So for all of you who were wondering what the API keys are for, go check out Akismet, a new solution to comment spam. Of course this is just the first of several things in the oven. 🙂
Of course on WordPress.com we’re already handling all your spam problems for you, so no need to install Akismet or similar.
To clarify, you use your API key to run Akismet on your own blog.
Matt on Not-WordPress, mostly photos 
I get it but I don’t. A free account is only for WordPress.com, but you say:
“Of course if you’re only blogging on WordPress.com you don’t have to worry about this, we’re already handling all your spam problems for you. ”
How do you reconcile that? It seems to be an obvious drive for cash dressed up as if it was a free gift and good for the community. Matt, I don’t mind you and the WordPress team making money. In fact, I think you should. What I resent, as a loyal WordPress follower, is being decieved.
Am I missing something here?
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Hey Aaron,
If your blog is hosted on WordPress.com you’re just protected, you don’t have to do anything. If you want to use Akismet on other sites it’s completely free for the vast majority of people out there, as very few bloggers make more than $500/mo from their blog, and if they do paying %1 of that to completely stop spam is not a big deal.
Is something about the sentence in the post confusing? I can edit it if you think it could be clearer.
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How will it improve over Spam Karma 2???
Since I installed this plugin on my 3 blogs, it never missed a spam comment nor did it make a false positive.
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w00kie, it would be improved because it’s always 100% up-to-date, you don’t need to update the plugin. However if you have never gotten spam, I’m a believer in “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” Most people I talked to though still get a fair amount of spam even when using one of the several plugins already available for WP, and Akismet worked perfectly for them.
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but I’m guessing the wheels behind Akismet are a spinoff of Spam Karma, am I right?
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Matt–
I just posted a blast on my blog but I’ll make an update to it after this comment. Thanks for your clarification. However, I believe the wording that is at issue is from the Akismet site itself
If it’s free for WordPress or MoveableType users who don’t make over $500 then you should say that. As it stands, it only indicates being free for WordPress.com users/blogs
I have a WordPress.com blog that I don’t use. Can I use it’s API key on Technosailor.com?
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w00kie, no parts of Akismet use code from SK2, which I haven’t looked at in about a year. The server (where the real work is done) was built from scratch. The plugin is GPL and uses some code from CJD’s Spam Nuker for administration.
Aaron, sorry things aren’t clear, I’ll try to update the text to be easier. The point of your WP.com API is so you can use Akismet on other sites, so yes you can use your API key and Akismet on Technosailor.com for free.
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Muchos gracias, senõr. 🙂
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Aaron, I added some more text to the download page to make it clearer:
http://akismet.com/download/
Thanks again for your feedback!
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Thanks, next time you’re in Baltimore, I owe you a beer!
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Sketch, of course, is me with my WordPress.com login name automatically added.
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Very cool. I am running Askimet on chrisjdavis.org now. I am looking forward to seeing how this puppy works Matt.
And that rocks that you were able to find some of my code useful, big compliment to me man thanks.
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Hi, I’m getting an error when testing Akismet out on my personal, off-site blog. On the Manage > Akismet Spam page the PHP error
Fatal error: Cannot redeclare ksd_config_page() (previously declared in <filename removed>:14) in <filename removed> on line 17
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Hey matt, how come I can’t view ANY of the wordpress.com blogs?
This might have something to do with spam blockers, ’cause on my LAN a few days ago there was a worm…
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Oops.
Sorry for the double post.
The problem on my comment above seems to have stopped.
Note: I used Firefox to post the above comment instead of Flock.
But really, what was going on?
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Wow, this looks real spiffy, Matt!
Do you recommend disabling Bad Behavior and clearing the moderation word list? I’m only asking because I saw that you had help with Michael Hampton..
Yes, I saw the FAQ – sorry if the answer is “yes”. 😀
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Nevermind. If anyone else is reading this, see Michael’s post about Akismet. Bad Behavior should be the first line of defense, while Akismet is right behind it. Cool beans. 🙂
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I would recommend turning off all other spam plugins. However BB can be complementary so it might be worth turning it back on if Akismet is letting any spam through or if you get massive spam attacks that eat up lots of resources. Clearing the moderation word list of spam words is recommended.
