karma 2 is the proud successor to Spam Karma, with whom it shares most of the development ideas, but absolutely none of the code
2. Requirements
- WordPress: SK2 requires at least WP 1.5.1 (or up). It is compatible with all versions of Wordpress up to the latest release (2.1).
- mySQL: 4.0 or up is strongly recommended (some important functionalities might not work otherwise).
3. Installation
Install is the easiest ever:
- download the archive
- unzip and drop the whole SK2 folder, as is, in your
pluginsdirectory. - Enable the plugin in the WP Admin >> Plugins section.
- Browse to WP Admin >> Manage >> Spam Karma 2.
(Note: if you are upgrading from a previous install, simply overwrite the older files with the new ones in the instructions above)
Please check SK2 GPL repository for any potential downloads.
4. The Aftermath
Everything worked? Good.
Not quite?
Just check out the FAQ & Troubleshooting Page, your answer might be there. Otherwise, you can try WP.org support forums.
For bug-reports exclusively, you can contact me using this online form (do not use the old support email account: it is no longer active).
5. Tip Jar
If Spam Karma saved your life/relationship/cat/mailbox and you feel overly generous, please feel free to make a donation.
If you don’t have cash, but plenty of time to spare, consider helping out with some WP community-related projects.
6. Other Languages
Sprechen Sie Deutsch? Parlez-vous français? 日本語喋れる？¿Hablas Español? Parla Italiano? etc.
SK2 can probably speak your language !
Go here to find instructions on how to switch SK2 to a language other than English.
If your language is not in this list already (or even if it is, but you feel the translations can be improved), learn how you can contribute here.
7. Documentation and Extra Stuff
For more info about how SK2 works, what it does, how you can improve it etc, check SK2’s Documentation Blog on wp-plugins.net. Please feel free to contribute.
There are additional third-party plugins available to extend SK2’s functionalities. Check out the full list here.
SK2 will automatically inserts an “X spams eaten” message in your footer (you can disable or customize it in the admin options).
Using SK2? Eager to tell the world about it? Like having 300 little acronym buttons on the side of your page?
Say no more, we have what you need:
Feel free to download and do whatever you want with this kick-ass button, including using it on your own page, possibly with a link to this very page. However: hotlink it directly from this page, and I will unleash my legions of killer ferrets on you and your descendance, at the click of a mouse.
If you are a developer and would like to learn how you can very easily use SK2 as a support for your own anti-spam development effort, check out the SK2 API page.
If you have an idea on how to improve SK2 (and see no mention of it in the existing docs) feel free to contact me about it, but keep in mind that nearly any addition to SK2 can be done outside of the core, through an SK2 module. Feel free to contact me if you want to take on such a task and need a bit of help getting started.
Normally, SK2 should automatically check for updates on a reasonably regular basis, but consider checking that page back in a few weeks if you do not see any update.
8. What about Karma?
You mean, the sanskrit word that defines a concept in eastern religions?
I wrote an entry about it here.
9. Your comment was mistakenly eaten by Spam Karma?
10. Licensing and Legal Matters
Spam Karma 2 is not GPL. It is copyright and all rights reserved. However, it is absolutely free for download, use and non-commercial redistribution. Anything else is subject to prior written permission by myself. If you contact me, chances are I’ll say yes to any reasonable request.
External plugins (including those bundled with Spam Karma 2) are the property of their respective developers and, by default, subject to the same distribution rules.
What this mean in practice: Spam Karma is “free software”, in that it is absolutely free to download, free to use and even free to tinker with (although I typically would require any modifications made to it to be clearly indicated to potential users). What I do not want to see, though, is people grabbing a version of WP and SK2, packaging them together and selling them for $300 (as they could do, with GPL software). Bottom line is that I am not trying to make money with this, and I don’t see why somebody else should be able to without me having a say first.
Once again, this type of licensing doesn’t make any difference for 99% of users (it’s free for whatever you need it to do), and shouldn’t stand in the way of the remaining 1% with more specific needs. If you have doubt or questions, contact me: I am very open to any discussion or criticism regarding this format of licensing.
I am also very open to porting SK2 over to other platforms. Its architecture makes it extremely portable (for a WP plugin). Contact me if you think you may be interested in adapting it for another platform.
