Xfce toolbar problem: SolutionMay 25th, 2009 After writing a detailed guide of tips and howtos about Xfce (a free desktop environment for Unix and other platforms such as Linux, Solaris and BSD) we started our expedition on Xfce and soon encountered a problem that we had no feasible and complete solution to. One of our developers was having some problems with the Xfce panels.
Problem Commenting?August 30th, 2007 We have deployed Comment Guard Pro across all our blogs. It has been extensively tested for this internal release and we don't expect any problems.
Subscribe To Blog CommentsNovember 29th, 2007 I have added a plugin to allow you to subscribe to comments on my blog and track it in real-time with email. Subscribe to blog comments plugin ( link ) allows you to follow the discussion on articles you like without having to check my blog every time.
Nasty PHP 4.4 Bug in Session DataNovember 3rd, 2006 We deployed an application on client site yesterday and we faced a really puzzling problem. Some data stored in session variable ( $_SESSION["messages"] ) was returning the data of a global array $messages.
Comment SpamFebruary 6th, 2004 After some deliberation, and seeing others, I decided to leave the commenting section on my blog un-moderated. Today I was mildly surprised to find almost all my posts had a comment to it.
Paid Content Plugin For WordPress New Version - Request for SuggestionsSeptember 15th, 2006 We are working on a new version of Authenticated plugin. Please let me know the features you would like in the comments or email it to me at angsuman[at]taragana[dot]com.
How To Fix MS Outlook Jam With Outlook ExpressFebruary 3rd, 2007 I recently faced a strange situation where my mail server was showing over 700 emails but Microsoft Outlook was failing to download them with timeout error. The problem was that it wasn't downloading even a single email.
All comments get nuked by Blackhole option on blocking open proxy lists in WordPress 1.5 (Strayhorn)March 17th, 2005 It was surprising to find no comment spam after installing WordPress 1.5, noting that I haven't enabled CAPTCHA with this upgrade. However I soon realized that I wasn't receiving any normal comments too on very commentable articles.
Apology to "Simple Thoughts" blog commenters in last 20 days or soMarch 17th, 2005 What happened
After my WordPress 1.5 upgrade and enabling of an option to reject comments from open proxy, no comments (over 100) were appearing on my blogs. Moreover they were silently discarded.
Simple Thoughts: 10, 000 comments later... some thoughtsOctober 30th, 2008 Simple Thoughts has 2,460 posts and 10,012 comments as of writing this post, an average of over 4 comments per post. Simple Thoughts was never intended to be a commercial venture like TechCrunch or Mashable, for instance.
How To Solve 100% CPU Hogging by Firefox in 2 StepsApril 30th, 2007 I am using a Core 2 Duo E6600 (2.4 GHZ x 2), one of the best processor (review) in market today, with 2GHZ of DDR 2 667 RAM (read about my dream computer setup), and yet Firefox manages to hog 97% of the CPU in no time at all. I admit that I open too many windows but its is still extreme, don't you think? So I set upon to find a solution to the CPU hogging problem and you will be surprised to know that it is really very simple.
Social Bookmarking is Back! Use It.September 3rd, 2007 Social Bookmarking is back on Simple Thoughts blog. I have added Alex King's Share This plugin along with a modified version of Digg It plugin.
Solution: ntpdate[4933]: no server suitable for synchronization foundDecember 15th, 2007 Our local setup consists of a single ntp server which synchronizes time from asia pool of ntp.org ([0-2].asia.pool.ntp.org) and several ntp servers in the intranet which synchronizes from the above server. This setup ensures identical clock on all the machines on the intranet as well as reduces load on ntp.org servers.
Error of Spam Protection by Restricting Comments on Old PostsDecember 7th, 2007 There is a widespread assumption by many bloggers that comments on old posts are mostly spam. There are several WordPress plugins to prevent commenting on old posts, even posts as recent as one month old like, for example, Akismet.
6 MySQL Database Replication TipsNovember 18th, 2007 Replicating on two or more MySQL master database servers
1. MySQL Master-Master Replication Fails With ERROR 1200 (HY000) on Master
2.
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February 22nd, 2006 at 11:58 am
I noticed the same strange database errors when using the 3.0 beta version of hashcash..
so now you are not using hashcash at all?
doesnt that mean you will get a flood of comment spam?
I am not sure now what I should use as a spam prevention solution.. maybe I should go back to the older version of hashcash..
February 22nd, 2006 at 12:27 pm
No. I have stopped using HashCash. I still have first comment moderation on. So hopefully (unless the spammer uses the exploit mentioned in this post) I will get a chance to moderate the comments before it appears on the site.
