Installing the Akismet Extension for BlogEngine.NET

by justin 15. July 2009 00:54

I have been getting a lot of spam lately and in order to curtail that I have been looking into captcha-alternative spam fighting tools. Nick Olson recommended that I check out Akismet which is a feature of WordPress but also has a free (and commercial) API for other blog engines.

After a little looking around I found an extension on the BlogEngine.NET website and figured out how to get it installed. It has yet to be seen if it works but I thought I’d lay out the steps since it wasn’t that intuitive to me at all.

Step 1 – Install the Extension

First download the Akismet Extension for BlogEnging.NET. I installed version 1.3 even though I have no idea what version of BlogEngine.NET I have and it seemed to work.

The extension is a zip file containing two C# code files, in order to get it installed you simply copy the code files using FTP (or whatever you use) to your website at [<web>\App_Code\Extensions\].

Using a browser simply navigate to your website, you’ll probably notice a delay of a few seconds as ASP.NET tries to recompile your website. The extension will now show up in your extension manager on the admin site under the Extensions tab.

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Step 2 – Get your Akismet API key

This was the most confusing step for me. It turns out that you need to have a WordPress account to get this key and no where at word press is it actually called a Akismet API key. Either create an account at wordpress or log in using an existing account.

Once logged in look for the “My Account” button in the upper left and select Edit Profile.

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At the top of your profile it should say “Your WordPress.com API key is: xxxxxxxxxx”. Copy that API key.

Step 3 – Configure BlogEngine.NET

Back in your extension manager from Step 1 click the “Edit” link for the AkismetExtension. Enter the API key copied in step two into the API key field and either the URL for your blog. That’s it!

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I’ll let you know if I still get spam. I know it works because I intentionally entered an invalid API key and I could no longer submit comments at all but with the right API key I was able to submit a few test comments.

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Misc | .NET

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Comments

7/2/2009 11:30:28 PM #

Be warned people, I'm still getting spam Frown Less, it's true but it's still coming through.

Justin Chase |

7/4/2009 2:57:06 AM #

Justin, does it matter the address you put in for Blog URL?  The URL of Wordpress blog or URL of BlogEngine blog?

Jim |

7/4/2009 4:44:09 AM #

I put in 'http://www.justnbusiness.com' for my URL. When I put in an invalid key my comments stopped working entirely so I'm pretty sure with that URL they are successfully being routed through akismet. So I think the answer is that it doesn't matter. The way you get the key is by logging into your wordpress account so I think they already know about your blog url, probably don't need to specify it again if  you're using an API key designed for 3rd party use.

But that's just my deduction...

justin |

7/7/2009 6:26:51 PM #

As a followup, I am getting more spam than ever Frown The dang spammers send fairly convincing text that simply has a URL to their spam site of choice for their URL value. Apparently akisment doesn't have a very good black list or something.

I am trying something else now, I'll let you know if it works.

justin |

8/22/2009 5:01:57 PM #

I'd be curious to hear what else you are trying...I've had a similar situation on my blogengine.net blog, which is insane, because I get upwards of 10s of hits per month...what kind of SEO juice can they get from my tiny little site?  grr...

Troy Carlson |

8/25/2009 5:34:44 PM #

I tried hacking the code a little bit to change the URL for submitting comments and that worked for about a month but they managed to figure it out again (probably because I blogged about how I did it). So I'll probably do it again with something a little more tricky but not blog about it eventually.

It is truly annoying.

justin |

8/28/2009 2:54:48 AM #

Rory Buckley

Justin,

Change the website links to be nofollow, that should stop a lot of those mindless fools spamming their online drug stores.

Rory Buckley |

8/28/2009 4:59:02 AM #

nofollow? what do you mean by that?

justin |

1/2/2010 7:50:07 AM #

Yeah I just turned moderation on, I've been too lazy to look further into this but either there is something wrong or akismet actually sucks. I suspect it's the later since, while it can block blacklisted sites, there is no way for me to submit a URL as spam to build up their database. That is a crucial component.

Anyway, I'm blocking comments pending moderation for now and I will have to look at upgrading the engine sometime soon because this spam issue is overwhelming.

justin |

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About Me

sweetest hat ever

I'm a software developer from Minnesota and this blog largely focuses on various technical concepts I am thinking about at the moment. I currently work for Microsoft in the St. Paul office of the Expression product group.

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