It goes without saying that this software is provided “as is”, without any guarantee of warranty of any kind, nor could I ever be held liable for any damages it could do to your system (see header of source code for details): if SK2 was to go berserk, screw up your database, delete your entire blog, kill your cat and rape your hamster (or the other way round), you’re pretty much on your own legally. It shouldn’t though.
11. Changelog
New in 2.3:
- Miscellaneous bug-fixes (UI, WP21 compatibility, compatibility with other plugins etc.)
- A few small changes in the modules (improving blacklisting module, disabling RBL for now).
- Important updates to Wordpress DB schema in order to try and improve its sluggish loading time (not directly an SK2 problem per se, but had to be done for SK2 to run fine).
2.2:
- Miscellaneous bug-fixes (UI, WP2 compatibility etc.)
- Fine-tuning of older modules to accomodate new spambot breed.
- Minor additions to SK2’s filtering modules to raise SK2 protections.
2.1:
- Full multilingual support (see available languages).
- WP 2.0 and SQL 5.0 compatibility
- Improved email integration (can flag/unflag spam directly from notification emails).
- Miscellaneous bug fixes and improvements
[...] Herrlich. Update auf Wordpress 2.0.5 mit SpamKarma2 und Akismet. Also spätestens jetzt sollte sich das Thema Spam gänzlich erledigt haben. Bis jetzt habe ich nur auf SpamKarma gesetzt und bin damit völlig zu frieden. Nur nen paar Kommentare hat SpamKarma nicht gekriegt. Ich hoffe, dass Akismet die jetzt rausholt. [...]
[...] Akismet + Bad Behavior + Spam Karma 2 + Spam Karma 2 Akismet plugin e non c’è spammer che tenga! [...]
[...] Kebetulan teman saya tersebut menanyakan hal ini, akhirnya saya tergugah untuk mengganti plugins penangkal spam saya. Saya mencopot captcha dan kini menggunakan Spam Karma 2 yang dipadu dengan Spam Karma 2 Akismet. Yang terakhir saya sebutkan ini adalah tambahan file yang disisipkan di plugins Spam Karma 2 untuk men-tune lebih dalam kemampuan Spam Karma 2 dengan bantuan Akismet. [...]
[...] Spam Karma 2 (absolutely incredible, occasionally some trackback spam gets through but this just makes it all manageable) [...]
[...] Comments are no longer moderated. And you don’t have to be a registered user. If it’s a legitimate comment, it gets posted right away. If it’s spam, one of three tools are going to get medieval on your buttocks: Akismet, Bad Behavior and Spam Karma 2. [...]
[...] UPDATE: Okay, and when it’s all said and done, I went with Spam Karma 2. They seemed pretty good. We’ll see how things turn out. Participate! Leave your comment. [...]
[...] I get a lot of spam comments. I am pretty much averaging about 15 spam comments to every real comment. I don’t like that. I keep my comments on moderation all the time so if you are a first time commenter, you need to be approved to comment. I also have a HUGE list of blacklisted words and it doesn’t seem to help much at all. Today I (hopefully) installed Spam Karma 2.2. About five minutes ago I removed my moderation settings. I also removed all the blacklisted words, moved my links up to five allowed before holding and spam words. We’ll see how this goes. I am not entirely sure that I installed it correctly. I suppose we’ll have to see tomorrow. I really hope it did. [...]
[...] LA bonne découverte de la soirée d’hier (13/11/06) Spam Karma 2 un plug-in pour Wordpress pour filtrer les spams (trop nombreux) qui me font perdre du temps et de l’énergie. [...]
[...] I’m fed up with Askimet crashing the database every couple of weeks, so I’ve ditched it in favor of Spam Karma as the solution for all of my comment spam fighting needs. I’m still tweaking things, however, so if you post a comment and it’s not immediately approved, don’t be alarmed. It’s just the filter being overzealous (I wonder what would happen if I increased the severity level?). [...]
[...] To fight the spammers, I cranked up the sensitivity on Spam Karma 2 a notch. It helped some, but still isn’t where I want it to be. I’m trying to avoid installing a comment “captcha” system, because I find those things incredibly annoying. (A captcha is that goofy “type this number/word/whatever into this little box so we know you’re a human” thing.) Here’s a great blog post by Maureen Francis that expresses my feelings on captchas. [...]
