is Mollom really that good?

silverwing's picture

He has: 79 posts

Joined: May 2008

I recently updated a couple site to Drupal 6 and came to the part where I needed to fight spam and I became quite despondent as I looked at what was available. Or wasn't. Or what won't be.

First of, I don't want to use those stupid CAPTCHA thingys. I hate them. They're annoying.

In Drupal 6 we seem to have these options: spam.module, akismet.module and Mollom.

spam.module didn't seem to work at all.

akismet.module says it's not supported anymore. (I actually really liked this on my Drupal 5 installs.)

Then there's the Mollom thing. I have it installed, and I think it works, mostly. But I have no idea if any real comments are getting blocked.

With akismet, you have a list of the spam posts to breeze through to see if something was 'misplaced.'

So is anyone using Mollom and finding it to be decent? Am I just over thinking things?

~silverwing

decibel.places's picture

He has: 1,494 posts

Joined: Jun 2008

Doesn't Mollom include captcha?

I use the captcha modules, on non-Drupal sites I use reCAPTCHA which is a little more elegant than the Drupal ones. (Drupal reCAPTCHA module)

Sometimes on HTML forms I just put a mouseover on the submit button test, I know that is not foolproof but eliminates about 80% of spam, on my old GeoCities site.

I too have been curious about Mollom so please keep us posted.

@silverwing - haven't seen you around for a while, how are things? Laughing out loud

silverwing's picture

He has: 79 posts

Joined: May 2008

Like Megan said, it does use a captcha if Mollom isn't really sure it's spam. Which I think is a deterrent. If you have a captcha on the comment form, the commenter knows that. But if it magically appears after you click submit, it may be a turn-off to submit your comment.

I guess my real problem here is that Drupal is about choice. You've generally got a dozen ways to do something. Except deal with spam.

I've been taking a bit of an internet sabbatical - not being a full-time internet loser junkie. A mental health holiday of sorts! But I'm back now.

Megan's picture

She has: 11,421 posts

Joined: Jun 1999

I've been using Mollom for a couple of months on one relatively low traffic site. I guess you just have to trust that it's not blocking out any real comments. It is supposed to show the captcha if it's unsure.

I really wish they would show you a list of posts - it's just a peace of mind thing to be sure that it's doing what it's supposed to.

silverwing's picture

He has: 79 posts

Joined: May 2008

There is something of a log on your site. Go to admin/reports/dblog and filter for Mollom. Not as nice as Akismet, but it's there.

And I'd rather spend a few minutes going through my akismet spam log to see if anything got caught that shouldn't have been than wondering if someone just gave up.

It's about control. It's my site, and I want to decide what goes on in it!

~silverwing

decibel.places's picture

He has: 1,494 posts

Joined: Jun 2008

I am using Mollom which is part of an installation profile (Open Publish)

The free version permits up to 100 posts per day, the premium version is 30€ per month

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