New version not working

Hi @fpmsummer,

They are flagged as spam, but I have to manually delete from either the spam …

If the comments are flagged as spam, then everything works fine, because ASB is exactly doing what it is build to do. What do you expect it should have done?

Collecting spam helps ASB to build up a local spam db which it can use to find new spam.

If you have comment spam which is not caught, please report it, so we can have a look. We have a Google form for this:
https://github.com/pluginkollektiv/antispam-bee/wiki/en-FAQ#how-can-i-submit-undetected-spam

but it looks like I will still need to look for a more robust antispam solution.

I don’t think so. ?? It looks more like you can tweak the configuration. If you share your current settings I may help you to get a better outcome.

All the best,
Torsten

Did configuration behavior change, then? Or maybe I’m confusing Antispam Bee with another plugin? I had thought that in previous versions (some time in 2018 maybe?), the items flagged as spam were also moved to Spam, not flagged as spam and left in the main comments.

I thought that “Mark as Spam, Do Not Delete” flagged the items as Spam and moved them to the Spam section, where I could go through at my leisure and see if anything had been flagged with a false positive. That’s the behavior I prefer, especially give the wacky increase in spam bombing the past few months.

Every few months, there will be bursts of a few hundred comments over a couple of days, and those are flagged but not moved to Spam. So I have to scroll through main comments to move the spam, instead of scrolling through Spam and bulk deleting quickly.

Am I mistaken in thinking that Antispam Bee previously flagged & moved the spam comments? That it only ever just flagged them?

Hi @fpmsummer

Did configuration behavior change, then?

Not really. We removed something and played with other, but not the main methods.

Or maybe I’m confusing Antispam Bee with another plugin?

Maybe …

I had thought that in previous versions (some time in 2018 maybe?), the items flagged as spam were also moved to Spam, not flagged as spam and left in the main comments.

Mark as spam is equal to move to spam. If something is staying in “Approved” it would be not marked as spam. Can’t follow you.

I thought that “Mark as Spam, Do Not Delete” flagged the items as Spam and moved them to the Spam section, where I could go through at my leisure and see if anything had been flagged with a false positive. That’s the behavior I prefer, especially give the wacky increase in spam bombing the past few months.

This is exactly what ASB does. If this is not working for you, then maybe you have a plugin conflict or another problem on your website.

Every few months, there will be bursts of a few hundred comments over a couple of days, and those are flagged but not moved to Spam.

How should that work? How would this “mark as spam” be seen. Moving to spam IS marking as spam.

So I have to scroll through main comments to move the spam, instead of scrolling through Spam and bulk deleting quickly.

Well, this sounds like ASB is not working somehow on your website.

Am I mistaken in thinking that Antispam Bee previously flagged & moved the spam comments? That it only ever just flagged them?

See above.

Possible problems: You are using some sort of comment form which is not compatible with our plugin, like Jetpack Comments, Disqus, Ajax Comments or other comment form customizations.

If you share your URL I can check the comment form and see if ASB is running correctly (at least on the frontend).

All the best,
Torsten

I’ll try to explain a little better, I see I wasn’t clear about what I’m seeing.

When you click on “Comments” in the admin area, the default view is All Comments, with links to see Pending, Approved, and Spam.

Right now, Antispam Bee is letting all spam through, where they sit as Pending approval. No incoming spam at all is being marked as Spam by the plugin. I had meant to say they were all being held as Pending, and not being flagged as Spam. I apologize for that confusion.

When I check the comments on my sites, spam comments and regular comments are all just highlighted as pending approval. Comments that are spam are not being flagged as such by ASB. I have to manually go through and either click Spam or Delete Permanently.

I had thought that Antispam Bee flagged a comment as spam, I would not see it as Pending, just in Spam. If you’re saying that ASB never separated legit comments that were pending approval from spam comments that were automatically sent to Spam, that’s the behavior I’m trying to find again.

So to summarize, Antispam Bee is not flagging comments as spam on my sites anymore, but my other comment controls are just holding them as Pending until I manually mark them as Spam. ASB is not recognizing comments I’ve already marked as Spam, and I’ve had to start collecting IP addresses to prevent them from leaving comments in order to slow the bursts down.

I have not used Jetpack ever, stopped using Akismet 10 years ago, and don’t use Disqus, so those aren’t conflicting.

Does that make it clearer the behavior I’m seeing now?

Right now, Antispam Bee is letting all spam through, where they sit as Pending approval. No incoming spam at all is being marked as Spam by the plugin.

It looks like Antispam is not working at all on your website.

You need to provide the URL, so that I can have a look to see if ASB is there or not.

As an alternative you can provide your (active) plugins and active theme, so that I can try to reproduce this myself.

I think there is some conflict which leads to ASB not working at all.

To check this you can activate the BBCode check and try to add some BBCode link in a comment:
[url=https://en.wikipedia.org]English Wikipedia[/url]

You need to uncheck the both trust settings:
https://github.com/pluginkollektiv/antispam-bee/wiki/en-Documentation#trust-approved-commenters

This should lead to the comment being marked as spam in every case.

If this is not the case, then ASB is not working on your website.

Please report back with more info or your findings! We will find the culprit and get this working again ??

Thanks in advance!

All the best,
Torsten

Hi @fpmsummer

are you still experiencing problems or is this issue resolved?

All the best
Torsten

No, this issue still exists. I have been adjusting the settings like you suggested, but so far, nothing has helped. Some sites get more traffic (and spam traffic) than others, but the behavior is the same across the board.

Should I email you the list of plugins and theme(s) that are in use across the sites still having problems? Most of them are similar, running on Genesis with different child themes, and a handful of Genesis plugins.

Hi @fpmsummer !

It would be easier if you share the URL(s):

You need to provide the URL, so that I can have a look to see if ASB is there or not.

But Plugins/Theme would be useful too (if I don’t need to buy plugins or theme I can try to reproduce it myself):

As an alternative you can provide your (active) plugins and active theme, so that I can try to reproduce this myself.

Did you tried this? What happened?

To check this you can activate the BBCode check and try to add some BBCode link in a comment:

All the best,
Torsten

Hi @fpmsummer

have you tried to send something? Still waiting for more details to help you get this fixed!

All the best,
Torsten

Mark as resolved due to inactivity.