[...] In den vergangenen 14 Tagen sind hier im Durchschnitt 286 Spamkommentare täglich aufgelaufen, die Dr. Daves Spam Karma 2 erfolgreich abgewehrt hat. Ob dabei aber auch andere Kommentare gelöscht wurden, weiß ich nicht, da ich mir bei der Spammenge die Durchsicht schenke. Falls also jemand einen Kommentar vermißt, so melde er sich bitte, damit ich ihn auf die Whitelist setzen kann. [...]
[...] Filtro antispam predefinito, funziona divinamente, con l’unica minima seccatura di dover ottenere una API key generata da WordPress al momento della registrazione. Alcuni preferiscono Spam Karma 2.2 e io stesso riconosco di averlo messo alla prova per un breve periodo, tornando infine fra le rassicuranti braccia di Akismet. Volendo, possono essere usati in tandem. Detestabile l’alternativa captcha, che urta i nervi e non di rado fa passare la voglia di postare anche ai commentatori legittimi. Peggio del captcha c’è solo l’obbligo, imposto da alcuni blogger, di registrarsi al sito prima di scrivere alcunchè. [...]
Comments Post Rewriter Plugin – v1.3 is out
I have now added a binding to the wonderfull Spam Karma 2 plugin. When you enable the SK2 binding the legacy filter will be disabled. You still need to install and activate the legacy plugin or else you cannot setup it’s settings. Maybe in the ne…
[...] Spam Karma – stops automated spam using clever wizardly that I don’t really understand, but appreciate greatly. [...]
[...] 2: 453 Spams eaten and counting…Bad Behavior has blocked 875 access attempts in the last 7 days.CPR has blocked 487 access attempts since installation and let the spambot wait 39,817 seconds. WordPress Directory [...]
[...] bloggers with a comment function should at least struggle to prevent this by using that. [...]
[...] Existen otras soluciones para WordPress como Bad Behavior o Spam Karma que inclusive se complementan con Akismet. Seria bueno escuchar si alguien tiene otras soluciones. En: Web, WordPress | akismet, spam, WordPress [...]
[...] There are a other popular WordPress plug-in solutions, such as Spam Karma, that work well for many bloggers. But your best strategy to get started should be trial and tweak, and add on additional tactics carefully. Research these solutions I’ve mentioned (Akismet, Bad Behavior, Spam Karma), check out other options available at WordPress.org, and decide what may be right for you. Just don’t activate too many simultaneously because you might create unexpected conflicts that could prevent legitimate visitors from accessing or contributing to your Web site. [...]
[...] I’ve used Spam Karma 2 on this blog forever, as it’s an effective and glorious piece of software that does its job well, as evidenced by the ~90,000 comment spams eaten. It’s elegantly designed unlike most of my plugins, and actually built to be extended by others with its plugin architecture. [...]
[...] The blog’s also now protected by Spam Karma 2, in an attempt to help fight the war against spam. Don’t even think about spamming this place. [...]
[...] http://unknowngenius.com/blog/wordpress/spam-karma/ [...]
Another Convert
Well, it took a long time, but I finally wore her down … I got Ginny to convert her blog from MovableType to Wordpress. Not only did she convert her own blog, but her churches website too.