If I start getting too many spams, as before, I will opt for Bad Behavior plugin. I have heard good words about it from James Huff aka MacManx.
February 22nd, 2006 at 1:07 pm
I have been using Bad Behavior for almost a year now. It’s an excellent plugin and very effective at stopping bandwidth-wasting and email-harvesting bots as well as comment and trackback spam bots. Since the developer of Bad Behavior is never pleased by false positives, some spam comments do pass by its defenses. Once WordPress 2.0 was released about two months ago, I decided to add Akismet as a second layer of spam protection, and MacManX.com has been 100% spam-free ever since.
February 22nd, 2006 at 1:23 pm
> Bad Behavior is never pleased by false positives, some spam comments do pass by its defenses
I would support the Bad Behavior approach of focussing on eliminating false positives at the cost of letting few spams through. It is better than the overly aggresive approch of SpamKarma.
So Bad Bahavior it is then
February 22nd, 2006 at 1:33 pm
Good choice!
I should also mention that I have received absolutely no false positives during the past two months in which I have been using both Bad Behavior and Akismet. So, if you ever get tired of managing your moderation list, try adding Akismet to your mix.
February 22nd, 2006 at 10:28 pm
James,
Thanks.
I have two issues with Akismet.
Firstly I do not fall under their narrow definition of non-commercial blog
Secondly I somehow feel hesitant to hand over the control of my comments to third-party. Just from an architectural point it appears incorrect.
February 23rd, 2006 at 1:17 pm
I am not sure why, but I chmoded the file wp-hashcash.key to 666 and the database errors seem to be gone and I can access all my blogs pages fine now..
I may use bad behavior eventually but I am a bit concerned about it blocking legitimate bots like google and yahoo etc.
February 23rd, 2006 at 5:40 pm
Angsuman, you make $500 or more per moth off of Simple Thoughts?! You lucky blogger. As for third-party control, there really isn’t much there. The Akismet server evaluates each incoming comment for spam content. Comments marked as “spam” by the plugin are still stored in your database for fifteen days and viewable in a log interface. If you find a comment incorrectly marked as “spam”, just hit the “not spam” button to post it on your blog and submit to Akismet for re-evaluation and system education, and visa-versa for any spam comments that get past the plugin. Architecturally, Akismet seems like the best available anti-spam solution. The effect of the community contribution to the spam evaluating engine leads to comment spam floods being stopped across the internet in a matter of seconds. According to the Akistmet engine, there have been “4,242,796 spams caught so far, 63,824 so far today, [and] 81% of all comments are spam.” But, if you can’t or don’t want to use Akismet, Bad Behavior and a good moderation list should keep you spam-free.
Thomas, Bad Behavior shouldn’t be blocking any well-established and properly-coded legitimate bots. Bad Behavior compares existing legitimate bots to their IPs and known behavior patterns. For example, Bad Behavior will block a bot with the Googlebot user agent only if it came from a non-Google IP and/or it is not following the Googlebot’s behavior pattern. If you are concerned, just check Bad Behavior’s log each day. For more information, look for the commented fields inside each of Bad Behavior’s files.
February 23rd, 2006 at 11:03 pm
James,
Shh
Though I have to admit things are slowing down a bit for unknown reasons.
You have convinced me wrt. Akismet. I will definitely try it.
BTW: I noticed after eliminating wp-hashcash, I have started getting lots of legitimate comments. It appears wp-hashcash was eating (due to the bug you found) much more than just illegitimate comments.
February 24th, 2006 at 11:20 am
Just wanted to give you a heads up.. at 12:17 PM eastern time I got a “cannot connect to database error” when trying to access your page..
probably just a fluke but thought i should let you know
February 24th, 2006 at 12:35 pm
Thomas,
Thanks for the heads-up.
Best,
Angsuman
July 7th, 2006 at 11:22 pm
There’s a new release of Bad Behavior out which should address your issue of false positives, especially from various South Asian countries (it has a strict mode, which you want to disable to allow this traffic).
Combined with Akismet, you should no longer see 3000 spams a day
July 7th, 2006 at 11:51 pm
Thanks Michael. I will try it out.
February 3rd, 2007 at 11:41 am
I’ve found that Akismet gives that blank page error on posting now (with WP 2.0.7). The Akismet guys said they addressed the bug, but the new version still gives me the same problem.
Re-enabling Akismet even after it’s been deactivated reveals the spams that have been coming in and that it’s trapping them even though the plugin is disabled, which is almost a miracle! Moreover, it revealed several false positives that I had to de-spam…
Really not sure what’s going on.