Akismet Rescue Guide for Bloggers

by Mr. I on April 28, 2009

Akismet is one of the most popular WordPress plugins. It detects spam in comments and stops them from appearing on your blog.

But sadly, it’s not perfect. Sometimes, it will catch good comments and it is very frustrating.

Why being caught by Akismet is Bad?

Although Automattic does not confirm it, Akismet apparently uses central database or some other method to store a blacklist. If someone marks your comments as spam multiple times, your comments will start disappearing from many other blogs using Akismet.

Secondly, someone can intentionally mark you as a spammer and you will be blocked across many blog thus limiting your social interaction. Considering that many bloggers are too busy and hit “delete All Spam” without having a look at spam, you may be caught forever (extreme case!)

How to Avoid being Caught?

Here are some tips to avoid being caught as a spammer by Akismet:

No Links at End: While Akismet normally catches most comments with links in them, chances of being flagged as spam are more if you have link at end!
Do not Write Short Comments: One or two liners are also normally caught as spam by Akismet. So, it is better to make comments a bit more lengthy!
Comment on “Good” Blogs: As I mentioned, anyone can intentionally block you. So, best way is to avoid commenting on blogs that do not seem right to you. This applies especially when commenting on splogs complaining about copyright issues! I did the mistake of commenting once on such a blog and most of my comments were not published for next 2 weeks.

What to Do If You Are Caught?

First of all, you should know the behavior of anti spam plugins. If you comment and your comment appears with note “Your Comment is Awaiting Moderation”, you are not caught, but if no comment or note appears, you are definitely caught. In that case, you can do 2 things:

Contact Akismet Team: Contacting Akismet team is not the best option as most of the mails are not responded to. However, you should give it a shot if you are blocked on multiple blogs.
Contact Blog Owner: Contacting blog owners is the better option if you are blocked on a small number of blogs.Getting marked as a non-spammer will help on other blogs too.

Alternative Solution for Blog Owners

Akismet is the default anti-spam plugin with WordPress and is widely used. But it has many drawbacks! First thing, it does not learn (in some cases). Secondly, its very hard for a blog owner to find a legitimate comment in the list of hundreds of spam comments!

I stopped using Akismet about 2 months before and switched to Defensio, a better solution. Defensio is a better choice as it learns better and it categorises comments based on spamminess. You will see less spammy comments before and most spammy ones after them. This makes filtering easier.

I have been using Defensio + Raven’s Anti-Spam combination for a month now and I get 10-15 spam comments per month. None of these pass Defensio.

Readers, Your Turn

Have you ever been blocked by Akismet? How do you make sure to avoid being caught by Akismet? Share any tips and other alternatives to Akismet you use.

This was a guest post by Mr. I. He blogs about Blogging Tips and Resources at Blogging With Success. If you liked this post, check out 101.5 Free Tools and Services for Bloggers by Mr. I.

Tagged as: anti spam, plugin, Plugins, Wordpress

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{ 31 comments… read them below or add one }

Developerholic April 29, 2009 at 5:24 am

Hi SmartBoyDesigns,

what I do is not to put links in my wordpress comments because there is a big chance that it will be caught by Akismet.

Cheers,
Meg

Christian Hollingsworth Twitter: smartboydesigns December 16, 2011 at 3:28 pm: Yes, links really do cause havoc with comments getting stuck in spam!
Christian Hollingsworth recently posted..Countdown to Christmas – Free eBook

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Smart Boy Twitter: smartboydesigns April 29, 2009 at 7:43 am

I agree. The link that is attached to a posted name is sufficient.

benjamin Cip April 29, 2009 at 11:30 am

Well… I sometimes don’t see the message that my mail is under moderation, but the comment I posted always appears when I come back to the blog.

Mr. I April 29, 2009 at 12:59 pm

@ benjamin I guess it is because the blog owner checks spam folder for good comments. If your comment disappears after hitting submit button without notice, its definitely Akismet or some other anti spam solution.

Salwa April 30, 2009 at 2:54 pm

What I usually do is check my spam lists for any real comments, and always I find, one or two that were caught as a spammer by Akismet. Thanks for your tips on how to avoid being caught.

How I Lost Thirty Pounds in Thirty Days May 3, 2009 at 11:19 am

Hi, interesting post. I have been thinking about this issue,so thanks for sharing. I’ll certainly be coming back to your blog.

Ricardo May 4, 2009 at 11:04 am

Glad you found something that is working for you – I used to use WP-Spam Free but found it would delete alot of the good comments. Akismet also seems to junk some good comments. Sticking to manual comment moderating for now.

Kai Lo May 11, 2009 at 9:43 pm

Thanks for the answer here! I was trying to find an answer about why I can’t comment on WordPress blogs. I tried clearing my cookies and cache folders too. Apparently, someone out there does not like me at all!

Guy Tracfone May 16, 2009 at 8:32 am

I don’t worrly about getting caught leaving comments. If you leave real comments then you won’t be marked as a spammer.

