Groundbreaking News
Please, if you are running WP 1.5 you must install Spam Karma 2.0… It is much more stable and efficient than SK1, which is no longer supported.
Your comment was mistakenly eaten by Spam Karma?
Spam Karma 1.x
You can download the latest version of the 1.x branch here: http://wp-plugins.net/downloads/spam-karma.zip. Please RTFM thoroughly before you install: it’s short but essential.
You can optionally install WP Plugin Manager and use its ‘one-click install’ feature to get Spam Karma (among many other plugins).
Latest Version
Spam Karma’s current version is: 1.20 (see recent changes)
If your version is any older than that, you should consider upgrading. Please read the detailed Change Log to know what’s changed (and how important it might be to upgrade).
Generally, upgrades are painless and merely consist of overwriting existing files with new ones, you ought to check every once in a while if your install is up to date (if you are using WPPM, it will do it automatically for you each time you refresh your list).
How do I use it?
A very complete and illustrated Guide to Spam Karma has been compiled by Jon Abad. Make sure you quickly go over each option and set it accordingly, especially if you experience any problem with Spam Karma.
Aussi disponible en Français maintenant (merci Neuro!).
What does it do, how does it work?
The post that started it all: Introducing Spam Karma contains all the details about both the superficial and in-depth mechanisms that make Spam Karma the fearless Spam Killing Machine that it is.
What’s Next?
A tentative feature list for the next major release is presented on the Spam 2.0 Feature Request page. Please feel free to contribute and let me know what feature or improvement you’d most like to see in the next version.
Note: there might be a few minor bug-fixing 1.x releases before 2.0 comes out.
Contact
Any bug report or question regarding Spam Karma can be sent to: spam-karma [at] unknowngenius [dot] com
Mad props and mariage proposals can also be sent to the above address.
Insults, death threats and comments of an otherwise dislikable nature are welcome at: dave [dot] null [at] unknowngenius [dot] com
Tip Jar
If Spam Karma saved your life/relationship/cat/mailbox and you feel overly generous, please feel free to make a donation.
Special Note on Bugs & Issues
Okay, so this plugin has been checked inside and out, dozens of issues — some minor, some major — have been ironed out, hours have been spent working out individually every user issues…
Nevertheless, there might be bugs left.
And if you happen to encounter one, please, please: before you go and righteously spend 30 minutes writing an indignant entry about how this piece of software has failed you in every possible way… before you do that, take two minutes and send me an e-mail explaining with as much details as possible the issue you are running into. If the problem involves a miscategorized comment, forward it to me with its Spam Karma headers. If you haven’t updated in a while, check the current version (see above) and upgrade if necessary, then try to reproduce the issue and contact me if it persists.
Then, feel free to go and vent as much as you want to your own readership about a problem they are unlikely to care for and highly unlikely to have an answer for.
And for those who think the above advice is stating the obvious, you’d be surprised what referrer checks and technorati vanity searches will turn up.
Recently Fixed Issues
Mark Jaquith wrote all the changes that were added to 1.20. Check his post for more details.
These issues have been fixed recently (v. 1.19), upgrade if you experience these issues:
- Toned down the deny message (more info here).
- Fixed a bug with the settings getting reset randomly (due to the “Hall of Shame” cache overflowing).
Known Issues
If you are using a pop-up template for your comments (default is inline) on WP 1.2, please check out Comment #12 in the section below.
If you experience really long delays when posting [legit] comments, try disabling the RBL check in the Blacklist settings on the Option page.
Hey! I want that badass ‘X spams eaten’ message on my blog too!
Nothing’s easier. Assuming you are running the latest version of Spam Karma (1.11 or more), simply insert this tag somewhere in your template (for example inside the “credit” tag in your footer, or in your comment form template, but you can put it anywhere you want):
<?php if (function_exists('spamk_stats')) spamk_stats(); ?>
Notes:
- the function_exists part is only there to ensure your template doesn’t break when you disable Spam Karma for some reason.
- this message will only be displayed if there has been any comment deleted. If you just installed Spam Karma and the deleted count is zero, the message won’t appear.
