Imagine life with Akismet!

I keep getting blown away by how awesome Akismet is. I run a number of different blogs and without Akismet spam management would just innundate me with work. Akismet has kept all my blogs clean for years and year; and you don’t realise just how awesome it is until you see all the spam that it has captured for you. For example, on Ugh!!’s Greymatter Honeypot Akismet has caught more than 150,000 spam comments. Imagine the time and effort that would have been needed if I were to try and manage those comments myself.

I must admit, with that volume of spam, I don’t actually check my spam folder for false positives. There might have been an important comment about New Orleans hotel deals while I was going there, but I just wouldn’t have picked it up. The reality is, however, that with that amount of spam, I’m winning in the long run anyway.

Akismet now has stats

The new version of Akismet now has a brand-spanking new feature: stats! It also has some performance improvements and better responsiveness, but the graphical representation of your spam statistics is definitely a major selling point (well, if you had to pay for it, it would be). Anyway, here’s the blurb:

If you upgraded to Akismet 2.2, you likely noticed a cool new feature: Akismet stats. …

Akismet stats track your comment metrics, including missed spam, false positives (Akismet thought it was spam, but you disagreed), and Yummy Pie, which displays your ham vs. spam count in a nifty pie chart.

What’s ham? The good stuff. Delicious, legitimate comments. Spam is the non-legitimate filler that Akismet excels at blocking.

Nice huh? Well, the major point for me is that is blocks spam pretty successfully, with is a major boon as anyone working in PC Support will attest to. But the graphs to add a nice touch and I for one am happy to see them there.