How to Use Comment Blacklists to Stop WordPress Comment Spam?

A blacklist is simply a list of people, email address or IP addresses which are considered not trustworthy and which should be prevented from commenting on your WordPress site. By using an established blacklist, you don’t have to go through the painful process of discovering each, one by one. A blacklist will save you time and effort to stop comment spam.

Note: There are huge differences between trying to block based on “bad word” lists and trying to keep an up to date list of IP addresses in a list.

Why Not Use Comment Blacklist?

The one drawback with using comment blacklists is that you’re at the mercy of someone else who has compiled the data. In other words, it means you’re giving control to a 3rd party who may have not kept the information up to date or who could have an agenda for blocking the commenters in the list. If you trust the list it’s great. If you don’t, there are possible concerns.

Where Can You Get Comment Blacklist?

Simply doing a web search for WordPress comment blacklists or WordPress comment blocklists, will reveal many thousand results. For example, the Ultimate Comment Blacklist is available on the Perishable Press website, a product of 10+ years of accumulation and refinement. This list is a bad word type of list, so please be prepared if you choose to download and open the file.

Should You Review Comment Blacklists Before Using?

Yes! You definitely should examine thoroughly, since some of the words may not be good for you to block. For example:

If your site is about freebies, you don’t want to block free words.

If your site is about adult toys, you don’t want to block some sex-related words. It all comes down to what your site is about. So, check the list before using it.

Do I Need to Install a Plugin or Function In Order to Implement Blacklists?

No. Thanks to the built-in functionality of WordPress comments, you don’t need to add a blacklist plugin.

How to Add WordPress Comment Blacklists and Blocklists?

You can block by pasting a list into the WordPress admin panel.

Once you’ve got a list ready, go to:

  Settings -> Discussion -> Comment Blocklist

From there, you can simply paste in the list into the text box and then scroll down and click Save Changes.

Conclusion

Have a WordPress website? Check out our Managed WordPress Hosting and see if we are a good fit for you. KnownHost offers 365 days a year, 24 hours a day, all 7 days of the week best in class technical support. A dedicated team ready to help you should you need our assistance. You’re not using KnownHost for the best webhosting experience? Well, why not?