If you’re running a WordPress blog, I highly recommend getting the Akismet anti-spam blocker running. The hardest part about it, is that you have to get a login at the WordPress site (which isn’t hard). If you’re running a blog that isn’t WP, it’s possibly enough reason to switch.

Since I installed it, about 4 spam comments have gotten past it, out of the 191 it’s caught. The only unfortunate thing about the interface is that the only opportunity you have to mark missed comments as “spam” is in the comment approval screen, but if you don’t require comment approval (like myself), you can’t send the info to Akismet that this is spam it should look out for. But, the good news is that, out of all the people using WP, someone else will probably get similar spam and mark it properly, so it’ll get screened eventually.

Heh, actually, that’s kinda ironic. One problem with a publishing program (WordPress, phpBB, etc.) becoming widely used is that spammers can write automated tools to target it for a wide, low-cost audience. But the other side of that is true, as well: as a given spam becomes more prevalent, it’s widely used enough that anti-spammers can block it more easily.