I’m pretty sure she got tired of having to manua…
[...] As I have set up this blog I spend countless amount of time researching on the Internet about available WordPress plugins and here are some of my opinions and questions from my research. The goal was to carefully select and only implement the most important plugins in order not to slow the website down. The problem is deciding what is important and what is better or worse. Is my music play list really important? Probably not but it adds personality to the blog and it might even raise search engine ranking. This is really the only plugin that I used that displays personal information, everything else serves a purpose. Maybe I should have said relative purpose, most of the plugins do not really help in providing better content but enhance the look of the blog. The math question on comments is my current spam protection tool, which is not necessary since I just started the blog, but I think it is better then the regular captcha plugins which I do not like because I often cannot read the image letters. Plus, captcha doesn’t work as effectively as it should so if I ever run into spam problems I will just install Bad Behavior 2 and Spam Karma 2. Another plugin that is rather useless is the graph that shows post times called sparkstats. In my opinion, however, it looks pretty cool and its definitly better then BlogTimes which is quite similar. I also had to add a clean archives plugin to enhance the look of the archives and wpPaginate to get rid of the next/previous look I did not like. I don’t think these plugins slow down the website too much so why not add them. The important plugins that I have are Popularity Contest, Most Commented, and Jerome’s Keywords. Recent posts and recent comments were already implemented into the theme but they are also most important in my opinion. These plugins provide internal linking and engage the viewer in the content on your blog so if they slow down the website, it’s worth it. Plus, I don’t think they cause any real delay. I have a bunch of plugins that run in the admin, they are essential, and I am pretty damn sure that they do not effect how fast the website loads. I am referring to things like post spell checker called Corrector, Maintenance Mode, and Flickr Photo Album. The Flickr Photo Album is quite large and I only use it to quickly insert my flickr pictures into posts, but when I check the source of the blog I don’t see anything that has to do with this plugin so it should not effect the load speed. Is this correct? Translation is definitly important and I use WP-Translate which I think is the best plug-in out there. My definition of best is simple and effective. Every blog should have a translation feature, I hate reading blogs written in a language I don’t know and manually trying to translate them via Google. It’s so much easier to just click on a flag. While I am on this subject I would like to plug my new, not quite finished, project: TRANSLATEN. The idea is that computer translation sucks and many people want human translation. The website is going to be a simple yet effective forum powered by vanilla where anyone can post something they want translated and others can translate it by replying to the thread. Things like paypal donations to translators and voting on quality of translation is being implemented. If you are interested in something like this, please go and join. To finish with the WordPress plugins, I also added Users Online, Ajax Contact Form, Subscribe to Comments, Vipers Video Quicktags, Subscribe 2, and Xfish meta. I consider these pretty important. I also installed the BDP Referral Tracker which I think is quite large and thus, I wonder if this could be slowing down my blog. If you have any opinions on this please leave me some comments. Overall, I am trying to find a balance between speed of the website, functionality, and content. I have about 30 plugins installed and I think that the website is still loading fine so far. The slow down is mostly generated by the javascript from AdSense but there is nothing I can do about that. Finally for tracking stats I use Google Analytics and SiteMeter. I have two of them because I want to test how they compare. Users online and BDP Referral Tracker also provide some statistics. Is it a good idea to keep Google Analytics and SiteMeter or should I settle for just one? Does Users Online or BDP Referral Tracker slow down the load time of the website? I appreciate all your opinions. [...]
[...] So, die ersten Anti-Spam Maßnahmen laufen. Probieren werd ichs jetzt mal mit Spam Karma 2. Sieht vielversprechend aus. Muss nur noch was konfiguriert werden. Wenns Probleme geben sollte, bitte melden. [...]
[...] The host that I use for this blog and the picture gallery have been getting hit HARD by spam bots. So hard in fact, that the site has been down on and off for a little more than a week now. JD, a good friend and the man that runs the blog, has returned to Tulsa to do some physical upgrades to the servers and see if he cannot fix the problem on a definitive basis. To aid him in this, I have installed Spam Karma 2 on this blog, so if there is any issue in posting a comment, please let me know. This short quip is just a post ot make sure everything is back up and running, and to let everyone know that this blog isnt dead. I hope to get more pictures up TODAY along with a couple nice posts (backlog). So check back. [...]
[...] I’v been using Spam Karm 2 for quite some time now to help me catch and block comment and trackback spam — and it’s been exceptionally effective. [...]
[...] Every once in a while, a comment spam manages to get past both Bad Behavior and Spam Karma. Oddly enough, it always seems to be on the same entry: “Abuse Contact” is not an invitation. [...]
[...] Pues bien, ya pasadita la media noche, al fin encontré dos soluciones –independientes- que me permitían detectar y borrar de un plumazo el SPAM. , incluso una de ellas me permitía hacer una “blacklist” y así detectar a tiempo el correo basura depositado en mi base de datos. Y como un reflejo de la desesperación, instalé los dos plugins a mi sacudido administrador de blog. El primer plugin que instale se llama Akismet Spam, y el otro simplemente se llama Spam Karma. [...]
