Geeklog Documentation - Geeklog Spam-X Plugin

Geeklog Spam-X Plugin

(If you came here looking for Hendrickson Software Components' email spam filter of the same name, please click here.)

Introduction

The Geeklog Spam-X plugin was created to fight the problem of comment spam for Geeklog systems. If you are unfamiliar with comment spam you might see the Comment Spam Manifesto.

MT-Blacklist

Important note: Please note that MT-Blacklist has recently been discontinued. See this article on geeklog.net for details.

The main mechanism Spam-X uses to fight comment spam is to use the blacklist created by Jay Allen and Movable Type users - MT-Blacklist. You can find out info about this project at http://www.jayallen.org/comment_spam/. Jay has taken it upon himself not only to write and support the plugin for Movable Type but also to maintain the blacklist. This requires human effort to review all the submissions and determine which are really spam and which are just noise. If you have a few extra bucks drop by Jay's website above and drop a few dollars in his PayPal account to show your appreciation.

The MT-Blacklist theory is that comment spammers do it to increase their Google rankings and therefore the link is all important. The MT-Blacklist therefore only filters on urls.

Other options

The MT-Blacklist is only one part of the Geeklog Spam-X plugin however. The Spam-X plugin has its own personal blacklist that you can add to. You can use it to filter anything from comments. One option is to import the Geeklog censor list and ban all comments which contain one of those words. This or an expanded list might be usefull for a website that caters to children. Then no comments with offensive language could be posted.

Module types

The Spam-X plugin was built to be expandable to easily adapt to changes the comment spammers might make. There are three types of modules: admin, examine and action. A new module is contained in a file and can simply be dropped in and it will be added to the plugin. The modules with which the plugin ships are:

• Admin
  • View Spam-X Log
  • Update MT-Blacklist
  • Edit Personal Blacklist
  • Edit IP Blacklist
  • Edit IP of URL Blacklist
  • Edit HTTP Header Blacklist
  • Mass Delete Spam Comments
  • Mass Delete Trackback Spam
• Examine
  • MT-Blacklist
  • Personal Blacklist
  • IP of Spammer
  • IP of Link
• Action
  • Delete Comment if on Blacklist
  • Mail Admin if Comment Rejected

Other modules can be just dropped into place and they will become available to the plugin. To remove a module just delete it from the spamx directory or rename it. Planned modules include:

• Admin
  • Comparing MT-Blacklist and personal blacklist to eliminate duplications
  • Parsing comments and automatic adding spam links
• Examine
  • Specialized blacklists. (These are in planning stages)
• Action
  • Save comment for review

Action modules are each assigned a number and the actions taken when a spam comment is found can be designated by a configuration variable. Note: the spamx interface has been generalized and can be called by other modules and plugins. See the developer docs for details.

Plugin Homepage

Further information as well as a support forum for the Spam-X plugin can be found on the Spam-X Plugin's Homepage.