- Optional (for experts only) If you know your way around PHP and want to customize the message more, you can use two additional boolean arguments to the spamk_stats() function:
- $return (set to false by default), will return instead of echo’ing
- $count_only (set to false by default), returns only the ‘deleted spam’ count, without any formatting
I second Jason. I got so much spam when I started using WordPress that I had to install Spam Karma before my sanity went out the window. After letting through about three spam comments it has been faultless, with only one false positive in over 5 months. It’s great!
I’m not a spammer. Don’t be silly now, if I were, I would accept my bad karma. I’m just a very normal person who tried to make a normal comment, which would be considered free speech in the UK, or even in the US.
Dr. Dave,
I just wanted to thank you for all of your work. I installed WP1.5.11 followed by SK2 w/o issue. I noticed that the “SK has eaten…” was missing in the footer but also read that it will not appear until it catches the first one. I have rec’d two digests this past weekend and it didn’t show up. I checked the footer.php in my theme and that line ( ) is already there.
The reality is that the SK2 is working great and the counter at the bottom is a nicety. But I think its cool. Any thoughts?
Again, thanks for the incredible plug-in,
AB
More info that should have beeen included…
The spams are getting thrown into the ‘Awaiting Moderation’ folder. That is probably why they are not oficially counted as ‘eaten’ . These are the same online gambling ones from before that were ‘eaten’ with SK1. I have my settings on the default ones. Do I simply need to change the “General settings” to “kinda mean”? Or any other settings?
TIA,
AB
You rock Dave. Come back, we miss you.
You’re plug-in is absolutely great. Thank you. For the past two weeks, I’ve been getting spam comments from the same author who is using different IP addresses but links to the same address, sometimes 100x a day. Spam Karma is catching all of it.
Are there additional steps that I should be taking after the spam is caught? Do I safely remove the selected entries so I don’t clog my database? Should I add any information to the blacklist or just let the plugin keep on doing it’s job on its own.
Again, thanks.
Hello Dave i’ve used your plugin for some time now. so far so good. But yesterday t when users want to comment your plugin give the following singals :
Warning: Cannot modify header information – headers already sent by (output started at /data/members/paid/m/a/mazalien.nl/htdocs/www/weblog/wp-content/plugins/SK2/sk2_second_chance.php:2) in /data/members/paid/m/a/mazalien.nl/htdocs/www/weblog/wp-content/plugins/wp-last-visit.php on line 143
Warning: Cannot modify header information – headers already sent by (output started at /data/members/paid/m/a/mazalien.nl/htdocs/www/weblog/wp-content/plugins/SK2/sk2_second_chance.php:2) in /data/members/paid/m/a/mazalien.nl/htdocs/www/weblog/wp-content/plugins/wp-last-visit.php on line 203
Warning: Cannot modify header information – headers already sent by (output started at /data/members/paid/m/a/mazalien.nl/htdocs/www/weblog/wp-content/plugins/SK2/sk2_second_chance.php:2) in /data/members/paid/m/a/mazalien.nl/htdocs/www/weblog/wp-content/plugins/wp-last-visit.php on line 226
Kind-a-Captcha
Simply copy the code below and and click on submit. (Not much of a captcha, yea, I know… Don’t worry sweetheart, the real thing’s coming soon).
What could cause this problem ?
My website is http://www.mazalien.nl/weblog/
Thanks for the support. Greetings
@Webmaster: There is probably an extra space or other garbage before the opening tag in either the sk2_second_chance.php or wp-last-visit.php. See http://codex.wordpress.org/Answers-Troubleshooting for instructions on correcting the problem.
Here’s a solution — and it’s all about karma: You should post the names and/or companies who participate in blog spam on my site, AssCancerList.com. It’s a GREAT way to get even – wait til that person “Googles” himself and there he is on the Ass Cancer List. A permanent, public record!Hahahahhahaha. Sweet revenge! Brings “Google Bombing” to a whole new level.