[...] במקביל אני עושה ניסוי קטן: החלפת השילוב המוצלח אך הלא מנצח של אקיזמט והקאפצ‘ה החשבונית הציונית האהובה (שבנוסף לסינון ספאם מסננת לי גם קוראים) בפתרון המוצע ע“י Spam Karma 2. [...]
[...] 5. With regards to number 4, I’m thankful for spam filters. Thanks to Akismet and Spam Karma 2, today was the day the 2,000th spam comment was stopped from appearing on this blog. Current spam count is 2,050. Hey, and by the way, I’m also thankful for free software. Firefox, Openoffice, Wordpress, Spamhilator, I could go on and on and on. I don’t know what I’ll do without you guys. Thanks. You’re all worth your weight in gold. [...]
[...] I remember when I would get an email everytime I would get a comment on this Blog, and then I would have to approve it, disapprove it, or mark it as spam. I started to get a bunch of spam, and it was a real pain to moderate all the comments. But then I discovered this wonderful plugin called Spam Karma 2. Ahhh… it’s amazing!! 579 Spams eaten and counting… You poor spammers, why do you even try? Posted by Kirby Witmer | [...]
[...] Spam Karma 2 [...]
[...] Ik heb al een tijdje enorm veel last van spam via deze blog. 60 à 70 valse berichten per dag behoorden tot de norm. Ik heb dan ook heel wat zaken geprobeerd om hiervan af te raken, zoals did “did you pass math”-plugin voor comments en een trackback validator. Maar daarbovenop heb ik nu Spam Karma 2 geïnstalleerd. En dat was een schitterende beslissing! [...]
[...] 在 WordPress 上面，最多人用來檔廣告的外掛就是 Spam Karma 2，隨便用 google 搜尋一下文章都一大堆 (google→Spam Karma 2) [...]
[...] Darf man unter WordPress eigentlich die Tabellen mit den Daten von Akismet und Spam Karma 2 leeren? Oder vergisst dann das Teil, welche Kommentare und Trackbacks in Ordnung sind und welche nicht? [...]
[...] Soluciones contra el spam son hay muchas, unos usan captchas, otros requieren registro, otros de plano cierran los comentarios, algunos usan akismet o spamkarma, hay unos que tratan de usar OpenId, en fin que para gustos hay colores. [...]
[...] “This blog is protected by Spam Karma 2. Don’t even think about spamming it.” [...]
[...] [...]
[...] [...]
[...] and if you want to get rid of comment, trackback and pingback spam, i highly recommend installing the spam karma 2 plugin instead of relying on that extremely lame dreamhost hack. [...]
[...] 1. Ultimate Tag Warrior Allows tagging posts in a non-external-system dependent way; with a righteous data structure for advanced tagging-mayhem. Get it here 2. Spam Karma 2 One of the best spam killing plugin for wordpress. I don’t use akismet as many times it considers genuine commenter’s comment as spam so I use spam karma 2 and it rulez. Get it here 3. Subscribe To Comments Allows readers to receive notifications of new comments that are posted to an entry Get it here 4. Gravatar for wordpress This plugin allows you to generate a gravatar URL complete with rating, size, default, and border options. Get it here 5. Browser Sniff Detects web browser type and operating system of your commenter. Get it here 6. Brian’s Latest Comments This shows an overview of the recently active articles and the last people to comment on them. Get it here 7. Bannage Bans commenters by IP, username, email, or URL. Get it here 8. Popularity Contest This will enable ranking of your posts by popularity; using the behavior of your visitors to determine each post’s popularity. You set a value (or use the default value) for every post view, comment, etc. and the popularity of your posts is calculated based on those values. Once you have activated the plugin, you can configure the Popularity Values and View Reports. Get it here 9. Show Top Commentators Encourage more feedback and discussion from readers, by rewarding them every time they post a comment! Readers with the most comments are displayed on your Wordpress blog, with their names (linked to their website if they provided one). Get it here 10. Sociable Automatically add links on your posts to popular social bookmarking sites. Get it here 11. WP-UserOnline Adds A Useronline Feature To WordPress Get it here 12. Landing sites When visitors is referred to your site from a search engine, they are definitely looking for something specific – often they just roughly check the page they land on and then closes the window if what they are looking for isn’t there. Why not help them by showing them related posts to their search on your blog? This plugin/guide lets you do that, works with a long list of search engines! Get it here Technorati tags: wordpress plugins, wordpress tools, blogging, tech blogs, freebies [...]
