SPAM

Install and activate Akismet or Spam Karma 2. Then install and activate Bad Behavior.

https://akismet.com/
https://unknowngenius.com/blog/wordpress/spam-karma/
https://www.bad-behavior.ioerror.us/

For those who struggle with the Akismet directions: https://wordpress.com/api-keys/

See also the Combating_Comment_Spam page in the Codex.

I tried to activate akismet, but I have NOT been emailed the API key. I checked my inbox. I use google. I tried to look for it in my profiel without success. what’s going on?

You followed the directions, right? (I included a link).

To clarify: You’re getting the key from WordPress.COM. Not to be confused with here or your blog.

I’m not the OP, but I just followed all your instructions, and everything seemed to install without incident. A couple of questions, though, please:

1. The whole concept of plugins is fascinating to an old-fashioned programmer like me. I wonder, though, do they pose any significant performance hit? I have about half a dozen activated on my site.

2. Specific to spam blocking: so far, all of my spam is coming from a single IP address. Do any of these plugins allow me to explicitly block this address? That would seem computationally faster than subjecting the offending message to heuristic analysis.

Thanks…

there are plugins that allow you to ban IPs, yes. Are they going to be computationally faster? not really, especially when you realize that spammers use proxies, and that your ban list has grown to numbers in the thousands.

In other words, unless you are specifically looking to ban a USER and not a spammer, IP bans are going to be more work than necessary, especially those that require your input.

I have banned well over 50,000 IPs from my own site, nearly all of which are proxies or zombies that exist for either spamming or attempting exploits. Thankfully, my methods are automated, requiring absolutely no input by me.

You can see though, that if you were to do this manually, you would be there forever.

For what its worth, I use spam karma and I think the last time it actually had to do anything was a year ago. I am a spammers worst nightmare.