I particularly notice blog-spam in 3 main categories, casino/poker, financial services and pills/pharmaceuticals. Maybe there’s a way to handle these 3 categories differently since the most abuse occurs here.
still want a free GMail account?
hit me at Expozilla@Gmail.com
I dont like Spam Karma. Bad karma man, bad karma. Remember that…
The only way anyone could NOT like Spam Karma would be if they weren’t getting spam comments. It’s dealt with 1500 for me in less than 6 months – deleting them manually would NOT have been funny.
I’ve been using Spam Karma since around January, and it’s blocked or moderated 5,349 spam comments. And I’m still using the older version, simply because it works so well I haven’t felt compelled to upgrade.
I agree with Tony; If you have a WordPress weblog that gets any comment traffic at all, you need this plugin.
Hi Dr Dave
While in WP admin panel and checking SPK 2.0 pre-alpha 9 I got like a pop up message saying there is a new version of SPK and listing changes. It then disapeared!!! I looked again and again but no it had disapeared. Did I imagine this ??
No matter what I do I can not recreate this. currently on SPK 2.0 pre-alpha.
Please tell me I am not going mad?
all worked fine, then i got this error in log:
Structural failure: no comment ID sent to comment hook (web_UI )
when opening general settings, i receive this error:
Fatal error: Call to undefined function: curl_init() in /home/hipfinger/www.konfabulieren.com/wp-content/plugins/sk2_functions.php on line 145
Thanks very much for the excellent program (SK2). I had several problems with an earlier installed captcha: users complained when it was set too hard; and then of course spammers broke thru. Just installed SK2 the other day — it was beautifully easy — and already it’s smoothly captured all the hated p0k3r spam (over a hundred in just a day or two); and approved non-spam TBs & comments. I also appreciate your strategy in employing all tools but layering them for maximum accessibility.
One comment – my SK2 install [WP 1.5.1.3 with a customized template] complained about the encrypted payload (filter? option? whatever). I did the advanced compatibility test, and followed instructions [at http://www.wp-plugins.net/wiki/index.php?title=SK2_Comment_Form_Hook ] about checking the comment form (comments.php) in my theme. My comment form included the relevant lines but in a slightly different form. I had:
instead of:
and for the line to add, I had:
instead of:
… But the inclusion of the returnTestValues and post variable in the respective lines didn’t seem like it should be fatal (what do I know), and I was out of time, so I just disabled the complaining feature (encrypted payload) and postponed trying to figure it out. I’ll get back to troubleshooting it when I have a bit more time, but in the meantime, I thought I would pass it along in case there was some obvious problem in the documentation, my install, or the code.
Finally – Solidarity, because I too get insane hatemail (in my case, usually misogynistic & crazy, for running a feminist website). What is with these people? I read thru your comments before posting mine, and I’m shaking my head over people who get so pissy and apparently feel so personally insulted by a spam filter. You’re doing great work & doing so thoughtfully — god knows we need more of that in the world. I’m sure you realize it’s greatly appreciated, but it doesn’t hurt to hear it again.
Thanks again,
Laura Q
So don’t beat me up over it but i still use wordpress 1.2 and can not currently upgrade. I do however need a good spam filter and contorler. I am excited about Spam Karma 1 and appreciate the fact that it wont be updated or supported, but i would really like it to still be available. The download link on http://wp-plugins.net/ dosen’t work. I bet this is low on your priority list but i would really, really love a version of this if anyone can help. If you could fix the link that would be great of if someone could direct me to a new one or send me the file i would also be really happy.
In September Ben posted that he would love to install Spam Karma with a WP 1.2. Me too. I used to have it on and ran into a problem and had to remove it, now I can’t reinstall. It isn’t accessible in any way that I can find.
Any help anyone?
Hi Ben and Agree With Ben:
Sorry, but I have finally completely removed the SK1 archive, as it was no longer effective in any way against spam and only detrimental to legit users (which in turn generated way too many angry complaint mails).
If you have no way of updating WP to at least 1.5, then I would recommend checking on http://wp-plugins.net for other anti-spam options that work on WP1.2. I have recently gone over the different anti-spam stategiesout there and their efficiency… Feel free to have a look and pick a plugin (maybe captcha?) that will do a much better work than SK1 could have ever done…
Cheers and good luck!
