New Gatekeeper

Eric has a new version of Gatekeeper, the very effective spam plugin that lets you quiz people before they leave a comment. Compare installing Gatekeeper under 1.2 and 1.5 to see how far the plugin API has come.

6 thoughts on “New Gatekeeper

  1. Can this be plugin be distributed with WP? I’d really like to see this plugin enabled by default out of the box in the next WP release. I’d say Gatekeeper and some of the other recent fixes would make a WP 1.5.x release a good idea.

  2. Personally, I do not believe Gatekeeper should be in the default installation. It may be very useful, but it’s also an extra hoop for commenters, and not every blogger will want that. Some sites already have their own solutions, and there’s no way to know whether Gatekeeper would conflict with them.

    If the installation procedure were the same as in WP 1.2, I’d be more supportive of the idea, but honestly, under 1.5 installing it is a one-click process. Anyone who wants it can easily install it.

    Besides, the more widespread its use becomes, the sooner spammers will figure out a way around it, rendering it more trouble than it’s worth. (Another reason I’m enamored of the quick installation: it also uninstalls in a jiffy.)

  3. I have to agree with Eric – I don’t want something like this included in the default installation of WordPress. This plugin places an extra burden on the commenter and I don’t see why the commenter should suffer because of the plague that is comment spam.

    In my own case, I have completely disabled all comment spam plugins and comment moderation and because of a couple of simple anti-spam steps I have taken, I haven’t received a spam comment in the last week.

    Tom

  4. It is not like you would be forced to activate it, if you want to try it you activate it else you leave it alone. I was so frustrated with WP comment SPAM that I was setting all posts over 2 days old to closed automatically. I was not happy with this decision. I found out about Gatekeeper by fluke. It may be worthwhile for WP to come pre-packaged with a dozen key plugins that people find useful. Top 10? Sure it would make the distribution larger but marginally.

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