I have turned off all commenting on this blog till I can come up with an acceptable method to prevent spammers from DoSing the mysql server. On average yesterday, the server received ~10,000 comment spam post requests and thus the scattered downtime for the server. I need to prevent a database query for every comment request, somehow. Please email me if you have some ideas or already have something in place. Be back with comments soon. Sorry for the inconvenience. PS: I am not really looking for a spam filter (of which I have enough). I need something that would intercept spam comments before the commenting process starts and accesses the database. [EDIT] Back on again, please report any problems. Suggestions that I have found useful include: Apache mod_security, Spam Valve, Bad behavior, WP Hashcash and Referer Bouncer I have already implemented a couple of these and am in the […]

I apologize for the delay in the judging of the Plugin Competition. I am sure the judges are really busy and we will get the results soon. The time taken is due to the varied installs and the requirements of each of the entries. I hope to have all the results in and tallied and the winners announced by the end of this week. Most of the cause of the delay is probably my fault. I already have the results from two of the judges and waiting patiently on at least four others. No pressure. 😉