Comment Spam
If you are a long time blog reader you know that for months, many sites have disabled commenting, or taken other extreme measures to cut down on the comment spam. Seems that the subhuman monsters that do this have created automatic bots that just crea…
Comment Spam
If you are a long time blog reader you know that for months, many sites have disabled commenting, or taken other extreme measures to cut down on the comment spam. Seems that the subhuman monsters that do this have created automatic bots that just crea…
Begone Evil Spam!
Just three days after installing WordPress my blog has been spammed — I guess that shows how quickly the blog is integrated into bigger blogging community thank to the links from [Janus][] and [Kristian][] and the automatic pinging of several other s…
Comments are open for business!Les commentaires sont ouverts
Thanks to DrDave and his spamkarma plugin, I have been able to re-open comments without fear of having to moderate an insane number of them. WordPress is quite good, but it still takes time to delete hundreds of comments.
So there you go, have fun w…
for WordPress
Spam Karma[via zengun]
Spam Karma?
Perhaps the issues that I am having with serendipity are caused by Spam Karma, a plug-in used by serendipity. I will have to try upgrading it later today. Looks like the homepage is at….
http://unknowngenius.com/blog/wordpress/spam-karma/
Spam Karma
I have to report that I think I’ve finally (touch wood) got a handle on the comment spam. It is all due to the very awesome Spam Karma plugin for WordPress. Since I installed it a week ago (and removed those word-picture things that were so annoying) …
線上撲克牌去死
地毯式轟炸誰受得了 -_-凸
從一大早我就發現這裡被該死的 “Online Poker” 丟了一堆廣告信；雖然它們都被 Spam Karma 和 Depokerizer 聯手擋下，但是要自己手動去幫它們收屍還是件很累的事，尤其…
Anti comment spam on WordPress
剛剛到 ijliao 長輩的 Blog 晃, 發現他那邊的 recent comments 又爆了….XD
我偷拍一份, 希望長輩別打我……orz
我順便用這篇講一下我這裡在用來防止 comment spam 的 plugin 好了.
我之前曾經看過 gsli…
Spam Karma 2: Why Can’t Everything Work This Well?
I had to write a post on the excellent job Dr. Dave’s Spam Karma 2 does at blocking virtually all kinds of blog spam. If you have a WordPress blog and don’t have SK2, you need it. After Google upped my PR from a goose egg to a 3, I got nailed wit…
WordPress Upgrade
WordPress has released an upgrade to version 1.5.1. I updated my site last night and it took all of 15 minutes to do so. All my hacks should be intact, including the RSS hack for the comment count and the extended text notification. While I was a…
Spam Karma 2 and Spammer
Baru update Spam Karma dari web ini.
Ternyata ada versi yang baru buat WP 1.5.1.1
Namanya Spam Karma 2.0 beta.
Lebih banyak featurenya dari Spam Karma 2.0 alpha.
Option pagenya juga lebih detail dibanding version sebelumnya.
Spam karma yang sebelumny…
Spam Karma
A few days ago I started using Spam Karma 2 to eliminate trackback and comment spam, adnd guess what? It works like a charm! It’s easy to set up, and equally as easy to keep an eye on things. Highly recommended, and props to Dr Dave.
[...] If the Spam Karma system was giving you a hard time when you tried to submit your insightful comments, then please try again — I’ve just lovered the overall strictness setting to “normal”. [...]
[...] So the world is tuned in… that’s all very well if it weren’t for those pesky spammers! I’ve had seven spam comments already, and it didn’t look like it was going to stop. But with help from Spam Karma I hope to get rid of them. It checks the comment in several ways and deletes it if it determines that it is definite spam. Good comments are let through immediatedly. Comments where Spam Karma is in doubt will be subjected to a captcha test where you have to recognize some letters in an image. That is a really cool feature which should ensure that no automated program can post comments, while still allowing access to real people. [...]
[...] I have installed Spam Karma 2 on this system in hopes to fight the spam. If you encounter that you somehow cannot write a comment or leave a trackback and you think you should be able to, please consider contacting me on an IM or in e‐mail. This shouldn’t occur, of course. [...]
