GrowMap Anti-Spambot Plugin (G.A.S.P) Review
Have you noticed that new checkbox that shows by the comment form? The one that you need to check to prove that you’re not a spammer? It has been 100% effective at blocking automated spam during this last week. This checkbox is generated by G.A.S.P, a free plugin for WordPress, and we think it’s the simplest and most effective anti-spam plugin out of every other plugin.
We used Akismet before and we were happy with it but it had some downsides. Akismet has recently been blocking a lot of comments that it shouldn’t be blocking (including Techie’s comments on other blogs), and they haven’t been replying to people who contact them about this issue. Akismet also stores all the spam on your database, which wastes server resources and bloats your database. G.A.S.P simply uses javascript to generate a checkbox on the client-side to have the visitor confirm that they are not a spammer. If the checkbox isn’t checked the comment won’t be submitted, so you won’t end up with spam in your database. As an extra security measure, G.A.S.P generates a hidden form for an email which bots may try to fill in but humans can’t see.
Because G.A.S.P doesn’t use any external servers to check for spam you won’t get false positives, but at the same time you won’t get spambots making comments. This is why G.A.S.P is the most effective anti-spam plugin for WordPress. 🙂
I was totally impressed with this new check box that shows by the comment form because it indeed prevent spammers. I think it is pretty much effective! I wonder with these statement "As an extra security measure, G.A.S.P generates a hidden form for an email which bots may try to fill in but humans can’t see." How it is perform? Hmmm..
Yeah, it's hard to really differentiate between spam and a real comment. I mean if a person simply uses a keyword instead of their name (see above) or some other random link, is it spam by definition ? or does it depend on the content of their comment? Maybe the size of the comment ? Really whose to judge what's spam and what's not. Kind of a bit scary really, it seems that we need more policing online (sad really).
"Akismet has recently been blocking a lot of comments that it shouldn’t be blocking (including Techie’s comments on other blogs), and they haven’t been replying to people who contact them about this issue."
I agree with this. I have an Akismet on one of my WordPress blogs and I found out that there are comments stored there that are not supposedly a spam. I don't know what is happening with Akismet, since it is a very good anti spam plug-in. Anyway I'll try this G.A.S.P. on one of my blog, eh. And let's see what will, happen.:)
I was totally impressed with this new check box that shows by the comment form because it indeed prevent spammers.
Thanks a lot for this! Akismet is becoming a pain somewhere below my back. I actually need a plugin that checks on Akismet to see if its doing its job properly. Anyone know how to make that work? 😛 or I'll try GASP instead…
I just uninstalled Akismet and now I use this. Akismet has too many false positives (they've been marking my comments as spam everywhere I go) so I just won't use their service. I used to recommend them but I guess they changed something in their detection system and now it sucks.
I was totally impressed with this new check box that shows by the comment form because it indeed prevent spammers. I think it is pretty much effective! I wonder with these statement “As an extra security measure, G.A.S.P generates a hidden form for an email which bots may try to fill in but humans can’t see.” How it is perform? Hmmm..
I think it's great because it stops all automated spam 🙂
It's well worthwhile I think. A lot of blog commenters just for backlinks try to get away with just leaving generic "nice blog" comments as well. They'll still be around but at least you've probably got rid of the automated commenters.
If you want a backlink, fine, but you must respect the blogger, read what he ahs to say and make your comments worthwhile.
Yeah, it’s hard to really differentiate between spam and a real comment. I mean if a person simply uses a keyword instead of their name (see above) or some other random link, is it spam by definition ? or does it depend on the content of their comment? Maybe the size of the comment ? Really whose to judge what’s spam and what’s not. Kind of a bit scary really, it seems that we need more policing online
thanks Yeah, it’s hard to really differentiate between spam and a real comment. I mean if a person simply uses a keyword instead of their name (see above) or some other random link, is it spam by definition ?
It is impossible to decide algorithmically if a comment is spam or not. Well, at least as long as there aren't 12+ links in the comment and the keyword density of "viagra" and "car insurance" is lower than 20%. Well, I quess there are other heuristics. This one is cool.
Like Ian said, it doesn’t matter.
And by the way, Yakuake is also in extragear, but they moved to Git already without keeping the svn sync.
thanks Yeah, it’s hard to really differentiate between spam and a real comment.
If you want a backlink, fine, but you must respect the blogger, read what he ahs to say and make your comments worthwhile.