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For bug-reports exclusively, you can contact me using this online form (do not use the old support email account: it is no longer active).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
[...] How to avoid Blog Comment Spam? November 30, 2006 on 12:03 pm | In Tips & Tricks | Lately, I got loads of spam in my blog comment, some are really unrevelant and some funny link, so I added this comment SPAM control plugin called “SPAM KARMA”.. hope it will help reduce the spam comments in this blog site.. If you want to get the source code, check out this link . Anyone else have better suggestions to avoid these spammers? [...]
[...] Takim komentarjem se reče “false-positives”. [...]
[...] It’s been a while since I’ve had to waste time dealing with comment spammers, thanks to Dr Dave and Spam Karma 2 plugin for WordPress. [...]
[...] If you have a WordPress blog that has hummed along nicely using Dr. Dave’s Spam Karma 2, you may have noticed a spate of roaches has been lining up your door and getting in. For more, see the details in The State of Spam [Karma]. [...]
Comments Post Rewriter Plugin – v1.6 is out
Opps, in previous post I was wrong! The ping was not fixed when the plugin runs in SK2-mode. I have now fixed it and added a simple log reader which I have adapted from the BB2-LR Plugin.
Download cpr-1.6.zip
MD5: 3a6d267ca44f3569bc7e14841225827b
SHA1:…
[...] I just wanted to point out to others to carefully scan their comments for the obvious signs of comment spam, and using Feedburner as a URL gateway is a new approach. And by all means, if you are a WordPress blogger, get Spam Karma 2 today. [...]
[...] * It be even greater to have some mechanism on the plug-ins page to indicate if a new version is ready. the only way now is to visit the home page for each one. That is, like, so web 1.0. SK2 is the only one that provides an updated message on the Spam Karma’s “About” page, where today I was motivated by its dire warning about not upgrading WP to 2.0.4. When Dr Dave speaks, I listen. [...]
[...] Wer schon einmal eine komisch anmutende eMail mit fraglichem Inhalt bekommen hat, wird es kennen. Im Board wurde an dieser Stelle dazu bereits diskutiert. Vielleicht hilft der Tipp vom User »hains«. Ich habe ab heute Spam Karma im Einsatz. [...]
[...] Akismet Antispam (bei WordPress 2 aktiviert, erfordert API-Key (gratis erhältlich bei Wordpress.org) Simple Trackback Validation Math Comment Antispam HashCash SpamKarma 2: umfangreich, detaillierte Optionen Wordpress.org Antispam Plugins: umfangreiche Liste diverser Antispam-Plugins [...]
[...] Nadgouda recommends search engines penalize comment spamming websites with a blacklist, but this is not as easy as it appears. Akismet is the only comment spam fighting tool working overtime to fight off comment spam successfully, though Spam Karma and Bad Behavior WordPress Plugins have long been at the top of the pack. In combination, little gets through. Still… [...]
[...] WordPress users (who are using their own server, not Wordpress.com) with comment spam problems really ought to be using some of these tools: Spam Karma (very effective, almost never lets something spammy through) and for extra protection, the Autoclose plug-in, which (as the name implies) automatically closes comments on posts older than whatever time frame you specify. [...]
[...] But I am in luck today. Apparently, DrDave, the unknown genius has a new release which is the 2.2 FINAL (released 02/12/06). Now my comment count is working. And you bet that if it eats away all my spam with less false positives, I am going to send DrDave my love (in the form of a donation). Current release: 2.2 FINAL (released: 02/12/06) [...]
[...] This blog is protected by Spam Karma 2. Don’t even think about spamming it. [...]
[...] Deze valt nog mee in leesbaarheid, ik heb ze erger gezien. Ik blijf er een grondige hekel aan hebben. Je zult geen Captcha op mijn weblog zien. WordPress heeft heel veel plugins en twee daarvan gebruik ik op mijn blog, Bad Behavior en SpamKarma 2. Tot nu toe heeft zich slechts 1 spam bericht meester gemaakt van een comment en heb ik enkele berichten van de spam moeten redden. Ik ben er dus ontzettend tevreden over. [...]
[...] Well, it’s been quite a while since my last post on this blog, or on my main portfolio site for that matter. A lot of things have changed, and it’s time to start writing about them again. I don’t expect that anyone reads what I post, or cares very much if they do. I have and will continue to use this site as a cathartic outlet; a chance to vent my spleen, or coalesce my thoughts. And no doubt it will continue to attract a ridiculous amount of comment spam that will, as usual, be flushed down the virtual toilet by the excellent Spam Karma. [...]
[...] Also das ist ein dicker Hund, bisher zeigte sich Akismet-Plugin als äußerst stabil, aber nun gehen diese Trackback-Spams durch wie durch die warme Butter. Mal abwarten, evtl. muss das installierte Spam Karma 2 wieder ran, dass doch einiges an Ressourcen braucht und daher derzeit inaktiv ist. [...]
