Nerve Endings Firing Away

Akismet, the anti-spam plugin that comes bundled with every WordPress version is a must-have on your hosted blog. Activation of Akismet needs an API key that you can get for free by registering at WordPress.com. Off late, I had been seeing mixed results from my Akismet plugin and was wondering if it was falling short of handling spam effectively. But then I realized my mistake and slapped my head at the obvious oversight.

When you update your hosted WordPress blog, you are only required to replace files inside the wp-admin and wp-includes directory apart from replacing the core files located in the root. The wp-content file that contains your themes and plugins remains untouched. Since Akismet is bundled with the WordPress download, I hadn’t replaced the plugin with the latest version in my previous 2-3 updates. Considering how important updates are to any plugin that handles incoming spam, it was obvious why Akismet was under-performing.

I realized this last night and instantly replaced my Akismet plugin with the latest version. The difference was immediately apparent today as my spam folder was virtually empty. So don’t forget Akismet when you upgrade WordPress.

Now if you use the Automatic Upgrade plugin, you don’t have to worry about such small details.