Akismet not working with Contact Form 7

In this case we expect the “failed to send your message” with a red border around it since its supposed to be treated as spam.

Instead, we have a spinning arrow which is a common symptom of a JavaScript conflict with either your current WordPress theme or one of the other plugins you are using. It can also be caused by a server-side warning or error.

See Contact Form 7 Email Issues – there is a link there that covers JavaScript Conflicts.

That’s very helpful, thanks. I’ll go do some troubleshooting.

Hi again,

That “Contact Form 7 Email Issues” link is interesting, and it suggests there’s a js conflict.

I’ve found that this is not the case.

I created a new OOTB installation of WP with no plugins (except Akismet and Contact Form 7) and the problem is still there.

I’ve had much discussion with my hosting company (this site is on a dedicated server with a few of my other small / low resource usage sites).

They’ve narrowed it down. Apparently, it’s mod_security that’s stopping the viagra-test-123. When you enter viagra-test-123 mod_security is stepping in and blocking it.

The host can make exceptions in mod_security for specific words, but are refusing to turn it off (and I don’t want them to turn it off). They don’t accept that mod_security is causing the page freeze and suggest it must be something wrong with Contact Form 7.

How can I get around the problem of the page hanging when someone enters an unacceptable word into one of the fields?

This only happens when using the akismet:author and akismet:author_email

This is what tech support says:

“The fact that the page hung is not a result of ModSecurity filtering the traffic and key words, but rather the application’s interpretation of error the server gave it.”

I seem to have solved this.

I don’t know whether the following steps is what did the trick, but I’ll reproduce them here anyway in case anyone else finds it useful.

1. I turned off W3 Total Cache
2. I ran a couple of clean and viagra-test-123 type tests through the form. (The form worked as expected).
3. I turned W3 Total Cache back on.

Thanks, and bye

If this resolves your question, it helps others contributing here, if you can flag your post as [resolved]

Thanks. Now marked.