Akismet is a service that filters spam from comments,

trackback A trackback allows one website to notify another about an update. It is one of four types of linkback methods for website authors to request notification when somebody links to one of their documents. This enables authors to keep track of who is ...

s, and contact form

message A message is a unit of communication that conveys information from a sender to a receiver. It can be transmitted through various forms, such as spoken or written words, signals, or electronic data, and can range from simple instructions to co ...

s. The filter operates by combining information about spam captured on all participating sites and then using those spam rules to block future spam. Akismet is offered by

Automattic Automattic Inc. is an American global distributed company most notable for WordPress.com and its contributions to the WordPress system. The company was founded in 2005. Automattic's brands and products include WordPress.com, Akismet, Gra ...

, the company behind WordPress.com. Akismet was launched on October 25, 2005.

History

The founder of Automattic,

Matt Mullenweg Matthew Charles Mullenweg (born January 11, 1984) is an American web developer and entrepreneur. He is known as a co-founder of the free and open-source web publishing software WordPress, and the founder of Automattic. Early life and education Mu ...

, says that he decided to create Akismet so that his mother could blog in safety. In 2005, there were discussions about how to deal with comment spam, and only a few plug-ins were available for that purpose at the time. Mullenweg's first attempt was a JavaScript plug-in that modified the comment form and hid fields, but within hours of its launch spammers downloaded it, figured out how it worked, and bypassed it. In late 2005, Mullenweg launched the Akismet plug-in for WordPress. Each time someone posts a comment to a participating website, Akismet checks it against all the comments in the database. If it is spam, it is deleted. If spam gets through and a user marks it as spam, the comment is added to the database so the pool of spam comments widens, making Akismet increasingly effective over time.

Using Akismet

Akismet was originally developed to integrate with a plug-in for WordPress. The Akismet plug-in has been included by default in all WordPress builds since version 2.0 and activated in all WordPress.com-hosted blogs. A public Akismet

API An application programming interface (API) is a connection between computers or between computer programs. It is a type of software interface, offering a service to other pieces of software. A document or standard that describes how to build ...

has resulted in third-party plug-ins for other platforms. One is an official Akismet plug-in release for the open source internet forum software

Discourse Discourse is a generalization of the notion of a conversation to any form of communication. Discourse is a major topic in social theory, with work spanning fields such as sociology, anthropology, continental philosophy, and discourse analysis. F ...

. To use Akismet, it is necessary to obtain an API key. This key is necessary for a site to communicate with the Akismet servers. Akismet is a cloud-based tool.

Development and distribution

Released under the terms of the

GNU General Public License The GNU General Public Licenses (GNU GPL or simply GPL) are a series of widely used free software licenses, or ''copyleft'' licenses, that guarantee end users the freedom to run, study, share, or modify the software. The GPL was the first ...

, the Akismet plug-in is

free software Free software, libre software, libreware sometimes known as freedom-respecting software is computer software distributed open-source license, under terms that allow users to run the software for any purpose as well as to study, change, distribut ...

, although the code to the Akismet system itself (and the nature of the algorithm used) has not been released. The Akismet service is free for personal use and, as of November 2021, commercial plans start at less than $10 per month.

References

External links

* {{Automattic Inc. WordPress Anti-spam Automattic 2005 software PHP software Blog software Software using the GNU General Public License