Spam Check with Akismet

Akismet provides WordPress with the ability to check comments and form submissions against their global database of spam. WS Form PRO is fully integrated with the popular Akismet spam check plugin and provides a convenient and effective way of tackling form submissions containing spam content.

Any submissions checked with Akismet will be graded for spam, and a colored circle will accompany the submission in the WS Form submissions page. Red = blatant spam, Orange = possible spam, Green = not considered spam.

WS Form - Akismet

Activate Akismet

In order to use this action, you will need to have the Akismet plugin activated and be registered for an Akismet API key. Keys are free for personal blogs; paid subscriptions are available for businesses and commercial sites.

Enabling Akismet

To enable Akismet on your form:

  1. Click the settings icon at the top of the layout editor.
  2. Click the Spam tab.
  3. Check the Enabled setting in the Akismet section of the sidebar.

You are then presented with the following options:

Email Field

You should select the field on your form that represents the email address of the website visitor completing your form. If no options appear under this setting, it means you do not have an email field on your form, so you should add one.

Fields to Check for Spam

Click the Add  icon to add fields on your form that will contain textual content. Akismet will analyze these fields for spam. A good example of a field you would choose here might be an Inquiry or Comments text area field.

Settings

This setting lets you determine what to do if spam is found.

  • Use Spam Threshold – Akismet will score the submission between 0 (Not spam) and 100 (Blatant spam) and will use the spam threshold setting (at the bottom of the sidebar) to determine if the submission should be placed in the submissions spam folder. Actions and add-ons will run.
  • Reject Suspect Spam – If Akismet suspects the submission contains spam, submissions will be moved the submissions spam folder. No actions or add-ons will run.
  • Reject Blatant Spam – If Akismet marks the submission as blatant spam, submissions will be moved the submissions spam folder. No actions or add-ons will run.

Test Mode

Test mode can be used to put Akismet’s API into test mode and disable training of Akismet. For further information about this mode, click here.

Bypass if Administrator

If checked this action will not run if you are signed in as an administrator. This is a useful feature to enable while you are developing forms.

Click Save & Close or Save to save your settings.