August 23rd, 2010 by Alex
Version 2.4 of the Akismet plugin for WordPress is available now. This is a maintenance release that fixes some bugs, and includes some preparation for new features in a forthcoming version.
Major changes include:
* Akismet now uses the trash bin when deleting old comments (WP 2.9+ only)
* Legacy code needed for WordPress versions earlier than 2.7 has been moved to a separate file, legacy.php
* Several minor deprecation and compatibility issues in some versions of WordPress have been fixed
* Various bug fixes described in detail here.
This version retains backwards compatibility with old versions of WordPress, but it is the last major release that will do so. The next release of the Akismet plugin will require WordPress 3.0. We’ll continue to maintain the 2.4 branch of Akismet with security updates for users who are unable to upgrade from old WordPress versions.
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February 19th, 2010 by Alex
As you’ve probably heard, WordPress.com had a major network issue today. Fortunately, Akismet was not affected — all Akismet API services were operating at full capacity. (Some tweets and blogs incorrectly reported that Akismet was down too.)
We are of course monitoring closely for signs of any aftershocks. As always, if you have any Akismet problems or questions, please contact our support.
Details of the WordPress.com downtime are posted in this announcement on the WordPress.com blog.
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January 11th, 2010 by Toni Schneider
One of the biggest challenges for Akismet is most people don’t know there’s a commercial option, and even if you do we use a Paypal subscription method that’s a pain in the butt. (For now.)
On the first front we have a lot of work to do on awareness, but on the latter it seemed like most people already have a billing arrangement with their web host so if we could work with them directly it would remove a lot of the friction from the upgrade process.
Probably the largest WordPress web host in the world is GoDaddy, and they’re also the first to make Akismet Pro Blogger license keys available directly on GoDaddy.com. Should you desire to do so, you can now get a commercial Akismet key with a single click from your GoDaddy account which will make you kosher if you have a commercial blog or want priority support and spam checking.
If you’re a GoDaddy customer and already cool with Akismet, please take a minute to leave a review on their site. It amazes me that some people still blog without spam protection.
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December 9th, 2009 by Alex
Tom Lee writes at Manifest Destiny about his discovery that spammers were abusing a full-text RSS tool he developed.
The self-described black-hat search engine optimization crowd — the folks who assemble sites peppered with ads that are designed to attract search engine traffic, aka “link farms” — had been using my script to steal other people’s content and republish it on their own sites.
Spammers call those link farms “autoblogs”. They’re a popular fad among black-hat SEO consultants (which is what spammers generally prefer to call themselves). His description is correct: they use automated tools to copy material without permission and re-publish it on fake blogs covered with ads. Typically they also send high volumes of pingback or trackback notifications to try to trick naïve bloggers into linking to them (thus boosting the spammers’ search engine rankings – often at the expense of the original authors of the stolen material). They rip off both the bloggers whose material they’ve stolen, and the advertisers who are paying for worthless ads run on bogus sites.
It’s a pattern of behaviour we’re all too familiar with at Akismet.com. Spammers take advantage of trusting (and trustworthy) bloggers, web sites and online services. And it’s the innocent operators of those services who, ultimately, are harmed the most.
Tom’s experience demonstrates an unfortunate modern reality: that spammers will take advantage of trust and openness. If you own any web site that allows users to consume resources – that is, any web site that allows users to perform an action – you need to monitor it for signs of abuse. An unsupervised or abandoned web site is a spammer’s playground.
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