In response to the late overthrow of my existing comment spam filter, I have turned to the world of semi-official plugins for Nucleus, the blog software I use for ii News. Specifically, I am trying out BadBehavior, a plugin which refers to a database of known spammers on the web. So, if you aren’t a spammer, you should be able to post comments as before, but without having to answer the inane question.
Also, just for your information, you don’t have to fill out the email and/or home page fields. Just put your name and your comment.
See? I can comment without being blocked. I don’t have to fill in "Website" or "E-mail".
So far, not so good. Two spams have gotten through since I turned off my own filter and enabled BadBehavior. I’ll let it ride for a bit, but I suspect I will re-enable my inane question test soon and let both of them work in concert. Defense in depth…
I’m going with both my filter and theirs. Theirs is letting the odd thing through. Mine lets the odd thing through. I think putting them together might just work.