I don’t do any automated commenting.

Thanks

SEO Company June 17, 2009 at 2:16 am

Luckily, I do follow these three points while commenting on blogs may be that’s why still i did not face the “Akismet plug-in” but one of my friends did caught by Akismet and now he is facing comment disappearing problems from blog. I just sent him this post too. I hope he finds it helpful just the way i feel it.

Florian Meissner June 17, 2009 at 12:29 pm

I agree with Guy. As long as you stay sincere, chances of being caught in an Akismet borderline-incident are minimal. Nevertheless, its good to know a way out.

Jenny Carson September 1, 2009 at 5:50 am

I did a test comment on one of my own personal blogs so I know my url is getting caught with askimet. When contacted they say that my comments should go through since I am not in the database. Yet they are still getting stuck.
They are no help beyond this, any ideas on what is catching me up when askimet is the only filter on the test site.

Smart Boy Twitter: smartboydesigns September 2, 2009 at 5:50 am

Jenny, I found your comment held up in the Akismet spam folder. It does seem you’ve been marked. Maybe try posting a comment “without” a URL attached – and see what happens then.

Buy Essay September 10, 2009 at 1:42 am

Akisme blocking me for leaving a comments like “I like this”.

Okay its short, but why it is spam???

Beagle Training September 29, 2009 at 1:18 pm

I have never used aksimet but after reading your post don’t really want to now lol. I don’t get too much spam comment on my blog so never had the need to get an anti spam plugin. I guess when I start getting a lot of comments like your blog I will try out Defensio.

Web design companies October 19, 2009 at 2:20 am

Great tips and tutorials. Thanks.

Facebook Development November 5, 2009 at 3:15 am

Hey man great info indeed. one of my friend also disappoint by the Akismet. Because they block his website and he was not able to post comments on various blogs. This will surely helpful for me and others who have caught by Akismet .

benjamin Cip November 9, 2009 at 12:27 am

Well… I sometimes don't see the message that my mail is under moderation, but the comment I posted always appears when I come back to the blog.

Josh November 28, 2009 at 9:22 pm

I never post links in my comments and if I do they are links to other sites other than my own. I try not to say just say “Thanks!” or “Great post!” and definitely make sure my comments are on topic.

Josh November 29, 2009 at 3:22 am

political science papers December 23, 2009 at 4:57 pm

“Hey man great info indeed. one of my friend also disappoint by the Akismet. Because they block his website and he was not able to post comments on various blogs. This will surely helpful for me and others who have caught by Akismet .”- i support this words!

Alex December 28, 2009 at 5:44 am

Hi,

Hoping I can correct a few misconceptions in your article.

You wrote, “If someone marks your comments as spam multiple times, your comments will start disappearing from many other blogs using Akismet. … someone can intentionally mark you as a spammer and you will be blocked across many blog thus limiting your social interaction”

This is not the case. Akismet learns individually for each user. If someone marks your comment as spam, that will only affect your ability to comment on that person’s blog in future. It has no direct effect on other blogs you might comment on.

Also, “Contacting Akismet team is not the best option as most of the mails are not responded to.”

We respond to all genuine questions and requests sent with our contact form:

http://akismet.com/contact/

And finally, “It does not learn” – Akismet does learn, provided everything is working properly. Most reports of problems turn out to be caused by misconfigured blog servers or confusion due to multiple spam filters. If you do think something is broken, please use the contact form linked above – we’ll do our best to help.

Your suggestions about “How to avoid being caught” are mostly good, but not because of Akismet. It’s a good idea to avoid using short comments, gratuitous links and so on because those are the things spammers commonly do. If you behave like a spammer, people will respond accordingly — and that’s true regardless of what spam filter they use, or even if they moderate comments by hand.

I hope this helps shed some light.

Kind regards,
Alex
Automattic Inc.

seo services February 24, 2010 at 2:38 pm

Hey man great information. My friend is also a disappointing Akismet. Because they would prevent his website, he can not post variousblogs views. This will help me, who captured the people's Akismet:).

SEO Services March 23, 2010 at 6:28 pm

I have never used aksimet but in reading your article really did not want to laugh out loud now. I really do not understand my blog too much spam, so that was never to get an anti-spam plug-in. I think that when I started to become like your blog, I will try to Defensio many of the comments.

Web 2.0 Design June 10, 2010 at 6:15 am

We have recently added this plugin on one of our clients' site….If we really face any problem, we will remove it….Many thanks for sharing such an informative resource.

Gomes_christina July 9, 2010 at 6:18 am

Great tutorial..i will looking forward to work on it.

custom paper writing July 7, 2011 at 4:11 am

Haha! Awesome tips! I want to become a professional spammer so thank you dude. Is this comment long enough to be posted? LOL

Christian Hollingsworth Twitter: smartboydesigns July 7, 2011 at 9:45 am: Looks like you made it through!

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Tram tran December 16, 2011 at 1:20 pm

I love spam( just the one from can;) I hate other spamming activities in general.
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