If you run a blog, you’ve got them – spam comments.

They are the comments like ‘like your blog’, or ‘bookmarked it’, or the more obvious ones with a quick comment before a page of links: ‘enjoyed your site (link to viagra) (link to porn) (link to cialis) (link to porn) etc’,

Your definition of spam comments may vary, but mine is very simple:

If they didn’t write something relevant to the blog post they commented on, it’s spam.

If I’m talking about a plugin, it doesn’t matter if they are having problems finding places for government grants – no relevancy, it’s gone.

Ask me about permission to use my feed? They can contact me directly (the link labeled ‘contact’ does wonders). And if it’s a real person, then I pity them: if they can’t figure out how to borrow a free-for-all feed, giving them permission won’t help.

However, I make fun because all of these are spammed comments from real machines, not real people. And I know because I’ve tried a fun little plugin that takes care of all my spam woes and deleted all of these (at least until spammers get wise and improve their systems).

The plugin, Cookies for Comments, by the talented Donncha Caoimh (of WP Super Cache fame) checks to see if a spammer is automated; if so, the comment is lost. Otherwise, it’s passed through.

The plugin is easy to use: download from his site, install, and activate (of course, you can get it directly and install it from WP Central via the Plugin’s Add New tab in Admin – search on ‘cookies comments’.

The only thing I would mention is to change the settings (in the Admin Settings; Comments for Cookies section) to delete comments instead of placing them in the spam section. While it might be fun to get them blacklisted as spammers, deleting them directly means you don’t have to fuss with any cleanup.

The plugin so far works like a charm; instead of monitoring my comments and deleting a few dozen a day, now I only login for a ‘real, live’ person. It’s a great change.

In fact, the plugin is so good I’m more or less retiring my member’s comment killer plugin from active duty, and now am recommending this to everyone. One exception: when WordPress is used for a static site (ie, no comments at all), my plugin can vacuum up ALL comments without a trace.

Grab the plugin – install it – and sit back and avoid one more chore online: comment cleanup…