For those who don’t want to deal with the full-blown MT-Blacklist system, allow me to recommend perusal of MT-Moderate. I haven’t tried it, but Chad’s MT-Notifier is a sweet little plug-in, so MT-Moderate should be likewise.
MT-Moderate basically lets you:
- Force moderation of comments on posts beyond a certain age.
- Temporarily disable moderation of those posts if you approve a comment (to allow for further dialog).
That’s it. And, yes, that will probably catch (force into moderation) a goodly proportion of comment spam. You may (or may not) feel the need to clean the trash occasionally, and, if so, it’s a little bit more complex of a process. But it’s very nice, overall (and should be standard equipment, out of the box, on MT, frankly).
I still plan on using MT-Blacklist (which does the above, plus so much more), but I can see why someone would want a simpler, and reasonably effective approach, too. Certainly it seems miles better than nothing.
The only question I have (and I’ll be darned if I can find the answer) is whether MT-Moderate works on MT2, MT3, or both.
(Posted by CronDave)
MT-Moderate looks like the out-of-the-box solution included in WordPress. I rarely have to deal with comment spam reaching my blog because all the offending messages are sitting in a moderation queue.
And that’s largely the case for my current MT setup, too. But I agree that something like it should be out-of-the-box with MT, as well. (Even Jay Allen, the MT-Blacklist guru, notes that blacklists are not the long-term answer, and that comment moderation based on post age and other such parameters is a much more effective tool.)