Most bloggers love comments, at least comments that are real and engaging. The problem most of us encounters relates to the fact most comments we receive are generated by link-building spam bots.

Fortunately, the plethora of WordPress plugins available today includes many designed to minimize spam comments. One such plugin is Akismet, which is part of the default WordPress installation. For many years, I have relied on the Aksimet plugin to send spam comments to the “Spam Folder”. Though Akismet does it’s job extremely well, there is always someone trying to outsmart preventative technology.

Though Akismet is preforming today as well or better than it ever has, a recent increase in spam comments from a couple of individual caused me to seek a second line of defense. During this period, one annoying spam bot was submitting dozens of comments each day. Even though Aksimet dutifully sent them to spam-land, they were increasing the server load and quite frankly, just a pain to address on a daily basis.

After doing a little research, I found tested and now recommend a second WP plugin to help ward off those pesky spam bots; it’s name is “Block Spam By Math Reloaded“. This plugin adds a simple math captcha code to the comment area of each post as well as one for the site login page. Since most bots are not designed to deal with the captcha, the comments (and attempts to breach the site) are instantly halted.

I am happy to report that since installing the Block Spam By Math Reloaded as an addition to Akismet, spam comments have ceased!