Is Akismet down?

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I’ve grown so used to the awesome spam blocker that WordPress.com includes for free (it comes from Akismet, which is owned by Automattic, the same folks who do WordPress).

But tonight a TON of spam got through. So, I wonder if Akismet is down or if something got horked?

By the way, if Matt Mullenweg is reading this, can you let me see older comments on the comment page? I can only see the last few comments and when I get a spam storm like this it makes it very difficult to be sure that I deleted them all. Same on the spam page. Let me see hundreds, not just the last few.

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Published by Robert Scoble

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64 thoughts on “Is Akismet down?”

  1. If my comment is published, you can be sure it’s down because they blocked me for no reason!

    But I know spammers attacked blogs in recent days with tons of spams and I got more than 500 spams in less than three days. I have three spam blocker modules installed + Akismet on CS.

    I was getting 10-20 spam per day regularly but these new attacks are terrible 😦

    Like

  2. If my comment is published, you can be sure it’s down because they blocked me for no reason!

    But I know spammers attacked blogs in recent days with tons of spams and I got more than 500 spams in less than three days. I have three spam blocker modules installed + Akismet on CS.

    I was getting 10-20 spam per day regularly but these new attacks are terrible 😦

    Like

  3. I have got more spam in the last 5 hours than in all the time I have had my blog, so something is definitely going on with Akismet. What I want to know is how does Akismet work with hosted WordPress installs (as opposed to WordPress.com)

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  4. I have got more spam in the last 5 hours than in all the time I have had my blog, so something is definitely going on with Akismet. What I want to know is how does Akismet work with hosted WordPress installs (as opposed to WordPress.com)

    Like

  5. Deepak: I’m not sure. I wonder if this is because the spammers got smart and are changing their methods? Either way, I just went through and cleaned up the mess. I’ve learned that this usually helps everyone out in the system (Akismet is a community, actually, and we help each other out by properly checking both our comments and our spam pages to make sure it’s doing its job correctly).

    It’s WAY better than the blocking systems on other blog services, though. So, I’m VERY happy. It’s just very unusual when it doesn’t work well, so it’s worth talking about here.

    Like

  6. Deepak: I’m not sure. I wonder if this is because the spammers got smart and are changing their methods? Either way, I just went through and cleaned up the mess. I’ve learned that this usually helps everyone out in the system (Akismet is a community, actually, and we help each other out by properly checking both our comments and our spam pages to make sure it’s doing its job correctly).

    It’s WAY better than the blocking systems on other blog services, though. So, I’m VERY happy. It’s just very unusual when it doesn’t work well, so it’s worth talking about here.

    Like

  7. Same problem here. I’ve received close to 200 spam comments already, starting a couple hours ago, and it’s driving me crazy. I just keep my comments window open and click refresh every minute. Good to hear I’m not the only one!

    For now, I have set it so all comments are sent to moderation in the Discussion Options. It helps because at least offensive spam comments aren’t making way to my readers.

    Like

  8. Same problem here. I’ve received close to 200 spam comments already, starting a couple hours ago, and it’s driving me crazy. I just keep my comments window open and click refresh every minute. Good to hear I’m not the only one!

    For now, I have set it so all comments are sent to moderation in the Discussion Options. It helps because at least offensive spam comments aren’t making way to my readers.

    Like

  9. Please collect a large markdown on your medicine
    faithful classes, Premier quality.
    collosal mixed bax, including strenuous to find drugs
    No formula needed.
    Secret with No waiting space or date vital
    Obtain in mass and Save! whereas further

    (joke-pasted my latest spam)

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  11. Please collect a large markdown on your medicine
    faithful classes, Premier quality.
    collosal mixed bax, including strenuous to find drugs
    No formula needed.
    Secret with No waiting space or date vital
    Obtain in mass and Save! whereas further

    (joke-pasted my latest spam)

    Like

  21. Well hopefully it is a temporary glitch, since Akismet is the best blogging tool that no one talks about (cause it works so well)

    Like

  25. Spam, shmam. I left a misconfigured proxy server open for a week and, while I’ve got it locked down denying everything except what its supposed to pass, the click fraudsters are sending it thousands of requests to proxy clicks through to various ad networks. I’ve added dynamic firewall measures to permanently lock out any ip that produces 5 404’s in 10 minutes, but its barely making a dent.

    Its enough to make a person consider abandoning the internet.

    Like

  26. Spam, shmam. I left a misconfigured proxy server open for a week and, while I’ve got it locked down denying everything except what its supposed to pass, the click fraudsters are sending it thousands of requests to proxy clicks through to various ad networks. I’ve added dynamic firewall measures to permanently lock out any ip that produces 5 404’s in 10 minutes, but its barely making a dent.

    Its enough to make a person consider abandoning the internet.

    Like

  29. Robert – same here on my WordPress powered blog. I usually get none but overnight over 30 spams got through. That’s a new record for me. I have very tight controls in place.

    This just goes to show how effective Akismet usually is. It has, so far, stopped 22,981 spams for me but the most recent spam stopped was 11:22pm GMT – just over 10 hours ago.

    And the spam is still coming through.

    Like

  30. Robert – same here on my WordPress powered blog. I usually get none but overnight over 30 spams got through. That’s a new record for me. I have very tight controls in place.

    This just goes to show how effective Akismet usually is. It has, so far, stopped 22,981 spams for me but the most recent spam stopped was 11:22pm GMT – just over 10 hours ago.

    And the spam is still coming through.

    Like

  31. Noticing the same thing here.

    I guess the phrase is true: ya don’t know what ya got until it’s gone. Hopefully I’ll wake up in the morning to a functioning spam filter, and not 100 moderation emails.

