Pixelated On Purpose
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • RSS
...or call: (970) 236-6425
  • Home
  • Blog
  • Our Work
  • Need a New Website?
    • Our Website Packages
    • Need Help Moving A Website?
    • The Web for Total N00bs: A Primer
  • Vet Your Web Person
  • Drop Us A Line

Why are you punishing your users with bad spam controls?

Idealist Legacy

We get it. You hate spam. Everybody does.

As of 5PM on July 1, 2014, Akismet had filtered out 176,453,691 spam WordPress comments since 12:01 AM July 1, 2014.

That’s 176.5 MILLION spam comments that were stopped. And that’s just on blogs that have Akismet installed (WordPress.com by default, and quite a few WordPress, Joomla, Drupal, and other CMS self-hosted installs).

Most spammers are spamming remotely; that is, they never visit your site, instead misusing ordinarily useful code in your WordPress installation which allow for comments and pingbacks/trackbacks to be transmitted remotely. You might be tempted to turn on comment moderation, make your visitors fill out a Captcha or solve a word or math problem before commenting, or even verify their humanity (yuck):

Confirm I'm Not Spamming!?

I don’t know about you – but any time I hit a comments-moderated blog, I usually don’t go back. I almost always forget to check the “are you human/are you NOT a spammer” box, and I hardly ever get a captcha right.

Why on Earth are we punishing our good users for trying to connect with us?

Look, there are any number of good, FREE options that do not require user intervention to slow and halt comment spam. You should try them out instead of bugging your users.

The first: Akismet. For personal blogs, it’s free. For commercial blogs, it costs a little ($5/mo for one site or $50/mo for unlimited sites). I use it on almost every site I’ve ever had. It works very well and has never trapped a legit comment.

The second: WordPress HashCash plugin. It’s free. It makes sure your user actually went to your site rather than used a robot.

The third: WordPress Spam Honeypot plugin. It’s free. It adds a hidden field to your comment form which bots can see but users can’t. If there’s text in the field, boom. You’ve caught yourself a spammer.

Three totally easy, free ways to dissuade spammers from ever gracing your doorstep again – and not ONE of them bugs a user.

Did I miss your favorite? Let me know in the comments!

Read This Before Hiring A Web Designer!

A bad web person can cost you thousands. Do you know how to avoid the 10 most common ways to get screwed by your web person? You should read this before you buy a website or hire a web developer. Keep the helpful info going with weekly blasts of awesome website ideas direct to your inbox.

  • This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

Learn More About

  • Making Your Website Convert
  • Our Work
  • Web Safety and Security
  • Websites 101

Examples of Our Work

  • Midtown Gary
  • Compass Cider
  • Chinook Seedery
  • Loving The Alien
  • Brooke Rental Center
  • Ed and Deb Shapiro

Recently Awesome Folks

  • Scott Allen on Why are you punishing your users with bad spam controls?

    Really cool post, Nick. I have been getting a lot of spam lately on my WP-hosted site and I need...
    Posted Jul 08, 2014

What our clients say:

"Nick Armstrong is brilliant and made us feel cared for. He is talented and his work is of the highest quality. Nick respects his work and his cost is reasonable and he delivers on time."

- Ed and Deb Shapiro, Be The Change
2014-01-01T14:06:05-07:00
"Nick Armstrong is brilliant and made us feel cared for. He is talented and his work is of the highest quality. Nick respects his work and his cost is reasonable and he delivers on time." - Ed and Deb Shapiro, Be The Change
https://pixelatedonpurpose.com/testimonials/ed-and-deb-shapiro-be-the-change/
"Nick has an eye for creative and fun ways to step a business up a notch. He’s passionate, experienced, and knowledgeable about marketing and web development. He helped redesign our website for easier management and created campaigns for our social media outreach for a reasonable cost. Nick is a great person to have on board any business team."

- Chelsey Walker, Ridekick
2014-01-01T14:05:33-07:00
"Nick has an eye for creative and fun ways to step a business up a notch. He’s passionate, experienced, and knowledgeable about marketing and web development. He helped redesign our website for easier management and created campaigns for our social media outreach for a reasonable cost. Nick is a great person to have on board any business team." - Chelsey Walker, Ridekick
https://pixelatedonpurpose.com/testimonials/chelsey-walker-ridekick/
"Nick is the Yoda of the programming and marketing world: he is wise and powerful in the ways of the code; he wields his mouse with great speed and agility; he continually ponders the mysteries of marketing; and he is an excellent and effective instructor with a mischievous sense of humor :-)"

- Megan Henderson, Henderson + Company
2014-01-01T11:57:28-07:00
"Nick is the Yoda of the programming and marketing world: he is wise and powerful in the ways of the code; he wields his mouse with great speed and agility; he continually ponders the mysteries of marketing; and he is an excellent and effective instructor with a mischievous sense of humor :-)" - Megan Henderson, Henderson + Company
https://pixelatedonpurpose.com/testimonials/megan-henderson-henderson-company/
"We worked along side Nick for a year and half and would recommend his talent and creativeness to anyone willing to take a look at the “standard” way of doing things a little differently that still achieve lasting results."

