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Oct 27 2018

An Ingenious Way To Fight Comment Spam

Note: This post was written previously and has been updated with new information.

56043582You may (or may not) know that you can automatically send comments left on your website to the spam list if they contain certain words. I have been maintaining a list of words that I have gathered over the years and been sharing that with my private coaching clients.

After our last coaching call, I decided to do some research to find a more encompassing list, and of course, I found one! The internet is a great place to find things. While my little list had about 250 words, I found one that currently has 14,000+ words! (Update: As of Aug 2016, there are over 22,ooo words and phrases!)

Grant Hutchinson has provided a very comprehensive list over at https://github.com/splorp/wordpress-comment-blacklist/blob/master/blacklist.txt – in fact, this list (currently) has…

identified over 13,000 phrases, patterns, and keywords commonly used by spammers and comment bots in usernames, email addresses, link text, and URIs. This blacklist is an ongoing work in progress and as such, there is always room for optimization and improvement. Suggestions and bug reports are certainly appreciated. Grant Hutchinson

You can download the file and simply paste all the words in the Comment Blacklist area (Log into your WordPress Dashboard, go to Settings, then Discussion, and then to the Comment Blacklist area).

If that seems like too much work, there is actually a plugin that will do this for you!

There's a Plugin For That!
Comment Blacklist Manager

This plugin will check the global comment blacklist on GitHub multiple times a day. Whenever new anti-spam values have been added to the global list, Blacklist Updater will read the global list and update your WordPress database accordingly. While the check-up process will run several times a day, the plugin will only update the database when it detects an actual change of the global comment blacklist on GitHub.

And right now, I am off to go check out how good that plugin is! I will let you know what I find out!

Written by Paul · Categorized: Resources · Tagged: comment, Spam

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Grant Hutchinson says

    November 14, 2014 at 7:52 pm

    Hey Paul, thanks for mentioning my blacklist project. I’d appreciate any feedback you might have. By the way, I’ve been using Sergej Müller’s Blacklist Updater plugin on a couple of my sites for the past six months … it’s a super simple “no muss, no fuss” solution to keep things up to date.

    Cheers.

    Reply
    • Paul says

      November 15, 2014 at 3:44 pm

      The thanks go to you, Grant! Thank you for doing what you do. I have not yet had a chance to check out Sergej Müller’s Blacklist Updater plugin, and it is on my list to do so!

      Reply
      • Grant Hutchinson says

        November 15, 2014 at 4:44 pm

        By the way, as of this afternoon the latest blacklist contains over 14,000 keywords and phrases.

        Reply
        • Paul says

          November 17, 2014 at 9:53 pm

          AWESOME, Grant! Thanks again!

          Just a warning to some folks – your niche may require some of the words/phrase that could be in this list! Review just in case!

          For example, a Mommy blogger site that talks about child birth, or a med student site discussing anatomy, etc.

          Reply
          • Grant Hutchinson says

            November 17, 2014 at 10:02 pm

            Actually, I’d love to hear from people regarding specific words or phrases I’ve included on the list that may be valid in some cases.

            Let me know.

  2. Debbie O'Grady says

    August 23, 2016 at 2:18 pm

    Thanks Paul! This is great information and I can’t wait to take a look at that plugin. I am so tired of having to manually go into my site to delete ALL those Spam comments.

    Reply
    • Paul says

      August 23, 2016 at 2:36 pm

      When I hear back from the developers, I will post my findings here! Thanks, Debbie!

      Reply
  3. RAAckerman@Cerebrations.biz says

    October 27, 2018 at 11:04 am

    I fear some folks use those words when they use translators from their native language, so I don’t use those ‘aids’. My spamcatcher performs superbly (all spam is quarantined, ready for easy ‘trash’ disposal)- with one exception (perhaps)- yahoo.com addresses are always quarantined.

    Reply
    • Paul says

      October 27, 2018 at 2:22 pm

      Maybe the yahoo addresses should be quarantined 🙂 WHich tool do you use for your spamcatcher, Roy?

      Reply
  4. Alana says

    October 27, 2018 at 7:13 pm

    Alas, I have a blogger blog. And I am so tired of the spam, I do think of giving up my blog sometimes. Life is too short.

    Reply
    • Paul says

      January 2, 2019 at 10:15 am

      Just fight the spammers with automation! At least that will whittle it down.

      Reply
  5. Cherry-Ann says

    October 27, 2018 at 9:09 pm

    Thanks Paul and Grant Hutchinson.

    I used to get a boat load of spam comments, but I’ve been using Sitelock to monitor my sites for just under a year, and no longer get any. Hurrah!

    Reply
    • Paul says

      October 4, 2019 at 10:21 am

      That is a good service as well!

      Reply
  6. Martha says

    October 27, 2018 at 11:32 pm

    I got quite a few spam comments but they all go to my spam folder where I can check them. I have found a few that go there from my regular viewers so I like to check to be sure. I’ll check into the plugin!

    Reply
    • Paul says

      October 4, 2019 at 10:21 am

      It is a good one – I am using it!

      Reply

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