Version 4.0.2 of the Akismet WordPress Plugin Is Now Available

by Stephane Daury December 18, 2017

Version 4.0.2 of the Akismet plugin for WordPress is now available.

4.0.2 contains a few helpful changes:

  • Fixed a bug that could cause Akismet to recheck a comment that has already been manually approved or marked as spam.
  • Fixed a bug that could cause Akismet to claim that some comments are still waiting to be checked when no comments are waiting to be checked.

To upgrade, visit the Updates page of your WordPress dashboard and follow the instructions. If you need to download the plugin zip file directly, links to all versions are available in the WordPress plugins directory.

Version 4.0.1 of the Akismet WordPress Plugin Is Now Available

by Christopher Finke November 6, 2017

Version 4.0.1 of the Akismet plugin for WordPress is now available.

4.0.1 contains a few helpful changes:

  • We fixed a bug that could prevent some sites from connecting Akismet using an existing Jetpack connection.
  • We added some code to ensure that any pending Akismet-related events are unscheduled if (heaven forbid) the plugin is deactivated.
  • Some of the Akismet JavaScript is now run asynchronously in order to increase the speed with which your pages will appear to load.

Pretty good, right?  To upgrade, visit the Updates page of your WordPress dashboard and follow the instructions. If you need to download the plugin zip file directly, links to all versions are available in the WordPress plugins directory.

Akismet Has Caught Four Hundred Billion Spam Comments

by Christopher Finke October 30, 2017 1 comment

Over the weekend, Akismet stopped its 400 billionth spam comment.

400,000,000,000 is a lot. How many is it?

  • It’s so many that I lost count of the zeroes while I was typing it out.
  • It’s so many that most basic calculators can’t even display a number that big.
  • It’s so many that if it took you five seconds to mark each of those comments as spam, you’d have to skip your office Halloween party for the next 63,419 years because you’d still be busy clicking.

Akismet will continue quietly catching spam. (In fact, it’s already caught another million spam while you were reading this.)  If you have a spam problem, sign up for Akismet, and you can help us reach our next hundred billion milestone even faster.

Akismet WordPress Plugin 4.0 Now Available

by Christopher Finke September 19, 2017 1 comment

Version 4.0 of the Akismet plugin for WordPress is available.

This update, a.k.a, “Akismet for the REST of Us,” adds endpoints to the WordPress REST API for configuring Akismet and retrieving Akismet stats. Documentation is available here, or you can read the code that adds the endpoints in the `class.akismet-rest-api.php` file.

The progress indicator on the “Check for Spam” button has been improved as well and now shows the percentage of comments that have been rechecked rather than just a loading indicator.

This release also removes support for versions of WordPress before 4.0. If you’re running anything older than that, you should upgrade.

To upgrade, visit the Updates page of your WordPress dashboard and follow the instructions. If you need to download the plugin zip file directly, links to all versions are available in the WordPress plugins directory.

Akismet and Drupal, Together Again

by Christopher Finke August 29, 2017

Akismet is used on millions of WordPress sites, but it isn’t only used with WordPress. In fact, Akismet can be integrated with any CMS, and more than 30 Akismet libraries and plugins are available for non-WordPress systems.

The Drupal CMS has had an unofficial Akismet integration available via the AntiSpam module since 2009, but it hadn’t been updated since 2012, and thousands of sites were still using it despite some significant bugs. In the interest of providing the best experience possible for Akismet customers, we’ve contributed some time and code, and we’re happy to announce that a new stable version of AntiSpam for Drupal is available.

Version 7.x-1.6 can be downloaded from the AntiSpam project page on Drupal.org. Please let us know about any issues you may encounter by leaving a comment below or by opening a ticket at the issue tracker for the AntiSpam module.

Akismet WordPress Plugin 3.3.4 Now Available

by Christopher Finke August 3, 2017

Version 3.3.4 of the Akismet plugin for WordPress is now available.

3.3.4 has a few fixes and enhancements that should make everyone’s lives better:

  • URL previews in the WordPress admin will now begin preloading when the cursor moves near the link so they appear faster once you move your mouse over the link.
  • When a comment is caught by both the Comment Blacklist and Akismet, Akismet will now leave it in Trash instead of moving it out of Trash and into Spam.
  • A bug has been fixed that was preventing a notice from being shown when a site’s firewall was preventing it from connecting to Akismet’s servers.
  • Akismet will no longer log all of its debug information unless a new constant (AKISMET_DEBUG) is also enabled, even if WP_DEBUG and WP_DEBUG_LOG are both enabled.

To upgrade, visit the Updates page of your WordPress dashboard and follow the instructions. If you need to download the plugin zip file directly, links to all versions are available in the WordPress plugins directory.

Akismet WordPress Plugin 3.3.3 Now Available

by Christopher Finke July 13, 2017

Version 3.3.3 of the Akismet plugin for WordPress is now available.

For a full list of the changes in this release, see the revision log, but here are some notable fixes:

  • The number of spam blocked that is displayed on the WordPress dashboard will now be more accurate and updated more frequently.
  • We fixed a bug in the Akismet widget that could cause PHP warnings.
  • We’ve improved Akismet’s compatibility with other plugins by removing a workaround that only targeted very old versions of WordPress.

To upgrade, visit the Updates page of your WordPress dashboard and follow the instructions. If you need to download the plugin zip file directly, links to all versions are available in the WordPress plugins directory.

Coming Soon to a Jetpack Near You

by Richard June 13, 2017 4 comments

If you haven’t tried Jetpack yet — our sister plugin — there’s never been a better time to add it to your bucket list.

In the coming weeks we’ll be announcing a really exciting new addition to Jetpack’s services and you can sign up to get early access right here.