Block Comment Spam Bots vs TablePress – Tables in WordPress made easy

Professional spammers use programs to automate their spamming. The ‘Block Comment Spam Bots’ (BCSB) plugin efficiently blocks their process. No more comment spam! As no legitimate user will use the professional spammer’s automated process which relies on cURL and WGET commands, real users will never notice the BCSB plugin at work. There are no CAPTCHAS for your visitors to interact with. No silly questions. Just the comment form as designed in any theme. On the admin side, there are no blacklists, special keys (like Askimet), overloaded spam queues, or overworked databases that store spam comments until you manually delete them. Install the plugin and that’s it. Invisible, to you and your visitors. The only change you will notice is in your admin area. The list of comments now has a green check next to them. That way you know that comment was made on your website by a real person and was not bypassed by hacking spammers connecting directly to your server. All that remains is comments made by real people, and while real people can spam, it takes them time and effort. The amount of spam from real people is a lot more manageable than the tsunami from automated spammers, saving you time to concentrate on the important things in life, like your readers, and making connections. We’ve tested it on multiple websites and it wipes out automated spam completely. If it doesn’t on your site, please let us know. ** Geeky Stuff ** …in case you are interested in how it works… tl;dr – This provides a total and easy solution to comment spam from spam bots. Comments are processed by the WordPress wp-post-comments.php file. Automated spammers (‘spam bots’) can provide (‘post’) data directly to that page, bypassing any comment processing, by using CURL/WGET commands. Bypassing the comment form by posting directly (via CURL or WGET commands), is quite easy. Just send the post ID number, and the bot’s fake name and email, and the spammy content. Boom! Comment spam is on your site! The result is comment spam – and that is not always caught by other comment spam checkers. Even if it is caught by programs such as Akismet, processing that spam takes some server resources, including writing to the database. This plugin uses several techniques to ‘sense’ a spambot. There are hidden fields that are changed after a delay. There is a delay in displaying the submit button. And it blocks direct access to the WordPress post/processing functions. The techniques, also used in our standalone “FormSpemmerTrap” (FST) program, and our other anti-spam plugins (like FormSpammerTrap for Comments), are very effective. They use a bit of JavaScript to block spambots – since automated processes via CURL/WGET/etc cannot process JS code. It’s simple: you install this plugin, activate it, and bot comments will stop. Immediately. And it doesn’t add any visual impediments to your comments. No reCaptcha things (which many see as a pain). No silly questions (‘what is 2+8’) on the form. Your comment form does not change. Regular users will not notice a difference. But you will. No more spam comments for you! This is the best solution to block comment spam. We’ve tested it on a site that had 20-40 spam comments a day. With this plugin enabled, the spam comment stopped. Immediately. And there have been none since installing this plugin. ** Not one. Zero.** The Admin, Comments list page is modified to show a column with a green checkmark icon if the comment was entered by a real person and not a bot. This is an assurance that the comment was not entered via an automated CURL/WGET to the wp-comments-post.php file. A comment that is on the list that does not show the checkmark was done by a bot. But you won’t see those blocked comments with this plugin enabled. They never get into your database. You can hover over the checkmark icon to see the GUID value indicating a person entered the comment. The plugins ‘Settings’ screen has no settings. You don’t even need to look at the Settings screen. If you do, you’ll see information about the plugin. And there is a CURL command you can use to test the effectiveness of blocking (or not blocking) direct access to the wp-comments-post.php file. The plugin also adds the hidden GUID field to the comment form after a delay to help block bots that are using the comment form to submit. If the hidden field is not submitted then a bot tried to bypass the comment form. And a short delay happens before the comment submit button is displayed – another bot protection.

Boost your website with feature-rich tables that your visitors will love! TablePress is the most popular and highest-rated WordPress table plugin. Easily create, edit, and manage beautiful and modern data tables, from simple price lists to searchable directories, product and model tables, inventories, schedules, and research datasets. Add live sorting, pagination, searching, and other interactive features that help visitors find what they’re looking for on any device. Use any type of data and enrich your tables with images, links, and even math formulas. Import and export tables from/to Excel, CSV, HTML, and JSON files or URLs, including spreadsheet data from Google Sheets, Excel Online, and files stored on Dropbox or OneDrive. Embed tables into posts, pages, or other site areas using the block editor, an Elementor widget, or Shortcodes. All with no coding knowledge needed! Even more great features for you and your site’s visitors and priority email support are available with a Premium license plan of TablePress. Go check them out! Common use cases TablePress will handle a wide range of tables, from simple price lists to searchable directories and large datasets. Popular examples include: Product and model tables Service and price lists Directories and listings Schedules and timetables Participant and member lists Inventories and collections Comparison tables Research and statistical data Accessible and SEO-friendly tables TablePress creates accessible HTML tables whose content can be searched by visitors, WordPress search, and search engines alike. Interactive features like sorting, filtering, and pagination include accessibility enhancements for screen readers and other assistive technologies. This makes it easy for visitors to find relevant information, whether they are browsing a large directory, searching a product table, or using your site’s search function. More information Visit tablepress.org for more information, take a look at example tables, or try TablePress on a free test site. For latest news, follow @TablePress on Twitter/X or subscribe to the TablePress Newsletter. How to use TablePress After installing the plugin, you can create and manage tables on the “TablePress” screen in the WordPress Dashboard. To insert a table into a post or page, add a “TablePress table” block in the block editor or a widget in the Elementor page builder and select the desired table or use Shortcodes with other page builders. Beginner-friendly step-by-step tutorials, guides, and how-tos show how to achieve common and popular tasks with TablePress. You can find examples for common styling changes via “Custom CSS” code on the TablePress FAQ page. You may also add features like sorting, pagination, searching, filtering, alternating row colors, row highlighting, and more by enabling the corresponding options on a table’s “Edit” screen. Premium features Need additional functionality for larger tables or advanced use cases? Premium license plans for TablePress add features such as: Options for responsive tables Advanced filtering and search Fixed table headers and columns Automatic periodic imports Custom styling options And much more Priority email support is also included. Check out the details on the TablePress website.