Normally I scan through Akismet-flagged spam comments, and sometimes I catch a couple that are real comments. Most days, it’s been five pages. But guys, I just can’t face skimming twenty-nine pages of drug names and stuff like “Scooby Doo hentai,” so I just deleted it all. Sorry if your actual comment got flushed along with the dreck.
Maybe I should add a Turing test. It’d have to be a pleasant one, though, ’cause I hate most of them. And if I sometimes have difficulty telling what combination of letters and numbers I’m supposed to input in order to prove I’m not a robot, I’m betting people with low vision or colour blindness won’t have a chance in hell.
The only time I get flagged for spam is when I put in one or more links. Where a link is needed, I think a quick post at my blog with a link back to yours would be okay.
Same situation. I probably delete a few real ones because there’s just too much spam to go through it all, and after about a page you just get worn down. Fortunately, Akismet does a pretty good job.
I’m seeing the arithmetic tests more and more. Apparently spammers can’t do math.
I recommend putting Bad Behavior in front of Akismet. It looks at the behavior of the “browser”, not the content of the comment, so false positives are all but unheard of. You’ll still want Akismet for the ones it misses, though.
I went from about 100 Akismet-caught comments per day to about 5 after installing Bad Behavior. Akismet alone isn’t really enough anymore, mostly for the reason you mention.
Thanks, Rich. I’ve just upgraded to the latest version of WordPress and installed Bad Behavior, and I’m hoping that’ll do it.