For sometime now, readers have been complaining that their comments are being accidentally flagged by Akismet as spam. Despite repeated un-flagging, their next comment still hits the spam bin. The false positives are getting really annoying (and time consuming too).
I’ve already installed a WP plugin called Antispam Collateral Condolences which notifies people when their comments have been caught as spam. At least they can email me and I could act on it right away before it gets buried and completely forgotten or overlooked.
People have been asking why their comments were falsely identified by the system as spam. Since Akismet is not open-source and owned by Automattic, the algo and codes have not been seen by the public. We know the general idea but specific triggers are unknown.
I have some ideas though and some are based on other anti-spam system.
- Too many links in the comments post. Anything more than 2 links are likely spammers.
- Fast, successive comments. If you leave too many comments too fast. There’ usually a time gap (my hunch is 30 to 90 seconds) in between comments to identify if the commenter is a bot or a human.
- Very long URLs in the URI field.
- Use of blacklisted words.
- Domain on email used
- Use of dynamic IPs. When someone else who used to have that IP was flagged as spammer.
- Use of static IP. When you’re using a public terminal like an internet cafe and their IP has been previously flagged as spam source.
- Too many pings too often. Linking out to another blog/entry too often or in frequent succession (more than 2 trackbacks to the same blog).
- Very long comments.
- Browser settings (when you disable cookies and javascripts).
Half of the items in bullet points above will not really trigger a spam flag though a combination of them will raise the probability. The biggest advantage with Akismet’s centralized service is also becoming its biggest disadvantage. This is because once any of your comments get flagged as spam on any WordPress blog, you get the same treatment everywhere. It’s even worse now since Akismet is also being used with MT, Drupal, b2evolution and a slew of other CMS and forum softwares.
What do you do then?
Diagnose the extent of the damage:
- Are your comments being flagged as spam on just a single blog, a couple or all WP blogs (including yours)?
- Are you on a static or dynamic IP?
- Did you try using different browsers?
- Were you logged in as a Subscriber of the blog or just a visitor when you commented?
- Have you tried using a different nick, email address and URL when commenting?
Try out some solutions:
- Contact all the bloggers where you left a comment and was flagged as spam. make sure they un-flag it. I think Akismet’s algo is self-correcting — meaning the more people flagging you as non-spam, the more chances you get out of that sink hole.
- Try a different PC, a different browser, use a different name, email or domain when leaving a comment. Also clear the cache of the browser and the PC just to make sure.
- Contact Automattic and tell them about your problem.
If all else fails, blog about it and ping Matt (cool new domain, btw).
Twitter: techathand
says:
Good Tips,
When I experience this I try to get away from it by the following method
1) Make sure that your WordPress Dashboard is log out
2) Comment on your blog
3) Check your Comments if it is on akismet
4) unflag it
Repeat it as many times as you can on the same PC were you experience this.
I get caught by Akismet due to Globe Innove’s “very” dynamic IP, and secondly the way they setup their network.
I’ve seen some big changes the past few months and it really affected the number of sites one can download from and/or comment to because of their so-called “virus protection system”.
Heck, I don’t need their virus protection system, I know how to protect myself. Haven’t gotten a virus with this machine since I bought this on my birthday last year (27th January 2007).
Twitter: iamjammed
says:
Great tips!
I deactivated my Akismet plugin, will this mean that I will not be receiving the comments which is identified as spam if Akismet was installed?
For me, the problem seems to be Globe’s IP address. I can comment fine from other places but not at home. Thankfully, the problem seemed to have resolved itself late last week when I had a help with a few unflaggings.
Anyway, I’m not using Akismet on any of my blogs and I haven’t had any unmanageable spam problem. Yet. It seems that my unCAPTCHA is working quite well: 19 comments blocked so far today and 34 yesterday. (But that’s relatively low.)
After reading this I checked my Akismet and true enough, there were comments there that are not spams.Thanks for the tip!
Twitter: deuts
says:
“Domain on email used”
What do you mean by that?
I for one have been one of the unlucky commenters flagged as spam. Kuya Abe knows this all too well.
I figured it out and again, it’s Globe’s fault. Like what JC and Eugene told it’s the way they setup their network. Feels like being cursed with Globe, one more reason to switch ISPs again.
@deuts: using an actual domain/url on the e-mail field instead of the actual e-mail possibly.
It’s an innove problem, dynamic url’s being flagged, that’s why I shifted to a captcha based anti-spam system which I think is pretty good at halting spam… I also get flagged all the time here at yuga, maybe I’ll try registering so my photo also appears.. Lol!
@ChrisMo: I’m using Gravatar
—
“Fake IPs” (can’t recall the actual term) are usually blocked by anti-spam services. These IPs were actually reserved for the use of ISPs to hide the real IPs of their servers and their clients.
Globe Innove seemed to have started using fake IPs late 2007, as well as adding other layers of ‘protection’ like the anti-virus and proxy port blocking (if you’re unlucky you’ll connect to a server with certain ports blocked), which many who knows how to protect themselves do not need.
I don’t even know how to activate my akismet plugins in my WP admin…
Hi Yuga! I clicked the Paypal Exchange Rates link at your blog’s homepage then it leads me here, just an FYI.
I have changed my mail address with different nick everytime commenting somebody’e blog, but sadly, my URL blog always identified as a spam by akismet both the top and subdomain.
up to now, i don’t even know how to resolve it. but after read your tips, i’ll try it asap.
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