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Comment and trackback spam began propagating through the web in 2003 and they haven’t stopped spreading since. Jay Allen created one of the original comment anti-spam tools which worked by allowing users to keep a blacklist and disallow comments from known spammers.

It’s been five years, and the tools for combating comment spam have evolved. Instead of relying on a blacklist as in the days of yore, newer anti-spam services use a variety of tests and heuristics to decide what category a comment falls in.

Comments are classified either as “ham” (a valid comment), “spam” (a bad comment), or “unknown” (unsure). Generally, the ham comments are allowed to go straight through, spam comments are blocked, and unknown comments are held for moderation.

Instead of being built into publishing platforms such as Wordpress or Movable Type, most anti-spam solutions are run as web services. The publishing platform will either come with an anti-spam plugin or have some available that will talk to the remote web service to determine the status of a comment.

Here I present three of the best anti-spam tools currently available.

Akismet

Akismet has long been the best anti-spam tool available for use with Wordpress. Akismet is free for personal use, but for commercial use a license is required. Akismet is most commonly used as a Wordpress plugin, but it is available for other platforms including Movable Type, Drupal, phpBB, Joomla, and more. Libraries have been developed that enable its use in Java, .NET, PHP, Python, Ruby, and more.

Mollom

Mollom is new to the anti-spam game and is is currently in public beta. It originated as a module for the Drupal content management system. It combines many of the techniques discussed above, but to ease the process of moderation also incorporates a CAPTCHA on “unsure” comments to test if the comment is coming from a human rather than a spam bot.

A Mollom plugin for Wordpress — WP Mollom — is under development by Matthias Vandermaesen.

Mollom libraries have also been developed for Java, Ruby, Python, .NET, and PHP.

Final pricing for Mollom hasn’t been determined, but according to the pricing page, “The basic Mollom service will be free — yes, as in beer — but it will be limited in volume and features.”

TypePad AntiSpam

TypePad AntiSpam became the newest player in the fight against spam when it was released today (5/29/2008). Six Apart has been doing testing of the service for a few months and today declared it ready for open beta.

Having glowing words from TechCrunch won’t hurt early adoption of the service, and you can’t beat the price. “TypePad AntiSpam beta is free for any type of use, personal and commercial, regardless of how many comments you receive.”

Coming out of the gate, TypePad AntiSpam has plugins for Movable Type 3 & 4 and Wordpress 2.5. Six Apart is encouraging developers to get involved and create libraries for languages and plugins for other platforms.

Coming to Conclusions

Up until now, I have been using Akismet to protect my sites from spam. However, I have decided to try TypePad AntiSpam based on the price, compatibility with the Akismet API, and because it has been released as open source. Thus far, I have had no problems.

If you’re looking for the most established solutions, at this point Akismet has been around longer, isn’t a beta product, and has a reputation for stopping comment spam. As Mollom and TypePad AntiSpam mature, they will garner more attention and usage throughout the web.

To get started with a fresh install of Wordpress 2.5.1, here is a list of some handy resources.

Initial Resources

• Download Wordpress
• Install Wordpress: follow the installation instructions available here

Design Resources

• Free Wordpress Themes: some free, basic Wordpress themes
• Template Monster: higher quality themes for purchase
• Using and Creating Wordpress Themes: DIY guide to using, customizing, and creating Wordpress themes

Enhancing Wordpress

• Wordpress Plugin Directory: 2,000+ plugins
• Akismet: the premier anti-spam tool for Wordpress, the most important plugin you can have
• Weblog Tools Collection: a great resource for discovering new plugins/themes and general Wordpress news

If you need any help setting up, installing, or customizing Wordpress for use as a blog or content management system for your own website, please contact me and I can provide you an estimate for the work you need completed.

I have upgraded to Wordpress 2.5 on this blog. The process was simpler than I expected. One thing Wordpress has done very well is ease the simplicity of upgrading. In this case, the lack of changes to the database schema made it even simpler upgrading 2.3.3 to 2.5 than any previous upgrade I’ve done. Summarized: remove the wp-admin and wp-includes directories, replace it w/ the wp-admin and wp-includes from the new version, copy over the updated files in the main Wordpress folder, and then run the wp-admin/upgrade.php script. Done!

