Akismet is a plug-in that you can use to automatically catch comment spam in your blog.
If you are running a WordPress blog, such as this one, then you need to activate the Akismet plug-in. Akismet will catch most — if not all — of the SPAM that tries to invade your comment zone.
It’s easy to run the Akismet plug-in. Here’s what you do:
- Get a WordPress.com API key by signing up for a WordPress account. Part of that process is to check your email for details.
- In your WordPress admin area, click on Plugins at the top of the screen. A few default plugins will be listed, among them Akismet. If for some reason Akismet is not listed, there’s directions for downloading and installing Akismet WordPress Plugin.
- From your plugin admin panel, typically http://yourdomain.com/wp-admin/plugins.php, click on ‘Activate’ in the Action column on the right. A new page states that the Akismet plug-in must have your API in order to run.
- Enter your API key in the box provided and click on ‘Enter’.
Now, when comments that look like spam are left at your blog they will be pushed into the Akismet black box. On another blog that I run Akismet has caught over 22,000 spam comments. I can’t imagine wading through all that junk manually!
Just use Akismet and forget it!