[...] … to distraction. Comment spam and trackback spam on my old blog set up made me hate the blog. Yesterday I got over 100 spams that came from the blog. Pffffft. Well that wouldn’t do. So I moved over here to a new WordPress blog. It has handy-dandy features like Spam Karma 2 that eats these spams for breakfast. Woo! So I should be ok, I won’t hate the blog, and I will be thrilled to update more. [...]
[...] Spam Karma 2 [...]
[...] Ich hab ja keine Probleme mit Spams im Blog. Hier kommentiert eh keine Sau, nichtmal die Spammer. OK, stimmt nicht ganz. Die Spamkommentare fängt aber das ziemlich geniale Wordpress-Plugin Spam Karma 2 zuverlässig ab. [...]
[...] Apparently Infomancy is under a rather nasty little spam attack right at the moment. Many thanks to Dr. Dave’s Spam Karma 2 for excellent protection. The only way I knew somehting was up was that I had four spam digest reports waiting in my mailbox this morning. A quick check in the Spam Karma review showed 4,196 spam comments in the recent harvest. Wow. [...]
[...] 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. It is meant to stop all forms of automated Blog spam effortlessly, while remaining as unobtrusive as possible to regular commenters. [...]
[...] WordPress bloggers should beware of spam right now: Akismet, the integrated spam-catcher, appears to be down, or at least is showing “API Key invalid”. I would be very reluctant to have barriers to commenting, such as moderation or catchpas, so have just intalled the very latest versions of Spam Karma 2, and Bad Behaviour. Also been thinking up a long list of dirty words to ban outright over at our kids’ site, Storynory. tags:akismet Blog Home Blog Tips blogosphere spam wordpress [...]
[...] [ #156# RSS 2.0 para estos comentarios ] Escrito por piezas a las 12:51 AM (GMT +1) [ Enlace permanente] [...]
[...] That last sentence was total bait for comment spam. Actually, this entire post is bait for comment spam. I had an issue with spam that seemed to start around the time of the card sort post. I figured that it was only a matter of time before I had this problem. I installed SpamKarma – which works like a dream. When I started to look more closely at the spam that was being caught, I saw that it was all going to the single Knit2, Sort2 post. It was asking people to leave a comment if they wanted to participate (I removed it when I realized what it was doing). Is this comment spam becoming so efficient that it knows to be not interested in my other posts? They think that I might be monitoring the comments on that one post more closely? [...]
[...] Spam Karma 2 [...]
[...] Dr Dave » Spam Karma 2.2 (tags: wordpress spam plugin) [...]
[...] Mon filtre anti-spam m’empêche de réaliser à quel point Jenna Jameson apprécie mon blog. Au vu de ses visites aussi régulières que tardives, je la suspecte même d’avoir un certain amour de l’informatique : [...]
[...] Der eine oder andere kennt vielleicht das WP-Plugin Spam Karma. Es handelt sich dabei um eine Art Spam Assassin für Wordpress, und bietet unmengen an Funktionen, Fiterregeln, Blacklisten, Prüfungen etc. pp. um einen WP-Blog vor Spam-Kommentaren zu schützen. [...]
[...] Aus einer aktuellen E-Mail Diskussion möchte ich meine Einstellungen zu Spam Karma 2 hier veröffentlichen – es sind nicht die bei der Installtion des Wordpress Plugins standardisierten Einstellungen. [...]
[...] spamming, blog, akismet Stumble it! del.icio.us digg reddit Add to Onlywire RelatedPosts [...]
[...] even that this time SpamKarma doing great job protecting our blogs from spambot, still problem persist. the problem is, all those too many spambot attack is hogging a lot of web & mysql server resources. becasue (afaik,) SK2 works after comments posted, not before. yesterday, my host send me mail telling that wp-comments-post.php is using too much resources and have to be disabled. i know instantly this is cause by spambot attempting to post spam comments on our blogs. it’s also causing intermittent wpmu disconnection to our mysql database server. [...]
[...] Dr. Dave’s Spam Karma 2 — before Akismet, this plugin is one of the best out there and probably still one of the toughest anti-spam contenders. [...]
[...] Install Spam Karma or some other quality spam protection. You shouldn’t have to fight with that junk. [...]
[...] Wow. While I was on vacation, Spam Karma kind of freaked out in some way and was no longer functioning. As a result, I was left with the default WordPress comment moderation facilities. [...]
[...] Over the last couple of weeks one of my servers became sluggish and the web server became completely unresponsive. Initially I saw the Spam Assassin process was chewing up the processor. Today I saw that a distributed attack was hitting my WordPress installation as spam comments were immediately deleted by Spam Karma. The server status was showing various IP addresses hitting the comments post page which would max out the number connections I allow for the web server. To overcome these attacks I am trying out the Apache DoS Evasive Maneuvers Module which manages an automatic blacklist which will stop these frequent hits from these remote servers. I have also limited the Spam Assassin service which should make it much less likely to allow it to be the resource hog it has been lately. [...]
