Block List Updater vs Honeypot Guard – Silent Anti-Spam

Few users are familiar with the comment block list built into WordPress. Located in the WordPress admin area under “Settings”—“Discussion”, that block list for incoming comments accepts values (words) to identify spam by. Additionally to plugins like Antispam Bee in order to fight spam successfully a curated comment block list is recommendable. You can either update the list manually, or utilize a very detailed global comment block list that gets updated on a regular basis. Block List Updater has been developed to keep your comment block list in your WordPress installation up to speed with the curated global list on GitHub. The plugin will check the global comment block list on GitHub multiple times a day. Whenever new anti-spam values have been added to the global list, Block List Updater will read the global list and update your WordPress database accordingly. While the check-up process will run several times a day, the plugin will only update the database when it detects an actual change of the global comment block list on GitHub. Support Community support via the support forums on wordpress.org We don’t handle support via e-mail, Twitter, GitHub issues etc. Contribute Active development of this plugin is handled on GitHub. Pull requests for documented bugs are highly appreciated. If you think you’ve found a bug (e.g. you’re experiencing unexpected behavior), please post at the support forums first. If you want to help us translate this plugin you can do so on WordPress Translate. Credits Author: Sergej Müller Maintainers: pluginkollektiv

Honeypot Guard is a powerful, privacy-focused anti-spam solution that protects your WordPress forms without annoying your visitors with CAPTCHAs. Using invisible detection techniques, it blocks spam bots while maintaining a seamless user experience. Why Choose Honeypot Guard? Unlike CAPTCHA-based solutions that frustrate users and hurt conversions (studies show CAPTCHAs reduce form submissions by 10-40%), Honeypot Guard provides superior spam protection with zero user friction. How It Works Honeypot Guard uses multiple layers of intelligent detection to catch spam automatically: Invisible Honeypot Fields – Hidden fields that real users never see, but bots fill out automatically Dynamic Field Rotation – Constantly changing field names make it harder for sophisticated bots to adapt Timestamp Validation – Detects instant submissions (bots can’t read like humans) Intelligent Gibberish Detection – Catches keyboard mashing and random text patterns Advanced Heuristic Analysis – Pattern-based detection of common spam characteristics Character Script Filtering – Optionally block submissions containing specific character scripts (Cyrillic, Chinese, etc.) Dotted Email Detection – Catches spammers using excessive dots to generate infinite email addresses (e.g. [email protected]) Cookie Verification – Proves JavaScript execution in a real browser environment Key Features Zero User Friction – Completely invisible protection, no annoying puzzles Privacy-Focused – All processing on your server, no third-party tracking by default Granular Blacklisting – Block by email, domain, IP address, or keywords Rate Limiting – Prevent spam floods with configurable submission limits Detailed Spam Logs – View blocked submissions with one-click IP blocking Multi-Language Admin – Available in 9 languages (English, German, Spanish, Italian, Lithuanian, Swedish, Polish, Estonian, Spanish-Mexico) GDPR Compliant – No data sent to external services (unless you enable optional AI detection) Works Automatically – Integrates seamlessly with popular form plugins Supported Form Plugins Contact Form 7 WPForms Gravity Forms Ninja Forms Formidable Forms WordPress Registration Forms WordPress Comments WooCommerce Checkout & Registration bbPress Forums Any HTML form with minimal configuration Advanced Protection Options Cloudflare Turnstile (Optional) – Invisible CAPTCHA that catches headless browsers, Tor/VPN bots, and bot farms. Free up to 1M validations/month. Fails open — never blocks real users if Cloudflare is down. AI-Powered Gibberish Detection (Optional) – Use OpenAI or Anthropic APIs for advanced content analysis Meta Pixel Protection – Block form submission tracking until verification Custom Honeypot Field Names – Define your own field names for added security Whitelist Trusted Users – Bypass checks for logged-in users or specific IPs Privacy & Performance Honeypot Guard is designed with privacy and performance in mind: Lightweight – Adds virtually zero latency to your site No External Calls – Basic protection requires no API calls Cache Compatible – Works with WP Super Cache, W3 Total Cache, WP Rocket, LiteSpeed, and more No Cookies Required – Core functionality works without cookies (optional cookie verification available) Professional Support Need help? Visit mantasdigital.com/honeypot-guard for documentation and support. Privacy Policy Honeypot Guard collects and stores: IP addresses of form submissions (for spam detection and blocking) Form submission data flagged as spam (for review and pattern detection) Timestamps of submissions (for rate limiting) This data is stored in your WordPress database and is never sent to external services unless you enable optional AI-powered detection. You can configure automatic deletion of spam logs in Settings > Honeypot Guard. External Services This plugin can optionally connect to external AI services for advanced gibberish detection. These services are disabled by default and must be explicitly enabled by the administrator. OpenAI API (Optional) When AI gibberish detection is enabled and configured with an OpenAI API key: What it does: Analyzes suspicious form field content to detect nonsensical or spam text Data sent: Only the specific text field being analyzed (not the entire form submission) When sent: Only when a submission is flagged as potentially suspicious and AI detection is enabled Service provider: OpenAI, L.L.C. Terms of use: https://openai.com/policies/terms-of-use Privacy policy: https://openai.com/policies/privacy-policy Anthropic API (Optional) When AI gibberish detection is enabled and configured with an Anthropic API key: What it does: Analyzes suspicious form field content to detect nonsensical or spam text Data sent: Only the specific text field being analyzed (not the entire form submission) When sent: Only when a submission is flagged as potentially suspicious and AI detection is enabled Service provider: Anthropic, PBC Terms of use: https://www.anthropic.com/legal/consumer-terms Privacy policy: https://www.anthropic.com/legal/privacy Cloudflare Turnstile (Optional) When Turnstile is enabled and configured with site/secret keys: What it does: Verifies that form submissions come from real browsers, not headless bots Data sent: A challenge token and the visitor’s IP address When sent: On every form submission when Turnstile is enabled Service provider: Cloudflare, Inc. Terms of use: https://www.cloudflare.com/website-terms/ Privacy policy: https://www.cloudflare.com/privacypolicy/ Fail-open: If Cloudflare is unreachable, no penalty is applied — real users are never blocked Important: These services are entirely optional. Honeypot Guard provides effective spam protection without any external services using its built-in detection methods. Additional Info Plugin Website Documentation Support GitHub Repository