In this brief tutorial we will see a much lighter and simpler alternative to Akismet, the antispam plugin that WordPress comes with by default.
What is Akismet?
Akismet is an antispam plugin for WordPress, specially designed to prevent comments from being filled with advertisements for casinos, ink cartridges and various medicines.
Despite the fact that Akismet is a highly recommended plugin, which is very worthwhile, and which is from the WordPress developers themselves, it does have some weaknesses.
To get started, you need to have an account at WordPress.com. I know it’s relatively easy to open one, but many users don’t want to have to open an account just to use a plugin. Also when you are going to use it it seems that you have to pay (although it is free), but they test it in case it strains. And on the other hand, it is a plugin that takes up a lot of resources for doing such a simple function.
How do you avoid SPAM?
Basically, there are three main paths: Algorithm, captcha and honeypot:
The first is through an algorithm to “value” that comment. Too short? Too long? Too many links? A Russian IP? Words like “viagra, cialis, casino or cartridge”? Everything is suspicious.
The second way is through a Captcha or reCaptcha of turn. This consists of the fact that the user must pass a selectivity exam that is increasingly difficult to pass. And to make matters worse, spammers are skipping it more and more easily.
The problem with captchas is that the more effective they are against SPAM, the more they decrease the conversion rate, especially in comments and contact forms. Users don’t feel like filling them in because it involves effort, and we already know that the effort level of an average user is… Well, let’s just say very low.
And then we have the last option, which is the one I prefer. It is honey pot. The word comes from “honey pot”, something that is used as a lure, so that spammers fall for it, without even knowing it.
Antispam by Honeypot
In the vast majority of cases, a honeypot consists of a hidden field in forms. What do I mean? A form, whether contact or post comments, can have several fields (name, email, URL, message, etc.). Well, what the honeypot does is add another hidden field, which the user cannot see.
What is the use of having that hidden field? Well, the operation is simple: If someone fills in that invisible field, it is because they are not human..
Indeed: Spammers are not human. It is not that I insult them, it is that they are not people who are going to leave comments manually, one by one, but rather robots. And those robots do not “look” at the web, but at the code. And in the code you don’t see if a field is visible or invisible. They all look
In other words, we can deduce that if someone fills in the field, they are a robot. With what direct comment to the trash.
To do such a thing, we can use various . But be careful, if you are users of Gravity Forms, or of certain security plugins, they already have it incorporated. I tell it in the and the WordPress Security Course, take a look at them.
But if you want a lightweight and easy-to-use plugin that gets the job done in no time, nothing like . It is installed, activated, and… and that’s it.
This plugin does not use captchas, nor moderation lists, nor does it even have an options page. Just load the spam and that’s it. I have been using it for a long time on many pages, and I am delighted. Not in vain has .
As it does? Basically through two curious methods, let’s see them:
JS Captcha
This adds a hidden field in forms via JavaScript. The field asks for the current year. But attention, that the user NO you have to put it, because because of JS, the plugin itself is autofilled by JavaScript.
What’s the point of doing such a thing? Well it turns out that bots, unlike browsers, do not execute JavaScript. In other words, if it is a person who visits us through a browser, it is accepted. And if not, it is that it is a bot, and it is not accepted.
honey pot
And on the other hand, we have the honeypot that I have told you about. Includes a extra field, which humans cannot see. If the bot fills it in, it is SPAM, and it will kill it quickly.
Both things combined, make this plugin very good: On the one hand it shows something that only browsers can interpret, and on the other hand something that only bots can interpret. In this way you can quickly discover if it is SPAM 🙂
Summary and conclusion
Akismet is a joy, it is recommended and very good, but it requires a WordPress.org account. If we want to do without that, we have a very lightweight alternative called , which works via honeypot.
If you want to know more about honeypot, take a look at and . You already know that if you subscribe, you will have access to the rest of the 6047 videos. 🙂
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