Automatic Kismet (Akismet for short) is a social collaboration effort to eliminate comment and trackback spam WordPress blogs. Ahlsmith’s Aspirations uses the WordPress platform and Akismet keeps spam out of the comments and trackbacks to posts on this blog.
Within days of setting-up this blog I started receiving 2 to 3 alerts a day saying that my latest post had comments or trackback requests awaiting my approval. If I accepted those comments and trackbacks, I could have opened a pharmacy. The spammers were pushing Ambien, Valtrex, Lavetra, Viagra, and more.
For many blogs, Akismet greatly reduces or even completely eliminates comment and trackback spam from a WordPress blog. If spam happens to sneak past Akismet, simply mark it as “spam” on the moderation screen and Akismet will learn from your report as well as thousands of others’ reports. Remember it’s a community effort.
Akismet is a WordPress plugin. It can be installed from the WordPress blog’s administrative dashboard. Simply click on the electric plug (plugin) icon on the left side, click on Add New, and then Activate the Akismet plugin. Before the plugin goes to work, you need to give it your WordPress API key code. This code is free for personal use and can be obtained from your profile page at WordPress’ Global Dashboard.
Once you find your API key in you WordPress’ Global Dashboard, highlight it, copy it, and return to your blog’s administration dashboard and paste the key code in the API key field in the Akismet plugin. If you don’t have aWordPress GlobalDashboard account, you’ll be prompted to complete a form. There’s not cost and you get access to good WordPress support and updates.