Less attitude; more bike paths, mountains and beer.
Random header image... Refresh for more!

Upgraded

by Rob

Well, it was long overdue, but I finally got around to upgrading my WordPress installation (the software that powers this blog) to the latest version. This also allowed me to install the latest version of Spam Karma, a comment spam moderation tool. Yesterday I got about 80 comment spams, and what really pissed me off was that about half of them were posted to my friend Bil’s memorial post and one of the posts I wrote during my dad’s demise. Spammers suck.

Everything seems to have gone smoothly, but please let me know if you find anything amiss. At first blush, the new version of WordPress seems really nice.

I also got virtual hosting, MySQL and WordPress set up on my new MacBook Pro, so I have a local test bed for any tweaks I want to try with my site. I think a website redesign may be in my future…

6 comments

1 Perry { 03.20.06 at 4:50 am }

Rob, does wordpress have any sort of word verification for commenting? You know what I mean, when there is a little gif of a hard-to-read word and the commenter has to type what he/she sees into a text box to prove he/she is a real human. I don’t know how well that works but I am curious since I see that technique more and more lately.

2 rpg { 03.20.06 at 8:44 am }

Hi Perry, the system you are describing is called a “captcha” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Captcha).

The spam-fighting plugin I’m using, Spam Karma does indeed provide for captcha validation, and it’s smart enough to only throw it up if the comment fails a bunch of spam tests and is considered suspicious. I haven’t tried it out yet, though.

3 Charles R. Kaiser { 03.22.06 at 5:16 pm }

So here’s me wondering if I sprinkle the words Viagra, Cialis, and Levitra into my post if Spam Karma will kick in and do me harm. . .

I guess I’ll find out now. . .

4 Charles R. Kaiser { 03.22.06 at 5:17 pm }

Nope. . .

5 rpg { 03.22.06 at 5:21 pm }

Interesting; yours probably got through because either there were no LINKS to Viagra sites, or perhaps your ip address is already whitelisted because you have posted before. I’d have to look into it.

I know it’s working, because it’s already killed 5 143 spam comments since installing it a few days ago. Thanks for trying it out, though!

6 Perry { 03.26.06 at 5:56 am }

Rob,

I Just reread you post. Now that I finally have WordPress up and running, it all makes more sense to me. Thanks for all your help! I got Spam Karma installed but since the blog is at a new home, I doubt the spambots have found it yet. It will be interesting to see when/if the spambots kick the counter up.

I hope this WordPress install basically runs itself because I am afraid that if I am called on to do any server configs or the like, the whole thing is bound to come down in a heaping pile of poo. Either way, it has fun so far. :-)

Leave a Comment