Since I upgraded to WP 2.0 I got rid of the CAPTCHA and still don’t have spam in the comments. That’s not to say people aren’t trying but 2.0 has a little program called Akismet that seems to do a really great job of catching spam. I think mine has caught close to 100 so far. If you are still using 1.5 I recommend upgrading and getting rid of your CAPTCHA.
Edit: I just checked and Akismet has actually caught 143 so far.
So far I guess nobody evil has found my blog; I still haven’t had a single spam. I’ll wait until it’s a problem before I bother upgrading.
Was the upgrade hard, or did it go smoothly?
Comment by Daryl — Thursday April 20, 2006 @ 9:23 am
It was as painless as the initial install. The most time consuming part was backing up the database.
Comment by Don — Thursday April 20, 2006 @ 1:52 pm
Did you have to back up the database, or was that just a precaution?
Comment by Daryl — Thursday April 20, 2006 @ 6:51 pm
I wonder if this version would have filtered the comments some people made on my Las Vegas entry. WordPress wouldn’t allow certain blacklisted words (gambling, casino, etc.). I guess we can find out. If this entry gets posted, 2.0 filters are smarter than 1.0.
Comment by Donna — Friday April 21, 2006 @ 6:32 am
Daryl: I didn’t have to use the backup, it was just a precaution.
Donna: Looks like it is a little smarter than 1.5.
Comment by Don — Friday April 21, 2006 @ 11:06 am
I installed 2.0 quite some time ago. Akismet has caught 47 spam comments since I installed it. Most of them seem to be from some online poker or casino advertiser. You can check back in my blog to see the problems I had getting it installed. Since I finally got it working it has been fine.
Comment by Richard — Friday April 21, 2006 @ 8:33 pm