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THis is fantastic, works great. But what about referer spam? Does it catch that? And if not, will Referer-Karma work ok with it?
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I activated the plugin, but I can’t see where to get the key, which makes it pretty useless. There’s nowhere on WP.com to sign up, and I have my blog hosted elsewhere anyway. I give it an “A” for concept, but a “D-” for execution.
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Here’s the trouble I’m having:
I installed the Plugin on http://urbansemiotic.com and 60 comments were identified as Spam that were caught by my own handmade keywords. Akismet now invites me to delete them from my database or release the false positives.
There are four comments that were caught and I want back. When I try to “undelete” them I get taken to an Akismet that my API key is invalid. I re-certify my API with your system and nothing happened to the 60 messages I have in queue for processing. When I try to get my messages back again I get an error message my API key is invalid.
Any idea what’s happening and how to fix it? I really want to try to delete all those messages from my database but I want to pick out the non-Spam messages first.
Thanks!
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Whoops! Sorry! I was logged in before as “Invisible Blogger” — that’s my wife’s blog and I was trying to get her API key for her.
The API key giving trouble is the one related to my WordPress.com blog: boles.wordpress.com and I’m trying to install it on http://urbansemiotic.com and it’s interesting that the instant I activated the Plugin it “found” 60 Spam messages that, I guess, were sitting in my local database. There was no time for any of those messages to be scanned by the Akismet system.
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Looking excellent, Matt.
Though my trackback above, some weird stuff going on there (yes, i spelt the name wrong too!). Delete it if you wish 😉
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So, I need to have a WordPress.com blog in order to filter spam from my non-WordPress.com blog?
When are you going to offer API keys to non WordPress.com users?
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Owen, you don’t need to blog at WordPress.com, you just need an account. This will always be true.
Chris, everyone who uses K2 has that problem, you should report it to Michael.
David, yes it will expose spam that’s already in your database.
Hardincomp, if you have Flock you can get an account for free without an invite.
Steve, it doesn’t stop referrer spam, only comment and trackback spam. Sorry!
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Matt —
Okay, all is working great now but I “lost” the 60 Spam comments originally identified — and when I say “lost” I mean they were visible now they are not and I didn’t do anything to change that. Are the 60 comments still in my database or were they deleted by the Plugin?
Also, do we still need to check “Blacklist comments from open and insecure proxies” in Options | Discussions or does the new Plugin handle that for us now?
Oh, I’m using K2 and I don’t have the problem Chis is having.
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Cheers for that Matt,
I’ll be moving off K2 when I have time anyway.
Also, something i’ve noticed – not sure if this is the most appropriate place to post, when selecting comments identified as spam and clicking “Not Spam” i’m taken to the configuration page saying my API key is invalid – yet the plugin is still working and my spam count has risen to over 300 in a few hours.
David, which revision are you using?
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surfichris —
What revision of K2?
“K2 Beta One 96”
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Well it’s probably unfair to call it a solely a K2 bug, it’s something in the K2 template which triggers undesirable behaviour in WordPress.
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Oh, let see how it works, it’s all very easy to use, you’ll see…
This is spa-a-a-am! Buy viagra online! http://viagra.com
What? Something’s wrong 😦
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theroxylandr, you’re obviously not an automated spammer, so it didn’t stop you. 🙂
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May I share the API key with two personal blogs?
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If you run both of them.
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How would it stop somebody from handing out their API key to friends (or strangers for that matter) to use on their blogs without them having a WordPress.com account? Obviously this seems silly since WordPress.com accounts are free (for the time being), but is there any prevention for this?
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Your API key is like a password, it can be used to access information about your account. You should only share it with people you would share your password with.
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Matt– is this where we would post issues we’ve found?
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Aaron, if it’s something that is incorrectly identified simply marking it as spam or not spam is sufficient. If it’s something else use the contact form on the site.
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ok
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Where the hell does one go for assistance ??
I signed up and never received my password and the retrieve password function don;t work
can someone PLEASE assist me?
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Sorry for the ugly trackback! 😮 Last time I tracked back here I was using Vader. This time I was using K2 modified default. Hmmm…
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