Year: 2011

Akismet Plugin Version 2.5.3 for WordPress

by Joseph Scott February 8, 2011 10 comments

We’ve just updated the Akismet WordPress plugin to version 2.5.3. There are three changes in this update:

  • Specify the license is GPL v2 or later
  • Fix a bug that could result in orphaned commentmeta entries
  • Include hotfix for WordPress 3.0.5 filter issue

For those that have experienced issues with your commentmeta table growing in size, this update addresses that by making sure we don’t create orphaned rows in the table.

If you have automatic updates configured you’ll see the update in your dashboard soon. You can also download the zip file and manually install the update.

Adiós flash charts

by Dave Martin January 18, 2011 10 comments

Since the Akismet stats were first introduced (back in Oct 2008, the hint Joseph mentioned) they have required flash. Nowadays, there are several disadvantages to using flash for charts:

  1. None of the iOS devices support it
  2. There’s often a delay before chart data can be displayed
  3. We are forced to rely on a third-party .swf file which can’t be modified

We’ve redesigned the Akismet stats page to bring it in line visually with the rest of the WordPress admin. There are new view options: the last two months, the last six months, the last year, or all time.

Not only does the page look better, it also loads faster thanks to flot.js.  Flot is a great little open source chart library for jQuery.  Flot give us complete flexibility over how we display stats, and it allows you to view stats on any device that supports JS.

We hope you enjoy this update!

Brief DNS outage

by Alex January 17, 2011 2 comments

On Jan 17th at 20:52 UTC there was a network outage that caused the Akismet.com DNS servers to be unavailable for 12 minutes. The problem has since been fixed, and everything is back to normal now.

This means that for some blogs, there was a brief window where the Akismet API servers were unavailable. If you’re running version 2.5 or later of the Akismet plugin, any spam or comments during that window were held in the moderation queue, then re-checked a few minutes later.

We apologise for the inconvenience. If you’re running WordPress 3.0+ and haven’t already upgraded to version 2.5 of the Akismet plugin, we’d like to remind you to update, since the new plugin includes features specifically designed to recover from a situation where your blog can’t reach the Akismet API servers.

If you’re ever in doubt, you can see independent third-party availability monitoring of the Akismet API servers here.

Akismet plugin 2.5.2 for WordPress

by Joseph Scott January 14, 2011 17 comments

Today we’ve released another update for the Akismet plugin for WordPress, version 2.5.2. Check the Plugins tab of your wp-admin dashboard and follow the instructions to auto-update. If you don’t use the WordPress auto update feature, you can manually download the zip package from the Akismet plugin page on WordPress.org.

Like the previous 2.5.x versions of this plugin, it requires WordPress 3.0 or higher. If you haven’t upgraded to WordPress 3.0 (version 3.0.4 is the most recent) now is the time to take a look. WordPress 3.1 is at release candidate 2 so expect to see WordPress 3.1 coming out in the near feature.

Version 2.5.2 of the Akismet WordPress plugin includes some minor fixes and improvments:

  • Increases the HTTP request timeout
  • Fixed a typo in one of the function names
  • Increases the height on the Akismet stats page to avoid double scroll bars
  • Adjusts the style of author approved count and comment author name
  • Specifically check for super admins when doing a user role look up on multisite installs

All of these improvements are also live on all WordPress.com hosted sites.

The Akismet plugin for WordPress isn’t the only thing we’ve been working on recently. We have a treat for Akismet users that will go live next week.

What is it you ask? I’ll give you a hint. It is an update to a feature that has stayed more or less the same since late 2008. I think you’ll really like it. Now, no more hints, you’ll just have to wait until next week when it goes live 🙂