[...] Miraz introduced me to the Bad Behavior WordPress plugin some time ago, and after ascertaining that it did indeed work with a GoDaddy.com hosting account (my hosting ISP), I installed it on all of my WordPress-based sites. What I saw was an immediate reduction in the amount of spam that Spam Karma was catching. That wasn’t because it made Spam Karma less effective; it was because less spam was actually accepted by WordPress for moderation. I can verify this by checking the Bad Behavior stats — it catches roughly 7,000 potential spam hits a week on just one of my sites. That means my server doesn’t have to work so hard and, as a result, it can be more responsive to visitors. [...]
[...] Spam Karma 2 – written by dr. Dave. Geof Morris recommended this to me a while back, it does a pretty good job. [...]
[...] Oggi pero’ ho voluto provare a sostituire Askimet con Spam Karma come filtro antispam per i commenti del blog; il tutto dopo che nelle ultime due settimane sono passato da circa un centinaio di spam bloccato da Askimet, ad oltre 1200 commenti spazzatura… ovviamente non ho ancora guardato bene tutte le funzioni di Spam Karma, ma mi sembra un po’ piu’ comodo cancellare al volo tutto lo spam o farlo fare al plugin… inon sapendo pero’ se nell’usarli insieme tutti e due avrei potuto avere qualche problema, ho disattivato Askimet per sicurezza. [...]
[...] UPDATE: Just installed Spam Karma 2.2. Hopefully, this will help me and my spam blasting efforts. YAY. [...]
[...] Over the last 3 days my website has been hammered by spam bots. To date, one of my spam plugins has stopped >6000 spam comments from being posted. To aid in the fight against spammers, I’ve added a couple new spam fighting plugins to my arsenal. The arsenal currently contains: 1.) Akismet 2.) Bad Behavior 3.) Spam Karma 2 [...]
[...] Dr Dave: Along with people, you get spam. Lots of spam. And I have a lot to be thankful for when it comes to the Ultimate Spam Killer. Created by Dr Dave and a whole lot of other people, SK2 works in the background to make spam a rare occurrence on DWB. [...]
[...] A couple other effective blog tools I’ve seen highly recommended to help combat spam are Bad Behavior and Spam Karma 2. I’ve not used either one, so if you have some experience with those (or any other solutions) let us know about it. [...]
[...] I consulted with some friends who have used Wordpress about how they handled spam. Bob Martin of the famed Mindanao Blog told me about Spam Karma. I found out it was really cool. And yes, the spams are gone. [...]
[...] Then I found out that there’s too many Trackback spam on my site. Although Spam Karma and Akismet successfully block and put them into spam list, but deleting a thousands of them a day is such a tired work. I can leave them alone, but as it accumulate day by day, it clogs up my database. So, I decided to try this solution. It works by blocking all trackback queries send to wp-trackback.php instead of the usual pretty permalink. I haven’t test whether this plugin will block legitimate trackback, but to see trackback to my site is rare. Well, I will test when I setup a sandbox. So far I don’t see any Trackback spam caught by Spam Karma, I guess it works. [...]
[...] UPDATE: Parece que el problema es que no se valida la API IDE de wordpress desde Akismet. Seguramente por los problemas de dns y derivados
He solucionado la papeleta metiendo el Spam Karma 2 (que me ha sorprendido bastante) con un plugin que hace que use como filtro añadido Akismet 
Por lo visto no he sido el único caso. [...]
[...] Я сейчас поставил антиспам-систему Spam Karma 2 (что, впрочем, ты и можешь увидеть внизу страницы) – по сравнению с Akismet’ом она немного более наворочена, но всё же кое в чём уступает последнему (например, не может без лишнего гемора удалить сразу все спам-комменты). Впрочем, с ней блог стал работать ощутимо быстрее – она без особого указания не лезет на сервера спам-идентификации, а старается обходиться штатными средствами. В общем, скрепя сердце, – рекомендую. (Почему “скрепя сердце”? Потому что там столько настроек, что придётся полчаса-час провозиться с ними, настраивая систему под себя; да и юзабилити, честно говоря, у него так себе…) a img.vc_icon, a:hover img.vc_icon{ text-decoration:none; border: 0px; vertical-align: middle; position:relative; top:-2px;} Просмотрено 1 раз 1 посетителем [...]
[...] >> Spam Karma - Instalación automática, solo con activar el plugin. - Para el solito un 95% de basura - Super configurable, por ip, dominio, etc - ofrece todo tipo de información acerca de su actividad. [...]
[...] I just installed Spam Karma 2. Let’s see how well it works. [...]
[...] 1. Spam Karma 2: A new addition to the site (added on Nov 13, 2006), that I installed mostly out of sheer curiousity. [...]
[...] Последние несколько дней я не обращал внимание на работу спам-фильтра Akismet. Сегодня заметил волшебную надпись «Akismet has protected your site from 1,246 spam comments», хотя еще неделю назад число комментов, которые плагин определил как спам было не больше 300. Причем проверить правильность определения не представляется возможноым, так как Akismet отображает почему-то не все выявленные сообщения рекламного характера. По наводке с Gluek’s blog буду пробовать Spam Karma. [...]