[wp-hackers] More anti-spam ideas

[David Schlosnagle]

I'm at work right now, so I don't have access to the source code.
These are just some ideas which I had, so let me know if they are off
base or if anyone has already started working on such things. While
closing comments after a set time span is probably very effective on
cutting down spam, I like to keep comments open so if anyone happens
to come across something they'd like to give some feedback about, they
still can no matter how long ago I wrote the post.

I've had a few spam attacks, but since I don't have too much traffic,
its mostly just annoying. The moderation system caught some of the
spam comments, while others slipped through the cracks. I haven't had
time to try and figure out why the others weren't caught yet. So my
first question would be are we trying to catch and remove all spam
comments completely (skipping moderation) or trying to catch all spam
comments and put them in the moderation queue?

Has anyone implemented a SpamAssassin type system that would use a
score to rate each comment submitted? I think this could be an
effective route to take with the moderation system. If each comment
submitted were passed through a rating system and assigned a score
based on different sets of rules, the site administrator could easily
customize what kinds of comments to allow/disallow without making the
real users jump through too many hoops to post a comment. To make this
easier on the admins, provide an adjustable point threshold which
defines a comment as most likely spam/not spam. If the spam is over
the threshold, then it gets throw in the moderation queue. The mass
moderation admin page could provide some tools to help out such as
sort by points and delete all comments over X points. With the plugin
hooks, you could easily make your own filters to increase or decrease
a comments score.



-- 
David Schlosnagle
<schlosna at gmail.com>
<http://www.david-s.net/>