[...] Jakiś czas temu testowałem zawzięcie systemy przedziwdziałające wpisywaniu komentarzy do mojej strony przez tzw. roboty spamujące. Testy zakończyły się dołączeniem do serwisu systemu SpamKarma 2. System sprawdził się dobrze. W ciągu miesiąca wyciął ponad 100 wpisów. Przez sito systemu przedostał się tylko jeden wpis, ale dzięki temu, że SpamKarma daje się ‘uczyć’ co jest a co nie jest spamem, wpis ten nie ma szansy więcej pojawić się jako komentarz dla wiadomości. Z uwagi na prostotę konfiguracji i najlepszą skuteczność (w porównaniu z innymi systemami tego typu) polecam go z czystym sumieniem wszystkim używającym WordPress’a. [...]
[...] No time to make sense out of all this because the buggers are gaining on me! It was time to download Spam Karma 2 and turn it on. [...]
[...] I’m taking another go-around with Spam Karma – the new version seems to be much less finicky about potential posts. It’s been up for three days, and so far hasn’t been too overly aggressive trashing useless comments. All the same, if you see a comment not post immediately, it’s probably waiting to be verified. Just hold off on any lengthy diatribes about how Cialis has helped out your Texas Hold’em games. [...]
[...] My gallery is now open also updated to latest version. Please feel free to take a look. At the moment there are just a few pictures of Tom my son from his motox days. Also updated today is Dr Dave’s sk2. Cheers Dr Dave. In combination with IO ERRORs excellent bad behaviourwhich has just been updated to 1.1.3 Excellent stuff [...]
[...] 自從好久以前裝了 spam-karma v1 就再也沒有 spam 出現, 最近我整個版面, 系統修改了不少, 所以順道過去 spam-karma 的網站看看, 才知道 spam-karma 2.0-beta 已經出了, 那就順道升一下版本好囉 :p [...]
[...] Anyway, I’ll be continuing to get that rolling over the next couple of days/weeks. I couldn’t decide between WordPress and Drupal, but I opted for WordPress because it has a richer selection of themes, and I really like Spam Karma, and I wasn’t quite willing to give it up. I don’t fear the unknown; I just really like WordPress. [...]
[...] ok, the wordpress 1.5 upgrade went nice and smooth. I’ve also installed spam karma and need to configure it a bit more friendly as it seems to moderate pretty heavily and has blocked a friend of mine. I’ll be working on the configuring, if you happen to get flagged, you should still be able to post with the captcha (image authorization) please do and let me know if you are experiencing any difficulty… thanks…. scratch that…. went back to kittens spaminator, it doesnt do as much as spam karma does, but until I can configure it so that my visitors dont lose their comments, I’ll have to forego using it. I greatly appreciate all my readers, yes all 3 of you… [...]
[...] spam-karma is not only functioning, it’s pretty robust. so if you can’t post because my site accuses you of being a spammer, please email me and let me know so i can: i) better moderate the plugin, and ii) prevent your IP form being blacklisted. DO NOT resend your comment in the hope that it’ll get through if you just try hard enough: that’ll get your IP blacklisted. [...]
[...] http://unknowngenius.com/blog/wordpress/spam-karma [...]
[...] ahhhh … the sweet smell of spam-free blogging. thanks, unknown genius, for spam karma! [...]
[...] Spam Karma [...]
[...] I had about 400 pieces of comment/trackback spam this week, and after manually deleting them all I installed Spam Karma 2. So far it’s working perfectly. Awesome. [...]
[...] Ja, det s�g du ju. Skriv g�rna n�t om det. Jag har uppgraderat WordPress och lagt in spamfiltret Spam Karma, och lite annat. [...]
[...] I have just finished installing Spam Karma 2 – Reloaded to reduce the amount of comment spam I keep getting. I have also removed all comments except those where someone was making a useful contribution to the bl0g. You do not have to register now to post a comment however name and email are required. I have also made a contact form which you can find a link to at the top called Mail. [...]