Akismet

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Frequently Asked Questions

Here are a few questions that have come up a few times in our testing, if you have a question that isn't listed here, feel free to contact us.

How does it work?

When a new comment, trackback, or pingback comes to your blog it is submitted to the Akismet web service which runs hundreds of tests on the comment and returns a thumbs up or thumbs down.

Do I have to maintain a blacklist?

Nope! Part of the idea of Akismet is that you're always protected up-to-the-second from the latest dirty tricks of spammers. There's no maintenance, no upgrading, no hassle.

Where does the spam go?

When the plugin catches something as spam it saves it in the database for 15 days in case you want to check it out manually and then automattically deletes it. In the unlikely event something gets incorrectly identified as spam you can correct it and it submits the "false positive" back to Akismet for analysis and improvement of our system. If a spam comment happens to get through and you mark it as spam within WordPress, it does the same thing. Akismet becomes more effective the more you use it.

Can I use Akismet for my own blog that resides outside WordPress.com but using the API key from WP.com?

Yes! That's the point. Download the plugin and start relaxing.

Where do I find the API key?

It's on your profile page, check out this FAQ on WordPress.com.

My API key doesn't work!

We get this pretty often, try these steps:

• Try the key again, after a few minutes.
• Type in the key instead of copying and pasting it.
• Ensure that your host can make outgoing HTTP requests to akismet.com. (Many hosts block or firewall outgoing connections.)

What if the Akismet web service is down?

One of the reasons we're doing Akismet is we've built up a highly fault-tolerant infrastructure that can handle huge amounts of traffic and processing. However if something ever does go wrong your comments will simply go into the moderation queue.

What do I do if Akismet misses a spam?

When you mark a comment as "spam" in the plugin or submit it using the submit-spam API call, the mistake is noted by Akismet and it learns from your submission.

Help! Akismet is catching a regular comment as spam!

Don't worry, if you see a regular comment on your Akismet page, just click the "Not Spam" checkbox and submit and the comment will be sent back to Akismet as a mistake. The system will learn from your submission, though it may take a day or so in some cases. False positives, as they're called, are extremely rare and we watch them closely.

How can I support Akismet?

You might consider buying a pro-blogger license for $5/mo. If you would like to participate in the development of the GPL Akismet WordPress plugin or discuss adapting the Akismet API for a different platform, join the Spam Stopper mailing list and introduce yourself and your ideas. The more the merrier. :)

Can Akismet be used for other things besides WordPress?

Absolutely. The Akismet API can be adapted for almost any application with submitted content, including forums, wikis, and contact forms. If you want to adapt it for a different system, please join our development community.

What if it shows a different number of comments than it has reported caught?

Some versions of the Akismet for WordPress plugin will hide duplicate comments, making it appear to be a different number caught than displayed.

Should I use any other spam plugins?

We ask that you turn off all other spam plugins as they may reduce the effectiveness of Akismet. Besides, you shouldn't need them anymore! :) But if you are investigating alternatives, we recommend checking out Bad Behavior and Spam Karma, both which integrate with Akismet nicely.

Does it work on non-English comments?

Yes, our system does not discriminate against non-English comments. We have happy users from Japan to France.

You misspelled "automattic."

No we didn't. :)

Why do I need to register for WordPress.com to get a key?

Because it allows us to maintain a single registration system and better protect against abuse of the system. You don't need to get a blog, choose the "just an account" option when signing up.

What stops the system from being gamed?

Well without giving too much of the secret sauce away, we can safely say that it would be pretty difficult to poison Akismet. We use dozens of factors to determine the spamminess of a submission, and we also have an identity attached to everyone using and contributing to the system, which allows us to do some interesting things with weighting and clustering activity.

Does Akismet work for WordPress MU

Yes.

Which licenses should I choose? I'm a (insert special case here).

If you're a borderline business and you feel like you should be paying, go for the Pro-blogger license. If you're a non-profit or .edu, we have special pricing here.

Do you have any buttons we can put on our site?

Not officially, but one of our users Nigel Kane made this one: . If you make a button, please let us know and we'll put it up here.

Who's behind this?

Akismet is the brainchild of Matt Mullenweg of WordPress and his merry band of Automattic rascal hackers. The name can be blamed on Matt's sister, Charleen.

What does the name mean?

Akismet is a contraction of Automattic Kismet. Our favorite definition of kismet is "Kismet (principle), the magnetic attractive force that actualizes the playing out of karma; often used in the positive sense."