I have updated my plugin Auto-Close Comments, Pingbacks and Trackbacks with one feature addition.

You can now choose to delete post revisions. Selecting this option will delete all post revisions in your WordPress database. Post Revisions were introduced in version 1.6 and in my opinion are absolutely useless unless you operate your blog as a wiki. But, do you?

I also fixed a minor bug where the scheduled cron was not deleted when you reset the plugin settings to default.

Lastly, the plugin now comes with its own uninstall code. Deleting the plugin from the Plugins screen of WP-Admin will delete all options from the database.

Existing users can upgrade the plugin from within WordPress Admin itself.

Read more about Auto-Close or directly download it from the plugin repository.

I have updated my plugin Auto-Close Comments, Pingbacks and Trackbacks to include one main option, viz. the ability to keep certain posts open.

You can set it for Comments and Pingbacks/Trackbacks separately. You need to enter a comma-separated list of Post IDs that you want to keep open for discussion.

Read more and download »

From my experience, one thing that most spammers do is try to post comments, pingbacks or trackbacks on your extremely old posts.

If you are not monitoring the comments, pingbacks or trackbacks on your site properly, you will not even realize that these have been posted.

Many a times, you would not want anyone to post a comment or a pingback on an extremely old post, especially on personal blogs.

WordPress has no inbuilt system of closing comments on old posts. This is where the plugin steps in.

Auto-Close Comments, Pingbacks and Trackbacks will close comments, pingbacks and trackbacks on your post automatically at intervals set by you. You can also choose to disable the schedule and run it manually whenever you choose to.

Read more and download Auto-Close Comments, Pingbacks and Trackbacks. If you find the plugin useful, please do drop in your contribution.

Overview:

Automatically close comments, pingbacks and trackbacks on your blog. This helps reduce the amount of spam aimed at old posts.

Features:

• Can be configured via WP-Admin
• Choose to run it automatically or manually
• Delete comments separately from pingbacks and trackbacks
• Choose to leave comments and/or pingbacks & trackbacks open on certain posts
• Delete post revisions

Requirements:

• WordPress 1.5 or above

Installing

1. Download Auto-Close Comments, Pingbacks and Trackbacks.
2. Extract the contents of autoclose.zip to wp-content/plugins/ folder. You should get a folder called autoclose.
3. Activate the Plugin in WP-Admin.
4. Goto Options > Auto-Close to configure.

Options:

The below screenshot shows the options. You can customize if you want to close comments and/or pingbacks & trackbacks. You can also choose to run it manually or setup a schedule.

By default, all options are disabled.

ChangeLog:

• 1.3.1 – Now separately choose to close on posts and pages. Also added buttons to open all comments and open all pings
• 1.2 – Added option to delete post revisions. Minor bug fix. Includes plugin uninstaller.
• 1.1 – Added option to keep comments / pingbacks / trackbacks on certain posts open
• 1.0 – Release

To Do:

• Keep posts open by category

Downloads

Current Version is 1.3.1

• Download Auto-Close

Support the Development

Writing and testing plugins takes a good amount of time. If you like the plugin and find it useful and would like to donate something for my work please do click the Paypal Donate button below. The payment is secure. I haven’t filled in any amount. Feel free to donate what you please. Any amount is welcome. Thank you

License

All files and their contents are licensed under the GNU General Public License (GPL).

Questions or Bugs

Known Bugs

If you have any questions or would like to report any bugs then please use the support forum.

Download Auto-Close v1.3.1

I have just released the Bad Behavior Stats plugin v2.1

Updates since the last release.

• Link to Bad Behavior homepage fixed
• Title attributes added to the BBStats and Bad Behavior Links
• New variable %totalcount% added for displaying total number of access attempts if verbose logging is enabled.
• Now, admin functions and wp-dash functions are only declared if on the admin page and if wp-dash is installed respectively, thereby saving on processing time.

Read more and download the plugin>>

I have just released the Bad Behavior Stats plugin v2.0

Updates since the last release.

• Plugin now works with Bad Behavior 1.x and 2.x
• Only counts the number of blocked attempts.
• Number of blocked attempts can now be viewed under Options >> BB Stats as well.
• Few miscellaneous fixes

Read more and download the plugin>>

Came across this nice article on avoiding registration on free websites, thereby reducing SPAM.

You can do this using BugMeNot.

Read the full article.

Update: This tutorial is now superceded by A Comprehensive Guide to Protecting Your Blog from Spam.

Comment spam is something every blogger is really really afraid of. Over the past two years that I have been using WordPress this is one problem that I have faced on and off.
I realized that the amount of spam I was receiving was is direct relation to my popularity. (and I wasn’t that know then)

After a lot of experimenting, I have finalized settled down on the following. I’m pretty much spam free for now.

Firstly, get Bad Behavior installed. Bad Behavior blocks spam by checking Referer and a lot of other things the moment it touches your site. It runs silently in the background protecting you. Optionally, you can add my Bad Behavior Stats Plugin to display the number of blocked attempts on your blog.

Next, get hold of Spam Karma 2. Spam Karma is a comment spam protector. It provides many checks and drastically reduces the amount of comment, trackback and pingback spam. Optionally, add Spam Karma 2 Stats.

With just these two plugins installed I had almost zero spam on my site. However, I recommend a few additional things you can do.

Get hold of Moderate Plugin for SK2 and follow the instructions for installing it. This plugin will ensure that new posters will land into moderation for your approval. So even if a person gets through Bad Behavior and Spam Karma 2, you still choose whether you want to approve this comment or not. Believe, I’ve used it many times!

Also, to reduce email spam do not have any mailto: links on your site. Instead make use of contact forms or email plugins like my Transpose Email plugin to protect your email from harvesters.
Two popular contact forms for WordPress are PXS Mail and WP-Contact Form.

Yet another step to prevent bad bots and spam is to use your .htaccess file to block them. Read Blocking bad bots and site rippers (aka offline browsers). Here you will find a nice long list of what you will need to enter into your .htaccess to block the bots and spam.

Additional resources worth checking are:

• Combating Comment Spam
• Spam Tools
• Tackling Comment Spam

I’m pretty much spam free today. So how about you?

Have just released the latest version of my Bad Behavior Stats plugin viz. v1.6.

It is now compatible with Bad Behavior 1.2.
It now counts both 403 and 412 errors.

Read more and download the plugin>>