Of course, you’ll want to check your plugins before you upgrade. I had no trouble w/ the ones I use on this site (Akismet, MyTwitter, Contact Form 7, etc.)

One nice feature of the new version of Wordpress is the built-in ability to update plugins automatically. On the new version of the Wordpress Plugins screen, any plugin that needs updated will tell you and also provide a link to “upgrade automatically.” I tested it out for two plugins: I updated to the new MyTwitter 1.6 beta and the newest release of Contact Form 7.

The best change in Wordpress 2.5 is the overhaul of the admin interface. It has a cleaner interface, improved post editor, better support for adding media to posts, improved tagging, and miscellaneous tweaks here and there.

If the enhanced features would improve your life and you’ve got about thirty minutes to spend upgrading it and testing out the new capabilities, I recommend giving Wordpress 2.5 a try.

Wordpress 2.5 has been released and is available for download at the Wordpress site. Read the release information for the new update.

A short list of things to do before upgrading to Wordpress 2.5:
• Check for plugin compatability w/ the new version — before you upgrade, identify any plugins your site depends on for functionality. The Wordpress Plugin Directory is the central location to look for plugins and compatibility. Currently, even “featured” plugins such as podPress don’t claim to be ready for 2.5.
• Determine your aversion to risk — Wordpress does a good job patching up security issues, but when a new version comes out the software could have new vulnerabilities that have yet to be discovered. 2.5.1 will inevitably follow within the coming weeks or months as new potential issues become known.
• Weigh the benefits — Wordpress 2.5 comes with a number of new features and changes including a redesigned admin Dashboard and Dashboard widgets, customizable admin templates/stylesheets, improved tag management, better password security, a new Shortcode API, and more.

Tips
• If you’ve got a decent webhost, install Wordpress 2.5 in a test directory or domain (beta.example.com), install any plugins you need, and see if they work. It’s better to break a test site than to break your real site.
• Wait a few weeks — other people will run into problems w/ Wordpress 2.5 and blog, comment, and post to forums about the solutions they have. If you wait, you’ll be able to learn from their mistakes and solutions before using valuable time and resources on problems you don’t need to have.

Your Experience
If you have any thoughts or comments regarding your experience w/ Wordpress 2.5, feel free to share.

I recently acquired an Apple Airport Express (gracias a kamyn1) with the intent of wirelessly broadcasting music/audio from my computer (one side of the room) to my home stereo system (other side of the room) using the AirTunes functionality. This has been a good solution for me as it’s designed for iTunes and that’s what I primarily use to play music on my computer.

First, you need to install the Airport Express. This can be a difficult process depending on your level of experience with wireless networking; if you’re having trouble, visit the Apple Support page for the AirPort. To use the device, begin by running the installation software that comes with the device (or download it from Apple) on your computer. You will also need to connect the Airport Express to your stereo; for this, you can either use a 1/8″ to RCA connector or 1/8″ to Optical/Toslink connector and hook it to your stereo receiver or other audio input.

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I’ve been attending SaturdayHouse consistently for the past three months. A brief description of SaturdayHouse:

Seattle Saturday House is a weekly gathering of several people who meet and do … whatever they want! People work on projects, people talk about ideas, people conspire and hatch plans, and people play games with each other.

Last Saturday, people held a session about “hacks that make life simpler.” I took notes, and I’ve cleaned them up here for your viewing. If you’ve got any additional ideas to share or if you were one of the presenters and want to correct something I’ve posted here, please let me know by leaving a comment or emailing me (cal /at/ calvinfreitas \dot\ com).

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CalvinFreitas.com is my home on the web. It is in the beginning. I will be using this site to release information about technology and items of interest, share experiences, and serve as a basis for releasing projects and relaying information about things I am working on.