No More Comment Spam! 46+ Free Tools and Resources to Stop Blog Spammers

If you’re a blogger, then you’re probably all too familiar with spammers trying to use your website as free advertising for their own sites or services. Stop comment spam once and for all with the help of these free tools and resources. Tools for WordPress Blogs Below is a list of tools and plugins that will help prevent spam from overwhelming your WordPress blog.

1. Spam Karma 2.3: Spam Karma 2 works on WordPress blogs and is designed to block spammers from corrupting your site without hindering your loyal readers’ ability to comment.
2. Math Comment Protection: This WordPress plugin asks readers to solve a simple math problem before commenting. Why does this work? Only humans can answer these problems — spam robots cannot.
3. WordPress Referrer Bouncer: This plugin works on WordPress-sponsored blogs. The tool works by “bounc[ing] back referrer spam attempts” so that they never reach you.
4. Simple Trackback Validation plugin: Especially designed for WordPress blogs, this spam solution tests incoming trackbacks to make sure the website is coming from a valid source.
5. Rice University Trackback Plugin: This plugin, designed by Rice University students, is the original trackback validator that the above listing is based on.
6. Enhanced WordPress Contact Form Plugin: This plugin adds a referring page on your website, information for the original referrer, spam protection and more.
7. Protect Web Form: Design your own Captcha form for readers to decipher before they comment.
8. Challenge: Download and custom design Challenge to suit your website. Your readers are “thrown” a challenge before they are allowed to comment.
9. Referrer Karma: This valuable tool “prevents malicious bots from accessing your pages, flooding your logs and possibly draining your server�s bandwidth.”
10. Worst Offenders: Use Worst Offenders to supplement spam identification tools, making “the process of spotting false positives far easier.”
11. Spam Force Field: Dougal Campbell’s anti-spam tool denies all pineappleproxy requests, as well as any recognized malicious key words or addresses.
12. Comment Timeout: After a post has appeared on your site for a certain amount of time, this tool times out the comment box. Users will be notified before the discussions are closed, and long-term, ongoing discussions remain open so that your readers aren’t dissuaded from participating.

Free Software Download these software programs for free protection against spam.

13. Akismet: Akismet is a “collaborative effort to make comment and trackback spam a non-issue and restore innocence to blogging.” One of the leading anti-spam programs on the Internet, Akismet is free for personal use.
14. Bad Behavior: Bad Behavior is a comprehensive software program that analyzes spammers’ “actual HTTP requests and comparing them to profiles from known spambots.” While it is technically free, donations are appreciated.
15. PHPrbl: This free download gets rid of referrer spam, which can take over your website at frightening speeds.
16. Pivot-Blacklist: If you use the Web hosting service Pivot to support your blog, check out Pivot-Blacklist, “the one and only anti-spam solution for Pivot.”
17. Spammer Tar Pit: Eliminate spam with the Spammer Tar Pit. Visitors whose IP addresses match the spam words in your Comment Moderation setting will be denied access.
18. Spam Lookup: If you maintain a Movable Type blog, use SpamLookup to eliminate spam from your site.
19. Apache: This guide explains how to install and use Apache to fight blog spam.
20. Comment Spam Quick Fix: If you use a Movable Type blog, try this straightforward spam fighter that will protect your blog from spam bots.

More Resources

21. Prevent Spam the Google Way: Google has come up with a system that punishes spammers who post their sites on blogs in an effort “to raise their own websites’ search engine rankings.” Google now recognizes the rel=”nofollow” attribute as uniquely spam-related, and those sites don’t receive credit when Google ranks sites.
22. Bye Bye Referrer Spammers: Check out this guide to ridding your blog of annoying referrer spammers.
23. Techniques for Stopping Blog Spam: This list offers a lot of great advice for stopping spam such as downloading software solutions or installing a Captcha.
24. Edit/Delete Comment Notification: Another Movable Type spam solution, this tool allows bloggers to edit and delete offensive comments more easily.
25. Fighting Spam with CSS: Follow this guide to setting up a spam-proof form on your website.
26. Comment Queue Script/MT Hack: Never let another spam message appear on your MT blog again. This tool allows bloggers to preview blogs before they’re posted.
27. The Solution to Blog Spamming: Threadwatch.org considers the pros and cons of popular anti-spam techniques used by bloggers, like Blacklists, Captchas and pre-moderation.
28. Spam Unit: Add this blog to your favorites to read reviews of anti-spam tools, catch up on the latest anti-spam laws and news and to discover the top ten spammers that pose a threat to the Web world.
29. Tips and Help for Regular Users: This list organizes spam fighting techniques for Windows, Mac, and Linux users. Readers will also find helpful information for downloading anti-spam tools and software.
30. Terry Zink’s Anti-Spam Blog: Microsoft program manager Terry Zink discusses spam products, news, and economics in his informative posts.
31. Ryan Pitylak Anti-Spam Activist: This blog teaches readers how to combat spam. Written from a spammer’s point of view, visitors get an inside look at how spammers think.
32. MSExchange: This site is full of resources for learning about anti-spam techniques and software, blogging and more.

Articles Check out these articles for more tips and ideas for blocking comment spam.

33. How to Stop Blog Spammers: Moxie Drive Expressions provides a brief overview of why bloggers should continue to welcome feedback and how they can stop spammers from corrupting comment boxes.
34. 5 Quick and Easy Ways to Stop Blog Spam Before It Hits Your Blog: This uber-popular article gives bloggers detailed directions for blocking comment spam before it overwhelms your site.
35. Trackback Spam Eliminated: This article from the blog The Net is Dead explains how to eliminate trackback spam once and for all.
36. The Spam Diaries: Approaches to Fighting Blog Spam: This article proposes different ideas for beating comment spam.
37. What Will Stop Comment Spam?: This informative article considers the effects of popular tools and resources bloggers and Web hosters turn to in order to stop blog spam.
38. Comments on Comment Spam: Lorelle on WordPress considers comment spam “the single most despicable and destructive force on the Internet today.”
39. Comment Spam: The website Six Apart offers lots of tips and ideas for fighting comment spammers, including asking readers to register before they comment and checking all comments before posting them on your site.
40. The Blog Tool That Has Saved Me Months of Work: This review of the anti-spam tool Akismet, which caught 2 million spam messages on the author’s blog in just 18 months.
41. Blog Comment Spam on the Rise: Blogger Jeremy Zawodny agonizes over different anti-spam techniques. Join the discussion and share tips with other readers.
42. Tempted by Blogs, Spam Becomes “Splog”: This article discusses the outbreak of splogs.
43. How to Stop Comment Spam on Your Blog: The Blog Coach shares secrets for keeping pesky comment spam at bay.
44. How To: Stop Blog Spam Forever: Check out these tips from the TechnoBeta Blog, and you can learn how to combat comment spam, contact form spam and trackback spam.
45. Stopping Blog Spam: Blogger Jim Boykin shares tips for stopping blog spammers, from the “industrial turn and burn” offenders to those annoying backlinkers.
46. Tips to Stop Blog Comment Spam on WordPress Blogs: Learn how to update your Comment Moderation and Blacklist folders, discover new anti-spamming tools, and read about general anti-spamming techniques in this helpful post.

Tags: Resources, Software, Spam