Akismet Makes Big Size Mysql
To most wordpress users, the Akismet is the default and most important plugin to deal with spam commenting. Our web hosting blog site is also based on wordpress and Akismet is configured as default. However, as the incoming spam commeting growth, the backend mysql database size grows up rapidly. It shocked me a lot as I haven't done anything special to the database. After a bit research, I found the problem is on commentmeta table where all Akismet blocked comments history stored. From the online docs, Akismet should store comment details there until they're deleted or approved, so I tried to clear all spam in the queue, However, there's no change on the size.
Finally, I found a useful query to clear the history on wordpress froum:
DELETE FROM wp_commentmeta WHERE meta_key LIKE '%akismet%'
This sql delete statement will clear all akismet history in commentmeta table, in case you're concerned with the big size problem, you can get a peace sleep with it. We can either run this query every few days or create a cron job in cpanel and run it automatically.
Is Akismet bad plugin?
Absolutely not. Being one of the earliest and most efficient spam-fighting plugin, Akismet is serving thousands of blogs. Personally, the plugin blocked over 10 thousand spam comments in 6 months. Because of this, I don't have to manually determine which comment is spam then move it to that queue. Akismet is only bad for the history size problem, if the developer could fix this problem then everything is perfect.
How to deal with wordpress spam commenting?
Spam is headache to every webmaster as it always wastes our lots of time, if we ignore it some time, something terrible might happen to our service especially when we set approvement without moderation. Most spam-fighting plugins are configured to deal with real people, for example to add authentication fields before commenting. However such methods can not block spam bots, that's why there're still rubbish comments in the moderation queue. Akismet is by far the most efficient plugin to block such commenting, there's just one click to clear them all. So overall, the following methods are MUST to deal with wordpress spam commenting
1. Install Akismet – Always remember to activate this plugin after our WP blog installed. Although akismet will not delete the spam comments directly, we will save time in determing spam comments manually.
2. Keep wordpress core up to date – Always remember to update wordpress to latest version as it fixed lots of bugs from previous version.
3. Add Captcha or math commet protection plugins – People will have to pass the verification before commenting. This will stop those inpatient spammers.
4. Authentication before commenting – This would be the most strict methods. Only registered users be able to comment to your articles. However, it's only good method for popular websites that gains lots of daily traffic because they never lack of readers. For new blogs, this blocking methods will result in less communication between you and your visitors.
Above are recommended methods to deal with wordpress spam commenting, however that's not all. Just do your own research and choose the best method for your site!
