Mollom - Spam Comments Exterminator

Just about two weeks ago, we have upgraded our site to the latest Drupal engine. After doing so, we acknowledged that there will be a lot of spam issues, as that have been encountered when the site was running on version 4.7.x version. During then, there was a particular contributed Drupal module, "spam", which worked miraculously in identifying spam comments. Unfortunately, this module is not supported in version 6.x, which prompted us to lookout for an alternative solution.

There was none that suits our needs from the Drupal module repository until we saw this - Mollom.

(read more about Mollom progress on our site...)

After trying Mollom for the past 2 weeks, the result is remarkable. I do not see any spam comments that have constantly plaguarising my website! (see screenshot below)

About 531 spam comments sniffed out by Mollom. Also, with this spam system in place, it seems that spam attacks on our site have started to reduce gradually. The reason is unknown, but, probably, it was believed that spammers have realised that they have been black-listed and therefore wasted no effort on attempted attacks on our sites. Nevertheless, this is a marvellous news for those running Drupal websites.

Mollom is also not limited to those running Drupal websites, but also other blogs and content management systems (CMS), such as WordPress. Some of the major websites are also running Mollom; for instance, Sony BMG, Adobe, Warner Bros and FastCompany.

Here are some of the benefits of using Mollom:

• Kills comment and contact-form spam
• Overall content quality improved
• Reduce burden of site moderation
• Faster community growth
• Free

Below are the top 5 features of Mollom:

• Eliminate moderation queue
• Detailed statistics
• Image and audio CAPTCHA challenges
• Multilingual support
• High-availability infrastructure

What I like best is that it truly is free and it helps to reduce content moderation. However, as the going says, there is no such thing as a free lunch. There is limitation in which this application will do the free job for you. It will moderate up to 100 spams in a day, beyond which is up to you to decide.

Mollom is definitely a good choice for smaller enterprises, with minimal spams. For larger sites, paid subscriptions will be involved if you want to continue using the service. Alternatively, there are always other solutions available for you to choose from.