Since I put in the spam password on comments a while back, MovableType has developed some sophisticated anti-spam features. Upgrading to version 3.2 basically wiped out the spam password technique, which I thought I would have to figure out how to put back in. But in looking at the new features, I’m not sure we need the password.

MovableType is rating comments as junk or not. And it is learning what we all think is junk. So it may be that we do not need a password. For example, Mom just posted a comment that got rated +1 (plus is good minus is bad. I don’t know how or low the numbers go.) It decided +1 because of this:

Final Feedback Rating: +1

Test Score Results

SpamLookup Link Filter +1.0 No links are present in feedback

SpamLookup Email Memory +1.0 E-mail was previously published (comment id 18).

Since I’ve allowed comments with her e-mail before, that is considered positive. I can turn on auto-publish for comments that have a positive rating.

More testing needed, but it would be good to not have to have passwords. Then well-intended acquaintances can add comments. What do you think? Leave a comment. 🙂