This is a user generated content for MyStory, a YourStory initiative to enable its community to contribute and have their voices heard. The views and writings here reflect that of the author and not of YourStory.
How to delete spam users with a WordPress plugin?
This is a user generated content for MyStory, a YourStory initiative to enable its community to contribute and have their voices heard. The views and writings here reflect that of the author and not of YourStory.
WordPress used to be an ordinary content management system, which was used by small-sized blogs and websites only. But it expanded into a multi-user platform, and all types of sites are now developed with WordPress. With time, the number of spammers targeting the WordPress registration form has increased. They intend to create bots and fake accounts that could spam your links and always attempt to inject the malicious scripts into your sites.
With the basic information and little know-how provided by Jack Miller, a leading expert of Semalt, it is now easy for us to fight back the nasty folk and protect your site from spam comments.
Why are WordPress spam users the problem?
The spam users can easily hurt your blog or website both externally and internally, and that's why you should get rid of them as soon as possible. Internally, the spam users will bloat up the WordPress' accounts and databases and will make it tough for you manage the website. If you are dealing with lots of spam comments, annoying users and spam comments every day, you are not alone as a lot of people are already suffering from this problem.
Externally, the spammers can post useless outbound links to your site, which will ultimately hurt its ranking before Bing, Yahoo, and Google. If you have been running BuddyPress to deal with spammers, let me here tell you that they will be able to send you private messages that may look legitimate and useful but are actually good for nothing.
Identify and eliminate or delete spam users with a Plugin:
If you are one of those persons who is dealing with spam comments on a daily basis, you should turn to the plugin such as SplogHunter (also called WangGuard). This plugin will identify and eliminate the spam users and will prevent them from causing problems for you. This plugin creates a protective layer around your site and goes through the existing users and is responsible for comparing them for spam possibilities. The users who look odd to it would be added to its database immediately. SplogHunter provides us with its Report as a Splogger option that will help delete the spam users and add them to the SplogHunter's database in no time.
Add captcha to registration forms:
If you don't have access to the above-mentioned plugin, you can add a captcha to your registration forms and comment sections and ensure your site's safety. The Captcha by BestWebSoft is the best tool in this regard and helps add simple math equations and puzzling questions to your website. The best part is that this plugin works on all types of logins, registration forms, can recover your passwords, scan your comments and improve your contact form's layout.
Automatically flag the spammers without captcha:
Another effective method is to automatically flag the spammers and spam comments without any need for a plugin. Besides filtering out the existing spam users, you can use SplogHunter to protect the registration forms and WordPress sites from spammers. When user signups to your site, he will be compared against the SplogHunter's spam user databases and cloud storage option, ensuring that he is legitimate and does not belong to the group of spammers.