[...] Also 512 Spam-Kommentare gegenüber 208 echten. Das sagt SpamKarma 2. Und SpamKarma ist gerade in Verbindung mit dem Akismet-Plugin Gold wert. Ich kann mich eigentlich überhaupt nicht beschweren. Die ‘false positives’ (fälschlich als Spam erkannte brave Kommentare) halten sich sehr in Grenzen (kleiner 5 bisher) und nur 3 echte Spamkommentare haben bisher den Weg an SK2 vorbei geschafft. Das ist für eine kostenlose Lösung sehr gut – ich wäre froh, wenn ich bei Spammails auf solche Quoten kommen würde. [...]
[...] http://unknowngenius.com/blog/wordpress/spam-karma/ [...]
[...] Wow and wow is all I can say about the Bad Behaviour plugin. Simply put, it kills spam dead. It stops the spam before it gets logged as a hit (and to the wp_comments table, I think). It rocks and I am so glad I am using it together with my Spam Karma plugin. It’s been over 3 days and SK2 has caught just 4 spammy comments since I turned Bad Behaviour on. Ordinarily, I would have been hit with a never-ending stream of ugly sites. I’m using Ajay D’Souza’s Bad Behaviour stats plugin, but I will turn it off because I thought it would provide detailed stats in the admin interface. I don’t want to create a page to display my stats to the public. Also, I think the spam comments that are slipping through are being stripped of the links. This is when I review the caught spams from the Spam Karma admin panel. I don’t know if that is thanks to Bad Behaviour too or not. Anyway, I didn’t get a whole lot of work done today. I did take care of administrative business like getting some paperwork in before the deadline struck (i.e. tomorrow) and printing a whole bunch of crap just to look busy. I had a meeting with my T and my group today which was alright. A bit much for one day, but I needed to hear it. It just struck me that December is around the corner and I literally had to pinch myself. Next thing I know, 2010 will be around the corner. It feels really surreal to have been away from my family for this long (going on 5 years in a month’s time). There’s only so much pictures can tell you about people and pictures haven’t done justice to bringing back the feel of family for me. [...]
[...] Spam Karma 2, die aktivierte Anti-Spam-Erweiterung dieses Blogs, filtert zwar eine Menge Würzfleisch heraus, manchmal muss jedoch noch selbst Hand angelegt werden. Beiträge, die offensichtlich Link-Spam sind, wandern auf diesem Blog gleich auf die schwarze Liste. Verweise auf kommerzielle Seiten werden gelöscht. Ausnahmen liegen in der Willkür der Admins. [...]
[...] I heard yesterday (from one of my news sources that I forget) that 1 in 10 email is now spam. That doesn’t sound right… did I get the numbers twisted? Is it one in 10 that are not spam? Let’s see what I get… This morning, I had 17 new email, 16 of which were spam AND another 7 were in my Spam Assassin folder. Got an email from Spam Karma 2 (my blog’s AWESOME spam killer. Yes, the shouting is required… and I’m also giving a thumbs up right now.) 22 comment spam caught. No valid comments posted SO of a total of 46 electronic communications I got since about 5pm yesterday only 1 was valid. 1 in 46 was not spam… 1/46… 2.17% valid. 97.83% spam. [...]
[...] Spam Karma 2 – This is a mut have people! SPAM no more … [...]
[...] To date, Spam Karma 2 has caught over 10,000 automated comment/trackback spams on this blog (while correctly allowing over 1,000 actual comments). That’s a lot of time saved … if you use WordPress, I highly recommend installing it! [...]
[...] Seit den Anfängen dieses Blogs (unter WordPress) leistet Spam Karma hier klaglos gute Dienste. Die Fälle, in denen ich nachregulierend eingreifen musste, lassen sich an einer Hand abzählen. [...]
[...] Of course, I could suggest moving to Wordpress, getting the Spam Karma, Bad Behaviour and Akismet plugins. But I won’t… Technorati Tags: anti+spam, bad+behaviour, spam, spam+karma, wordpress, wordpress+spam [...]