Thomas Freudenberg : Akismet

CommunityServer MVPs CSModules Pack for CS2007 released

Thomas Freudenberg — Mon, 14 May 2007 15:56:00 GMT

Yesterday a new version of the CSMVPs CSModules package was released. Except the new LinkManager (which enables you to add customizable attributes to links in your posts automatically) it´s mainly a technical refresh targeting CommunityServer 2007 (SP1).

Read the full announcement is available on the CS MVP site.

Another release of Akismet spam rule

Thomas Freudenberg — Thu, 31 Aug 2006 18:25:43 GMT

My Akismet spam rule has a second home. Originally I contributed it to CSMVP's CSModules package aka Alabaster. A couple of days ago José Lema informed me that Telligent wants to release a free dedicated spam rule package, and they would like to include my rule as well. First I hesitated relinquishing my baby, but hey, the more users get easier access to that rule, the less spam they'll get. So finally I agreed José to include my rule in their package.

Yesterday José announced the availability of that spam rule package, and indeed my spam rule is not included in it, but available on its own. That means I still have full control over it and more people will use it. So if you don't want to use Alabaster (though you might miss other great CSModules) you can get the Akismet spam rule as a stand-alone component.

Happy spam-fighting.

The Akismet Spam Rule included in Alabaster

Thomas Freudenberg — Tue, 22 Aug 2006 18:57:00 GMT

Though I spoke about my Akismet spam rule a couple of weeks ago, I didn't draw that much attention to it. However, now that the first version of CSMVP's CSModules package, code name Alabaster, is released for more than a week, I'd like to spent some words on it, though Jayson mentioned it in his CS Tidbits: Exploring The CS Spam Blocker.

Akismet provides a web service, which evaluates a comment or trackback based on several tests and returns a thumb up or thumb down. (Additionally, it can be trained, but that's not supported by my spam rule.)

The spam rule I wrote and contributed to Alabaster calls this Akismet web service. The implementation is straight forward, for a general spam rule implementation see Jose Lema's instructions on the CS Forum. Well, there some tips missing, but Keyvan forwarded me an advice from Jose: if you use a web service in my spam rule, make that external call only if absolutely necessary. If the "cheaper" spam rules such as link count already identifies a comment as spam, an "expensive" call to an external service would be redundant.

The spam rule engine in Community Server evaluates comments three-stage. In the implementation of your spam rule you can specify at which stage your rule should be visited. Additionally, you can restrict your rule based on the result of previously visited spam rules. In the case of the Akismet spam rule, I specified that the rule should be visited in the third stage, and only if the comment is not considered spam yet:

    /// <summary>
    /// Gets the pass criteria.
    /// </summary>
    /// <value>The pass criteria.</value>
    public override PassCriteria PassCriteria
    {
        get { return PassCriteria.ThirdPass; }
    }
    
    /// <summary>
    /// Gets the status criteria.
    /// </summary>
    /// <value>The status criteria.</value>
    public override StatusCriteria StatusCriteria
    {
        get { return StatusCriteria.NotSpam; }
    }

Ok, enough about the implementation. The installation is pretty easy. Contrary to CSModules, spam rules do not need to be registered in any .config files. Instead, the spam rule engine finds all rules via reflection on all assemblies in CS' bin folder.

For the configuration, first of all you need a WordPress API key, because Akismet requires it. Though you can get a key for free, the Akismet is free only for personal use. If you are a commercial entity or making more than $500 from your personal blog, you need a commercial key.

Pretending you have your API key now, go to Control Panel -> Administration -> System Tools -> Manage Spam Blocker (~/ControlPanel/Tools/ManageSpamRules.aspx). Tick the Akismet.com spam rule and click on Configure. In the configuration window enter your API key and your desired points for detected spam (I chose 5, so it gets moderated automatically. I trust Akismet ). Click Save to close the configuration window and again Save to accept the selected spam rules.

What's next

Thomas Freudenberg — Sat, 22 Jul 2006 01:06:00 GMT

As mentioned in my last post, I'm working on several extensions for Community Server 2.1. I used to use the Intensive.CodeHighlighter library by Gary McPherson, but I could not find any updated version. Therefore I "re-engineered" a .NET 2.0 version and improved its configuration handling. No custom configSection is required anymore.

Secondly, I was working on a solution for enabling coComment in CS2.x. Scott Elkin asked my two days ago for some hints because the coComment support in CS 2.x was broken if you give our posts names. However, after I found out about the BlogThreadQuery, I saw that Keyvan Nayyeri already published the same instructions I was preparing.

Anyway, what's already running on this site is my custom spam rule using Akismet. You can see the module's settings to the right. I'd really like to see it in action, but up to now there was no spam knocking on my door. But I'm convinced that it will take only a couple of hours until the first spam will be rejected. As soon as I'm sure of its effectiveness I'll publish it.