WP-SpamShield Anti-Spam wordpress plugin resources analysis
| Download This Plugin | |
| Download Elegant Themes | |
| Name | WP-SpamShield Anti-Spam |
| Version | 1.8 |
| Author | Scott Allen |
| Rating | 96 |
| Last updated | 2015-03-10 04:34:00 |
| Downloads |
392457
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| Download Plugins Speed Test plugin for Wordpress | |
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WP-SpamShield Anti-Spam plugin added 3 kB of resources to the Home page and 3 kB of resources to the sample Post page.
WP-SpamShield Anti-Spam plugin added 0 new host(s) to the Home page and 0 new host(s) to the sample Post page.
Great! WP-SpamShield Anti-Spam plugin ads no tables to your Wordpress blog database.An extremely powerful and user friendly WordPress anti-spam plugin that stops blog spam cold, including comment spam, trackback and pingback spam, contact form spam, and registration spam. See what it's like to run a WordPress site without spam! Includes spam-blocking contact form feature. WP-SpamShield is an all-in-one spam solution for WordPress.
A Powerful Weapon Against: Comment Spam, Trackback Spam, Contact Form Spam, and Registration Spam - Without CAPTCHAS
Comment spam has been a huge problem for bloggers since the inception of blogs, and it just doesn't seem to go away. The worst kind, and most prolific, is automated spam that comes from bots. Well, finally there is an anti-spam plugin for WordPress that provides an effective solution, without CAPTCHA's, challenge questions, or other inconvenience to site visitors. WP-SpamShield eliminates comment spam, trackback spam, contact form spam, and user registration spam.
Documentation / Tech Support
- Documentation: Plugin Homepage
- Tech Support: WP-SpamShield Support
New Features
- Internationalization and localization available. Currently includes Dutch (nl_NL), French (fr_FR), German (de_DE), and Serbian (sr_RS) translations. Ready for translation into other languages. Added in Version 1.3.
- Stops User Registration Spam now! Added in Version 1.2.
- Shortcodes for easy contact form implementation.
- Over 10x faster! Tested and verified with benchmarking software.
- For more, please view the changelog.
Key Features
- Virtually eliminates automated comment spam from bots. It works like a firewall to ensure that your commenters are in fact, human.
- A counter on your dashboard to keep track of all the spam it's blocking. The numbers will show how effective this plugin is.
- No CAPTCHA's, challenge questions or other inconvenience to site visitors - it works silently in the background.
- Includes drop-in spam-free contact form, with easy shortcode implementation. Easy to use - no configuration necessary. (But you can configure if you like.)
- Protects your site from user registration spam. No more automated bot signups through the login page on your site.
- See what's been blocked! "Blocked Comment Logging Mode", a temporary diagnostic mode that logs blocked comments and contact form submissions for 7 days, then turns off automatically. If you want to see what's been blocked, or verify that everything is working, turn this on and see what WP-SpamShield is protecting your blog from.
- No false positives due to the method of spam blocking, which leads to fewer frustrated readers, and less work for you. (If a comment gets blocked, a legit user has a chance to try again.)
- You won't have to waste valuable time sifting through a spam queue any more, because there won't be much there, if anything.
- Powerful trackback and pingback spam protection and validation to ensure that only legitimate ones get through.
- Easy to install - truly plug and play. Just upload and activate. (Installation Status on the plugin admin page to let you know if plugin is installed correctly.)
- The beauty of this plugin is the methods of blocking spam. It takes a different approach than most and stops spam at the door.
- Extremely low overhead and won't slow down your blog (very light database access), unlike some other anti-spam plugins.
- Compatible with popular cache plugins, including WP Super Cache and others. Not all anti-spam plugins can say that.
- Display your blocked spam stats on your blog. Widgets and shortcodes for graphic counters to display spam stats, multiple sizes and options.
- By stopping spam at the front door and keeping the spam out of the WordPress database altogether, WP-SpamShield helps keep your database slimmer and more efficient, which helps your site run faster.
- Works in WordPress Multisite as well. (See the related FAQ for details.)
- Enhanced Comment Blacklist option. Instead of just sending comments to moderation as with WordPress's default Comment Blacklist functionality, with this turned on, anything that matches a string in the blacklist will be completely blocked. Also adds a link in the comment notification emails that will let you blacklist a commenter's IP with one click.
- No cost, no hidden fees. Free for both Commercial and Personal use.
- This plugin is legal to use in Germany and the EU, and does not violate European privacy laws. It does not use any type of cloud-based service, data is not transmitted from your server to any other server, and all anti-spam processing happens directly on your website's server.
