No support will be provided for this plugin.

Spam Keyword Sanitizer 0.4.1 - This plugin seeks to reduce comment and trackback spam by replacing certain "spam bait" keywords in posts, post titles, comments and comment author names with their HTML special character counterparts. ("A" becomes "A," "p" becomes "p," etc.)

Spam bots don't read your screen. They read your code. When a bot looks at your code, it will see a bunch of special characters and move on. When web browsers and feed readers process that same code, they show your readers the text you intended.

This plugin makes no database changes. When a request is made, the relevant information is read from the database, passed through the plugin and the modified output is sent to the client. Editing posts and comments will show the standard characters originally typed by you or your users.

Credit for the inspiration for this plugin goes to a reader who has noticed a huge upsurge in her comment spam whenever she posts certain words. This is probably not a coincidence. After all, the kind of products comment spammers are trying to sell probably aren't a good match with bloggers who spend all their time talking about gardening or immigration reform.

This plugin does absolutely nothing to analyze, filter or block comment spam. Instead it seeks to prevent spammers from targeting you at all just because one of your posts contains words like "sexy" or "horny." This plugin tries to level the playing field and let you post what you like without attracting more spam. It's intended to compliment, not replace, quality spam solutions like Akismet, Spam Karma and Bad Behavior.

Spam Keyword Sanitizer is not intelligent, but it doesn't need to be. It replaces certain letter combinations without regard to context. So while it will sanitize "ass" it will also sanitize "assistant" and "Massachusetts." This is really a non-issue since your readers will always see the character output anyway.

Spam Keyword Sanitizer should be considered beta quality. Use at your own risk. Although I find the plugin very stable, you may find that the plugin breaks your blog, leaves profane voice mail messages for your boss and drinks all your beer while you're out looking for a new job. Caveat emptor downloader. (Or something like that.) Support for this plugin may be provided, but only if your problem/concern/gripe is accompanied by effluent praise and proclamations of my greatness. And only if I feel like it.

Update: Unfortunately, this plugin doesn't seem to work. It performs the stated task admirably and reliably, but it doesn't appear to have any effect on comment spam. I used SKS for a few months and saw absolutely no change in the volume of spam received. Oh well. It was a nice idea.

Compatibility:

  • Known to be compatible with: WordPress 2.0.3 - 2.0.5

  • Should be compatible with: all versions 1.5 and higher

License:

Change log:

  • v0.5.1 alpha - Released 2006-10-13. Changed plugin and author urls to remove "www."

  • v0.5 alpha - Released 2006-07-18. Now includes over 100 keywords. I'm currently testing this release in the hopes of avoiding problems like the HTML class issue in v0.3. This version may remain alpha for a while.

  • v0.4.1 - Released 2006-10-13. Changed plugin and author urls to remove "www."

  • v0.4 - Released 2006-07-18. Whitelisted the word "class" so the plugin doesn't inadvertently break HTML classes in posts. (Whoops.)

  • v0.3.1 - Released 2006-10-13. Changed plugin and author urls to remove "www."

  • v0.3 - Released 2006-07-18. Added more keywords, changed output from misspelled words to HTML special characters, removed acronym tags from output, changed name from Sanitizer to Spam Keyword Sanitizer.

  • v0.2.1.1 - Released 2006-10-13. Changed plugin and author urls to remove "www."

  • v0.2.1 - Released 2006-07-17. Fixed spelling mistake in keywords.

  • v0.2.0.1 - Released 2006-10-13. Changed plugin and author urls to remove "www."

  • v0.2 - Released 2006-07-17. Added more naughty words, added ability to catch naughty words with first letter capitalized and in all caps.

  • v0.1.1 - Released Released 2006-10-13. Changed plugin and author urls to remove "www."

  • v0.1 - Released 2006-07-16. Initial release.

To do:

  • Add some variety of global whitelist to prevent SKS from sanitizing HTML.

  • Quit making dumbass mistakes.

  • No modifications planned. SKS is a dead project.