What is Akismet?

Posted on July 19, 2008 by Karl Richter



Sadly, this is a true story. I popped over to my own blog today after our class to write a quick post, and when I signed in, I saw that I had 53 comments waiting for moderation. All of them are spam.  What happened?

I don’t post to my own blog very often, and don’t get very many comments and that’s fine with me.  For all of you thinking of creating a class website with wordpress/edublogs don’t use the # of comments you get as an indicator for that blog’s success. I set up a wedding blog with wordpress and even though there weren’t a lot of people commenting on it, nearly everyone told me how much they enjoyed what we put up there.  Participative 2.0-Web sites are a new idea, so people don’t really know how to do it, yet.  Your student’s parents may love your blog even if they don’t say share publicly with the group.

Sorry, that’s The 90-9-1 rule, not the reason my commenting blew up overnight. Here’s what happened.

wordpressYou don’t have to worry about upgrading the software if you’re using Edublogs, which is really nice.  They upgrade the multi-user version of wordpress for you each time a new one comes out.  I have Wordpress installed on my own server, which allows me to customize my own themes and plugins. It also means I have to upgrade it when new versions come out.  Luckily my hosting company makes it über-simple for me to upgrade, even though it’s still a manual process.

I deactivate my plugins, upgrade the software via Dreamhost’s admin panel, then re-activate my plugins.  I just upgraded from 2.5 to 2.6 but forgot to reactivate the spam plugin, Akismet.  I got 50 comments in about 12 hours.  yuck.  Luckily cleanup is easy.

You don’t have to upgrade your site, but you do have to activate your spam filter, Akismet.

The Akismet plugin needs your API key, which is like your own wordpress password.  There’s no prompt or response needed for this post, just click here to learn how to get an API Key. (You’ll create a wordpress.com account, then find it on your new profile, which is a bit of a pain.)

After that, it’s easy. Go back in your wp-admin panel, click Plugins and activate your Akismet plugin.

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22 Responses to “What is Akismet?”

  1.   tbrent, on July 19th, 2008 at 9:47 pm Said:

    i don’t get it. : (

  2.   martyjay75, on July 20th, 2008 at 8:54 am Said:

    Karl,

    Are you saying that we need to sign-up for a wordpress account aside from the one we have with our edublog? Or does the edublog qualify as a wordpress account?

    If it’s a separate account, I’m assuming we get our API key and just apply that to our edublogs settings? Or do I have this completely messed up in my head. With all the blogs, wikis, googlepages, etc. we’ve been creating for COMET I’m beginning to get all my accounts, addresses, and passwords mixed up.

  3.   denisekhenry, on July 20th, 2008 at 3:14 pm Said:

    Hey guys, I activated my Akismet spam filter just now. Here’s how I found the plugin:

    Go to your edublog and click you name after the “Howdy” in the very top of the right corner of the page.

    Click the Plugins tab in the top right corner of the page.

    Scroll down to find Askimet in the Plugin column.. Look to the right in the Action column, and then click Activate.

    :) d

  4.   krichter, on July 21st, 2008 at 6:36 am Said:

    Unfortunately, the plugin requires use of a Wordpress API key to get the plugin to work. I believe you have to create a wp login to get your api key. Wish it were easier.

  5.   jliebke, on July 21st, 2008 at 10:14 am Said:

    Hi all-
    I am about to do this activity but something there’s one thing that’s frustrating me and I’m wondering if I’m alone.

    Karl, when you set up a link, you can target it to a new window? I’m noticing that every time I click on a link, I am taken off your edublog and it’s greatly hindering my mobility on your blog. Would you be willing to target your links to a new window or are you opposed to this for certain reason? If you are opposed to this, please let me know your reasoning.

    Thanks!

  6.   cwilsie, on July 21st, 2008 at 10:31 am Said:

    Well, I’m not sure if we need to post to this but….I opened a Wordpress account,activated it, got an API key and used it to activate Akismet. I had not been getting any spam so far, but I did anyway. I followed Denise’s directions, but it won’t activate without the key code.

  7.   jliebke, on July 21st, 2008 at 10:44 am Said:

    I got an API key and I followed Denise’s directions all the way to clicking on my name after “Howdy” but I can’t find a button for “plugins.” Any tips?