- Jan Peters, Fort Collins Brewery
2014-01-01T11:58:52-07:00
"We worked along side Nick for a year and half and would recommend his talent and creativeness to anyone willing to take a look at the “standard” way of doing things a little differently that still achieve lasting results." - Jan Peters, Fort Collins Brewery
https://pixelatedonpurpose.com/testimonials/jan-peters-fort-collins-brewery/
"Nick Armstrong has been a wonderful WordPress consultant for my business. His tutoring expertise was extremely helpful. Nick is a tremendous WordPress resource and expert."

- Catherine Rogers, Coldwell Banker
2013-12-28T13:28:40-07:00
"Nick Armstrong has been a wonderful WordPress consultant for my business. His tutoring expertise was extremely helpful. Nick is a tremendous WordPress resource and expert." - Catherine Rogers, Coldwell Banker
https://pixelatedonpurpose.com/testimonials/catherine-rogers-coldwell-banker/
“Nick and his team delivered a great new website for my company. I am happy with the results and the feedback from our clients and friends was super positive.”

- Betsy Craig, MenuTrinfo
2014-01-01T11:49:52-07:00
“Nick and his team delivered a great new website for my company. I am happy with the results and the feedback from our clients and friends was super positive.” - Betsy Craig, MenuTrinfo
https://pixelatedonpurpose.com/testimonials/betsy-craig-menutrinfo/
“Nick has been a great asset on the project we worked on together. His knowledge and expertise made the process go smoothly. I would hire him for future projects when the opportunity presents itself.“

-  Sam Haltom, Another Color, Inc
2014-01-01T11:49:09-07:00
“Nick has been a great asset on the project we worked on together. His knowledge and expertise made the process go smoothly. I would hire him for future projects when the opportunity presents itself.“ -  Sam Haltom, Another Color, Inc
https://pixelatedonpurpose.com/testimonials/sam-haltom-another-color-inc/
"There are very few individuals in this day-and-age that commit themselves so passionately into their profession and Nick Armstrong is one. I would recommend him to anyone, especially to those who don’t completely understand the backside of setting up a business website. He was great!"

- Linda Griego, Java Raiz
2014-01-01T12:06:09-07:00
"There are very few individuals in this day-and-age that commit themselves so passionately into their profession and Nick Armstrong is one. I would recommend him to anyone, especially to those who don’t completely understand the backside of setting up a business website. He was great!" - Linda Griego, Java Raiz
https://pixelatedonpurpose.com/testimonials/linda-griego-java-raiz/
"As an expert web developer, Nick can do almost anything you ask him to! He really does need to wear a cape to work. Nick is very generous with his time, and he genuinely loves to help people solve problems. I am looking forward to working with Nick on many more exciting projects."

- Molly McCowan, InkBot Editing
2014-01-01T12:03:37-07:00
"As an expert web developer, Nick can do almost anything you ask him to! He really does need to wear a cape to work. Nick is very generous with his time, and he genuinely loves to help people solve problems. I am looking forward to working with Nick on many more exciting projects." - Molly McCowan, InkBot Editing
https://pixelatedonpurpose.com/testimonials/molly-mccowan-inkbot-editing/
"Nick has done an awesome job firstly recreating my program's website, then improved on it, and followed up with great training materials and a promise to be there when we will expand the website."

- Linda Hodgson, ChangeLabs
2013-12-27T21:53:40-07:00
"Nick has done an awesome job firstly recreating my program's website, then improved on it, and followed up with great training materials and a promise to be there when we will expand the website." - Linda Hodgson, ChangeLabs
https://pixelatedonpurpose.com/testimonials/linda-hodgson-changelabs/
"We enjoyed working with Nick, he was fun, very responsive, and has great ideas. We like the look of our new website, functionality, and how it tells our message of what Greenpoint Landscaping really is. He also set us up on a blogging plan to help drive traffic to our website."

- Peter Roberts, Greenpoint Landscaping
2014-09-10T15:47:51-06:00
"We enjoyed working with Nick, he was fun, very responsive, and has great ideas. We like the look of our new website, functionality, and how it tells our message of what Greenpoint Landscaping really is. He also set us up on a blogging plan to help drive traffic to our website." - Peter Roberts, Greenpoint Landscaping
https://pixelatedonpurpose.com/testimonials/peter-roberts-greenpoint-landscaping/

A division of WTF MarketingPixelated on Purpose is a small business web design company in Fort Collins, Colorado and a division of WTF Marketing.

Pixelated on Purpose
#177 2614 S. Timberline Road Ste 109
Fort Collins, CO 80525
Pixelated On Purpose - Web Design by Pixelated On Purpose