How To End Wordpress Comment Spam

by aaron_nimocks

Posted: 14 years ago 7 replies

INTERNET MARKETING

I really dont understand why people are creating these anti comment spam tools for Wordpress! Some of them are certainly creative but ending spam is extremely simple.

The only reason comment spammers are able to function is because all Wordpress sites use the same html pretty much for forms. All you need to do is edit the normal and all automated comment spammers wont work!

wp-comments-post.php

Find

Code:

$comment_author       = ( isset($_POST['author']) )  ? trim(strip_tags($_POST['author'])) : null;

Change to

Code:

$comment_author       = ( isset($_POST['SOMETHING ELSE']) )  ? trim(strip_tags($_POST['SOMETHING ELSE'])) : null;

comments.php (in WP TEMPLATE)

Find

<input type="text" name="author" id="name2" value="<?php echo $comment_author; ?>" size="50" tabindex="1" /></p>

Change to

<input type="text" name="MATCH THE 2 ABOVE" id="SOMETHING DIFFERENT" value="<?php echo $comment_author; ?>" size="50" tabindex="1" /></p>

It is that simple. Now comment spammers cant submit using your form because the cant locate the Author field.

Just make sure you change author to the same thing on both files. Then change the id= to anything you want.

#comment #end #spam #wordpress

Sparhawke 14 years ago

Nice trick indeed, though your title is a bit misleading, I would change it to "A how-to guide for stopping wordpress comment spam"

I originally thought this topic was a question so went off looking for an answer for you
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Don Schenk 14 years ago

Thank you. Helpful tidbit, but you are everywhere. Well, this thread is. I thought I was seeing triplets.

:-Don

BTW: The other two threads are now invalid and won't take posts.
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Mark Blaze 14 years ago

Wow i like it!

I get all sorts of comment spam on my blogs, will this stop any of the trackback postings i get or just comments from automated tools?

Do all the tools run off and look for this string and are not adaptable so they just look for the boxes to post the correct info in?

Thanks

Mark Blaze
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Ruth P 14 years ago

Thank you for this. These automated commenting systems are driving me insane, and they just seem to be getting worse lately. Great tip!
~Ruth
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agc 14 years ago

I rely on akismet which catches almost all spam.

Then, level two, would be to rename not the author field, rather the url fields.

Ad an isset() test and replace a missing field w/ an empty string.

If the comments are autosubmitted, they will still be accepted, but without the URL backlink.

Taadaaa.
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- bgmacaw 14 years ago
  
  This modification will break other plugins, such as CommentLuv, that depend on this field having a certain name and you'll need to modify the wp-comments-post.php everytime you apply one of those all-too-frequent WordPress security updates.
  
  But, it's a good mod anyway, especially on blogs that are being hammered by automated tools.
  
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EyeInTriangle 14 years ago

I have been wanting to stop the spamming. There doesn't seem to be a very clean method to do so.
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How To End Wordpress Comment Spam

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