I’ve had to stop using WP-HashCash as the anti-spam filtering feature here at The Blog Herald (due to server issues and the load it was taking up) so I went on a hunt to find a new comment moderation feature, and after 3 days of having it in use (and only getting 1 piece of comment spam, that’s right: 1 entire piece!!!) I’m going to link to it: WP-Gatekeeper.
Regular readers would know that I don’t ever support the use of Captcha’s, because Captcha’s prevent people with visual impairments from posting comments, and I know there are a few regular readers out there who do have these disabilities. In fact, if you do use a Captcha’s on your blog, you are essentially putting up a big sign saying “F. U” to anyone who wants to post a comment to your blog who needs to use a third party reader program or similar due to their disabilities.
WP-Gatekeeper is similar to a captcha however it doesn’t use those crazy letter/ number image combinations, it uses a set of customizable challenges to readers when they go to make a comment, for example: how do you spell blue?. and I believe, because of the way it’s formatted that it is friendly to readers with visual impairments.
If you are a regular commenter at The Blog Herald you’ll be seeing these challenges when you go to comment. So far, so good on the spam front (touch wood) and if you’re using WordPress it’s definitely worth a look.
And if you need more information on making sure your blog is friendly for the visually impaired, drop on over to my friends at the American Foundation for the Blind and send them an email, I’m sure they’d be happy to help.