    Like

  32. Noticing the same thing here.

    I guess the phrase is true: ya don’t know what ya got until it’s gone. Hopefully I’ll wake up in the morning to a functioning spam filter, and not 100 moderation emails.

    Like

  33. I stopped it on my blog now.

    I noticed most of the spam comments contained a term (bu***ke – not using the full term in case I fall foul of filters!).

    If you add that term to WordPress -> Options -> Discussion -> Comment Blacklist and click update all comments containing that term are nuked. No notification, nothing, gone.

    Use with care!!!

    Like

  34. I stopped it on my blog now.

    I noticed most of the spam comments contained a term (bu***ke – not using the full term in case I fall foul of filters!).

    If you add that term to WordPress -> Options -> Discussion -> Comment Blacklist and click update all comments containing that term are nuked. No notification, nothing, gone.

    Use with care!!!

    Like

  37. Pingback: Peter’s Web Development Blog » Blog Archive » Akismet goes down…

  38. >>Akismet seems to be back stopping spam again

    No Tom…The Akismet plugin is not working (500 spams on my blog since this morning :-()

    Something is bizarre. On their website, it seems that they have filtered a lot of spam today ! (645,791…)

    2 solutions

    1. Their counter is a fake
    2. The problem is appearing only on WordPress Blogs.

    Like

  39. >>Akismet seems to be back stopping spam again

    No Tom…The Akismet plugin is not working (500 spams on my blog since this morning :-()

    Something is bizarre. On their website, it seems that they have filtered a lot of spam today ! (645,791…)

    2 solutions

    1. Their counter is a fake
    2. The problem is appearing only on WordPress Blogs.

    Like

  40. It’s good to hear that I’m not the only one having this spam issue this morning. The only thing I’ve been able to find out so far is what Neville mentioned above – Akismet had an upgrade last night. It’s hard to complain though as Akismet has been almost perfect for me to date. Hopefully this is just a temporary glitch, but it would be nice to hear from them what may have happened.

    Like

  41. It’s good to hear that I’m not the only one having this spam issue this morning. The only thing I’ve been able to find out so far is what Neville mentioned above – Akismet had an upgrade last night. It’s hard to complain though as Akismet has been almost perfect for me to date. Hopefully this is just a temporary glitch, but it would be nice to hear from them what may have happened.

    Like

  44. Yeah, it’s been crazy on my blog as well, I’m actually somewhat relieved that it’s not just me 🙂 Most of them are getting held for moderation, but I get an email alert for that so I got a tonne of email as well this morning. Boy, i hope they get this figured out soon.

    Karl

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  45. Yeah, it’s been crazy on my blog as well, I’m actually somewhat relieved that it’s not just me 🙂 Most of them are getting held for moderation, but I get an email alert for that so I got a tonne of email as well this morning. Boy, i hope they get this figured out soon.

    Karl

    Like

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  48. I love Akismet as well. It’s been great.

    Akismet is still catching some for me but I’ve had many get through this morning. I wondered as well if it had to do with the “fine tuning” noted on the Akismet blog.

    Like

  49. I love Akismet as well. It’s been great.

    Akismet is still catching some for me but I’ve had many get through this morning. I wondered as well if it had to do with the “fine tuning” noted on the Akismet blog.

    Like

  50. Idyllopus: hmmm, I’ve had to manually delete more than 200 spams this morning so far. Yikes.

    Like

  51. Idyllopus: hmmm, I’ve had to manually delete more than 200 spams this morning so far. Yikes.

    Like

  54. Same problem here too. It must be down because I’ve had like 50 spam comments since 7 hours ago and all of them got through the filter. Good thing there still is the moderation queue.

    Like

  55. Same problem here too. It must be down because I’ve had like 50 spam comments since 7 hours ago and all of them got through the filter. Good thing there still is the moderation queue.

    Like

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  62. Firstly, great blog… so much of interest and use on it.

    And secondly, on to Askimet!! Until about 3 months or so ago Askimet span worked fine for me stopping 90%+ of spam and with what seemed high accuracy. Then over night everything changed. Askimet stopped catching spam and stopped being able to see what was and what was not spam.

    I am sure that I do not get that much spam compared to some but comments on other sites such as read your spam comments are not really practical (I get several hundred a day and rising) and totally negate the point of having it in the first place.

    Over the last day or two the stats were as follows…

    Total comments & spam 359.
    Awaiting moderation 174 – Spam 170, legitimate 4.
    Askimet spam 185 – Spam 168, legitimate 7.

    This would imply that Askimet is guessing and not that well at that. I have emailed Askimet to ask for advice but would be interested if anyone else has experienced a rapid change in fortunes with Askimet, what caused it and what the solution is…

    Like

  63. Firstly, great blog… so much of interest and use on it.

    And secondly, on to Askimet!! Until about 3 months or so ago Askimet span worked fine for me stopping 90%+ of spam and with what seemed high accuracy. Then over night everything changed. Askimet stopped catching spam and stopped being able to see what was and what was not spam.

    I am sure that I do not get that much spam compared to some but comments on other sites such as read your spam comments are not really practical (I get several hundred a day and rising) and totally negate the point of having it in the first place.

    Over the last day or two the stats were as follows…

    Total comments & spam 359.
    Awaiting moderation 174 – Spam 170, legitimate 4.
    Askimet spam 185 – Spam 168, legitimate 7.

    This would imply that Askimet is guessing and not that well at that. I have emailed Askimet to ask for advice but would be interested if anyone else has experienced a rapid change in fortunes with Askimet, what caused it and what the solution is…

    Like

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