Tom Raftery actually has a more recent entry up than the one I linked to previously.
In this updated comment he notes that he’s been able to drop the use of the Spam Karma plugin and rely strictly on a custom .htaccess file which he provides instructions for and a link to, a list of additional words for your WP blacklist and Dr. Dave’s Referrer Karma.
The advantage to this approach is that on top of the increase in site performance due to the elimination that the comment processing Spam Karma was responsible for, you’re blocking access to spammers much earlier in their access to your site.
Hi Derek,
thanks for the link.
A quick update on my progress – since turning off all comment-spam plugins, only 1 spam comment made it onto my site. That occurred early this morning, and I deleted it as soon as I spotted it.
It made it onto the site because it was manually submitted and made to look like a legitimate comment.
I’ll post more about it later on my own site.
Cheers,
Tom