03.20.07

No Comment

Posted in Technology at 2:11 pm by Stoner

When I originally set up WordPress, I disabled comments because I didn’t want to deal with users in the database (safer for me and you) and comment spam. Well, I’ve implemented 2 plugins to help with both issues.

WordPress comes with the Akismet plugin but required an API key from WordPress.com. I went ahead and registered for a username, which gives me an API key. My concerns about it are two-fold:

  1. how effective is it at combating comment spam
  2. how resource intensive is it to the server

The first concern is obvious. I detest spam in all its forms. The second concern is due to the community atmosphere of Freeshell.org, where this blog is served from. Freeshell.org provides more bang for your buck (as far as shell accounts go) and there is a definite attitude among the users to “play nice” with each other, including resources used by CGI scripts (CPU and memory consumption.) So, we’ll see how server-friendly Akismet is.

I installed the OpenID Comments for WordPress plugin to get around having user info in my database. This plugin allows you to use an OpenID (think: single sign-on for web pages) to authenticate for posting comments. You get to speak your mind and call me names while my database stays relatively clear of your personal data. Yay.