Akismet Rescue Guide for Bloggers

by Mr. I on April 28, 2009

in Blogging

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:

  1. 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!
  2. 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!
  3. 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:

  1. 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.
  2. 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.

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  • 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.
  • 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 :).
  • Great tips and tutorials. Thanks.
  • 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.
  • Akisme blocking me for leaving a comments like "I like this".

    Okay its short, but why it is spam???
  • 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.
  • 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.
  • 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.
  • 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.
  • 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
  • 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!
  • 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.
  • Hi, interesting post. I have been thinking about this issue,so thanks for sharing. I'll certainly be coming back to your blog.
  • 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.
  • @ 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.
  • 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.
  • I agree. The link that is attached to a posted name is sufficient.
  • 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
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