This morning, when I checked this blog’s administration interface – I received a nice suprise. This is what I saw :

Yes! You read it right. There was no spam attack on my blog during the weekend. Usually, I would find around 400 – 500 spam caught by Akismet plugin.

So is it a miracle? Well not really. Actually I installed the math comment spam protection plugin on this blog. What it does is add one form field inside the comment form, prompting the user for the answer to a simple math question.

Theoretically only humans can read the question and give the answer. The configuration also gives you the ability to change the numbers representation used in the formula.

If one day, the spam engine can read the question, you can set the plugin configuration to change the numbers used. So you can use other languages like Bahasa Malaysia or using spelled numbers (one + one). You can also replace the characters making it harder for the engine to read (like 0ne – the O is spelled using zero, not the letter O).

This plugin is compatible with the latest WP version (2.0.5) and happily works with Akismet plugin. So if there is any spam that escapes the math question, they will still be trapped by Akismet. It’s just an outer protection from spam and also from people bad at maths.

Check out the plugins here : Math Comment Spam Protection Plugin