  8.   jennitopmiller, on July 21st, 2008 at 5:14 pm Said:

    The plugins is in your blog’s site admin … I think you will find plugins in the upper right corner? see if that works

  9.   jennitopmiller, on July 21st, 2008 at 5:15 pm Said:

    Karl,
    Are you from Louisville or your wife? My husband and I are both from Northern Kentucky and got married there last summer! What a small world:)

  10.   denisekhenry, on July 21st, 2008 at 6:10 pm Said:

    Sorry for the 1/2 way directions Scott and Tedd..I just found out that I needed to create a WP account in addition to the blog account. I should have known it seemed to easy…

    The Plugin is the middle link in a set of three, located directly below the “howdy” link. (settings PLUGINS users).

  11.   gjedtech, on July 21st, 2008 at 9:07 pm Said:

    Okay,
    I have gone to my Edublogs dashboard page and activated the Akismet plugin.

    Then I went to WordPress and created a new account and received my API key in a confirmation e-mail. If I am going to created a WordPress Blog, then I need the API key to activate the Akismet plugin for my WordPress account.

    But…….if I stay on my Edublogs account, then all I need to do is activate the Akismet plugin (no API key required.)

    Right?????

    GregJ

  12.   krichter, on July 22nd, 2008 at 6:41 am Said:

    Jenni, (and anyone else who’s interested in my ties to KY)

    My wife’s from Louisville. We got married there this past October. My family moved to So. California as a Soph in high school. I grew up in Columbus OH.

  13.   gjedtech, on July 22nd, 2008 at 8:00 am Said:

    Karl,
    I spent my summers as a kid in Columbus at my grandparent’s house! I think their area was called ‘Whitehall’ and Hamilton road was on the other side of their back yard…..Please tell me you used to eat Massey’s Pizza now and then…If they shipped overnight to California, I would pay for it!
    Small world.
    GJ

  14.   cassie5150, on July 22nd, 2008 at 8:41 am Said:

    This is confusing. Do we have to do this plugin?

  15.   burnworthedu, on July 22nd, 2008 at 9:35 am Said:

    I used Denise’s directions but I don’t have the API code. so I guess I need to create an account with WordPress. Do we have to do this?
    Misty

  16.   lnettels, on July 22nd, 2008 at 12:56 pm Said:

    I didn’t even know you could get spam on a blog. Typical.

  17.   krichter, on July 22nd, 2008 at 4:44 pm Said:

    To everyone who is asking… Yes, you have to protect your site, or you’ll get 50 spam posts a day. Yes, it is a pain, and yes, you have to create an account with wordpress to get the API code you need.

    To Gary and anyone else who cares, I’ve been to Massey’s Pizza, and Whitehall. I grew up in nearby Bexley. Thanks to Google’s street view, I just looked at the house I haven’t seen since we left Columbus in 1989.

    http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=bexley+ohio+730+Montrose+Ave.&sll=39.961382,-82.93961&sspn=0.009095,0.015879&layer=c&ie=UTF8&ll=39.958849,-82.930534&spn=0.009095,0.015879&z=16&cbll=39.954699,-82.931197&panoid=J5ZUy_fn4CCXrs8pWp0s_g&cbp=1,41.39758426046088,,0,5

  18.   Richard Dysinger, on July 23rd, 2008 at 3:06 pm Said:

    Done with very colorful language. :)

  19.   mamia, on July 23rd, 2008 at 6:26 pm Said:

    Um, I don’t get it either. I created a wordpress account (with a different username than my edublog account because apparently that username was taken) but I don’t know what to do now…

  20.   mamia, on July 23rd, 2008 at 6:33 pm Said:

    nevermind! I figured it out. You can find your API key on your global dashboard through your wordpress account. Then, you activate the akismet plugin on your edublog account (that is where you enter the key).

  21.   hbeezley, on July 24th, 2008 at 9:38 pm Said:

    “Done and done, and I mean done” – just for Simpson fans

    I’m glad I waited until everyone else worked out the bugs. Thank you guys!

  22.   imriek, on July 30th, 2008 at 11:31 am Said:

    Thank you to all who went before me to work at simplifying the instructions. Once I read all of your comments, the task was easy!

    I have “de-spammed” my blog site!

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