[Plugin: Akismet] Akismet has detected a problem . . .

My blog, slowreads.com, is being inundated with spam. It started as a trickle about three months ago — a few a day — but now it’s about ten an hour. Most get through and show up on various posts; some get caught in the queue, and half I have to moderate. When I try to change a setting, I get this message:

Akismet has detected a problem . . .

Then it says it can’t connect to my site. (I would have given you the entire message, but now it can connect again. I don’t know how long that will last or whether, if it does, it will solve the problem.) When I click the link in the error message to find out more, Chrome warns me I’m going to a site that isn’t part of Akismet.

I’ve used Akismet nonstop on this site for probably ten years using the same Akismet key, yet at the top of the page, it says, “Since you joined us, Akismet has saved you 32 days!”