- A truly plug and play replacement and upgrade for WP-SpamFree. (A far more advanced fork of WP-SpamFree with dramatically improved page load speed, security, and spam blocking power, by its original author.) It will import your old data from WP-SpamFree automatically upon installation and activation, and features you were using on your site previously such as contact forms and spam stats will continue to work without any changes to pages, posts, or theme.
How It Works
Most of the spam hitting your blog originates from bots. Few bots can process JavaScript (JS). Few bots can process cookies. Fewer still, can handle both, especially if you use some clever combinations. In a nutshell, this plugin uses a dynamic combo of JavaScript and cookies to weed out the humans from spambots, preventing 99.99%+ of automated spam from ever getting to your site. Almost 100% of web site visitors will have these turned on by default, so this type of solution works silently in the background, with no inconveniences. There may be a few users (less than 2%) that have JavaScript and/or cookies turned off by default, but they will be prompted to simply turn those back on to post their comment. Overall, the few might be inconvenienced because they have JS and cookies turned off will be far fewer than the 100% who would be annoyed by CAPTCHA's, challenge questions, and other validation methods.
Some would argue that using JS and cookies is too simplistic an approach. Some developers prefer using some type of cloud-based AI to fight bots by trying to figure out if a comment is spam. While that isn't a bad idea, when used alone this method falls short - many spam comments get through that could easily have been stopped, and there are many false positives where non-spam comments get flagged as spam. Others may argue that some spammers have programmed their bots to read JavaScript, etc. In reality, the percentage of bots with these capabilities is still extremely low - less than 1%, and even those that can read, can't fully process it. It's simply a numbers game. Statistics tell us that an effective solution would involve using a technology that few bots can handle, therefore eliminating their ability to spam your site. The important thing in fighting spam is that we create a solution that can reduce spam noticeably and improve the user experience, and a 99.99%+ reduction in spam would definitely make a difference for most bloggers and site visitors.
It's important to know that the particular JS and cookies solution used in the WP-SpamShield anti-spam plugin has evolved quite a bit, and is no longer simple at all. There are two layers of protection, a JavaScript/Cookies Layer, and an Algorithmic Layer. Even if bot authors could engineer a way to break through the JavaScript/Cookies Layer, the Algorithmic Layer would still stop 95% of the spam that the JavaScript Layer blocks. (I'm working to make this 100% for fully redundant protection.) This JavaScript Layer utilizes randomly generated keys, and is algorithmically enhanced to ensure that spambots won't beat it. The powerful Algorithmic Layer is what eliminates trackback/pingback spam, and much human spam as well. And, it does all that without hindering legitimate comments and trackbacks.
The trackback validation contains a filter that compares the client IP address of the incoming trackback against the IP address of the server where the link is supposedly coming from. If they don't match, then it is spam, without fail. This alone eliminates more than 99.99% of trackback spam. Trackback spammers don't send spam out from the same server where their clients' websites reside.
As of Version 1.2 the plugin also includes powerful protection from user registration spam. Once you install WP-SpamShield, you don't have to worry about bots or spammy users signing up on your site's login page any more.
The bottom line, is that this plugin just plain works, and is a powerful weapon against spam.
Background
Before I developed this plugin, our team and clients experienced the same frustration you do with comment spam on your WordPress blog. Every blog we manage had comment moderation enabled and various other anti-spam plugins installed, but we still had a ton of comments tagged as spam in the spam queue that we had to sort through. This wasted a lot of valuable time, and we all know, time is money. We needed a solution.
Comment spam stems from an older problem - automated spamming of email contact forms on web sites. I developed a successful fix for this years ago, and later applied it to our WordPress blogs. It was so effective, that I decided to add a few modifications and turn it into a WordPress plugin to be freely distributed. Blogs we manage used to get an excessive number of spam comments show up on the spam queue each day - now the daily average is zero spam comments.
To further the development of this anti-spam plugin, I now study thousands and thousands of potential spam comments from many test blogs and contributors. I use a special diagnostic version of the plugin, which provides much more information on each of these spam comments than what is shown in WordPress. By analyzing patterns and behaviors consistent with spam, I can continually improve the plugin and ensure future accuracy.
WordPress Blogging Without Spam
How does it feel to blog without being bombarded by comment spam? If you're happy with the WP-SpamShield WordPress anti-spam plugin, please let others know by giving it a good rating!
Languages Available
- Dutch (nl_NL)
- French (fr_FR)
- German (de_DE)
- Serbian (sr_RS)
