Red Alert! Akismet Might Be Deleting Your Comments 
Ever left a comment on a wordpress blog only for a blank page to appear when you did this? Well it could be a problem with the site’s owner comments.php or it could just be dear ol’ Akismet sending your comment to the spam folder or even worse DELETING YOUR COMMENT!
This has created quite a chaos online that I decided to shut down Akismet for a week and allow WP Spam Free to run alone but after 4 days, I had to reactivate Akismet because spam comments that generally never crossed Akismet, started to stream in.
Generally when you install Akismet, it comes pre-configured to automatically delete all spam comments on posts older than 1 month.
What I make of this is that, if a commentator leaves a comment on a blog post older than 30 days and Akismet mistakenly sees it as being spammy, this comment would be deleted @ once without passing through the spam folder for moderation 
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Here’s how to STOP Akismet from probably deleting spam comments on your blog
Log into your wordpress admin area and scroll down to plug-ins in the left sidebar.
Click on Akismet Configuration and when the page opens, make sure that the option circled below is not ticked @ all. If it is ticked, de-tick it!
Save your configuration and you’re done 
. Now your commentators will less likely be affected by that awful blank page after comment submission thingy.
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Great advice here…it can be a pain when Akismet deletes precious comments! But it is a bigger pain when a ton of spam gets through! Cheers for the tip, I’m off to apply it on my own site!
Though spam comments might be too bad but the configuration of Akismet might even discard real humans also, an example is this most of the I.P coming from Nigeria might be seen as spam, I have actually experience that kind of Problem on my own blog, I was blocked out, simply because of my IP.
Thanks for the information.
Thankfully I don’t think I have suffered from this problem yet. I’m very big on Akismet and thinks it is the most important plugin I use.
i had a similar problem with akismet…i now check my spam comment before deleting them…it sometimes catches real comments as spam.
Thanks for stopping by my blog and thanks for the comments on my wedding pictures.
Concerning your post.. I have gotten that blank screen before when leaving a comment. Sucks to know that it just got sent to spam or deleted after I wasted my time to write it.
I always suspected that was the case until now. At least now I know that I’ve got two options whenever I see the blank page: Ditch the website or Email the blog owner to rescue my comments
Akismet is not pre-configured to delete comments. The “automatically discard” option is disabled by default when you first install it. It’s only enabled if you check the box.
I sincerely don’t remember checking that option after installing Akismet so I guess it might just have been my fault. Thanks for stopping by and clearing that up
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Thanks for sharing this tip… as well as letting me know about that site ripping off my content. I’m pretty sure there are more, but I emailed them and asked to be removed. Thanks again!
No problem
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Defensio is a great alternative to Akismet. In fact, it is better than Akismet. First, from personal experience, I can say that it learns much better than Akismet. The comments marked as spam are listed as “Somewhat Spammy”, “Very Spammy” and “Obvious Spam” which makes filtering them easy.
Defensio sounds good but I ain’t keen on using it. I just checked out their site and apparently you have to shut down other anti-spam plug-ins to use it. I love Wp Spam Free especially since it comes with a contact form and I just can’t give it up yet
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I’ve still left mine ticked. It’s been my experience that people who usually comment on an old post are usually only in it for the link juice and they turn out to be spam anyway.
I’m still monitoring my spam folder to see what the trends would be like with that option unchecked. I might reactivate it if the amount of spam messages in need of moderation become overwhelming.
Hi Udegbunam.. I usually leave Akismet on it’s default behavior of deleting older than 1 month. Lately I have found that Akismet hasn’t been as good as it used to be. You may want to check out TypePad AntiSpam.. I know it says TypePad, but their plugin works on WordPress also. Hope it helps.
Thanks for the tip but I think I’ll just stay put with Akismet and WP-Spam Free for now
I’m a big Akismet fan, and I always monitor my spam filtered comments. I also have that little box unchecked, so it doesn’t delete anything without my seeing it first.
I leave the box unchecked because I want all comments possible coming in from loyal readers. So a few more go to spam when I get spam. A captcha plugin really helped reduce the spam number on my do follow blog. Its just important to know you must check the akismet folder from time to time for false positives!
Kimberly
Hey I had given a trial to Defensio earlier. After first tried for some hours. Defensio gave me 2 fail positive that will never be captured by Akismet. Plus it gave me 405 error when comment. Then, I preferred to get back to my lovely Akismet. Some CAPTCHA is good, e.g. simple match but with those two words is really ugly in design. It tend to discourage visit to comment. Most of time when I see two word CAPTCHA, I most likely not to leave a comment.
I don’t like two word CAPTCHAs as well but the ones that vex me the most are those with a lot of colors going on in the background that it makes it difficult to differentiate the letters
I agree with hating the 2 word captchas and the really hard to read ones. I’ve recently moved to “SI Captcha” plugin which I’m liking and my readers have let me know is tolerable.
I’ve used SI Captcha back when I was with WP Super Cache and HyperCache but I had to deactivate it as commenters were complaining of messages prompting them to enter the captcha correctly despite the fact that they were actually entered correctly
P.S: I installed a Comment Approval Email Notification plug-in last night and I’d like to make sure ONLY first time commenters get the email. Did you get any email from me? Please let me know before I start pissing my commentators with repeat emails ;=).
I checked back through my emails from you (since I’ve had several) and all of mine are because I subscribed to your threads. (wp subscription manager) I’d MUCH prefer to only be getting the replies from you than to have to thread subscribe, but it lets me keep up with your replies.
I wonder if there was a caching bug with the captcha image. If it was displaying the image from their last visit, it would never match. I’ve been using it without issue with W3 Total Cache (although I haven’t checked it yet with the development version, I see I forgot to reactivate it, that totally explains the bazillion pieces of spam today)
From my end I see you’re using W3 Total Cache and your captcha hasn’t given me any problems @ all since I’ve been commenting @ your blog. As you rightly said, the problem with other captcha plug-ins was probably that the images were getting cached as well.
I get your message about preferring to receive replies to your own comments only. I’ll be installing the comment reply notification plug-in ASAP
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Thanks for helping me with the “bug test”.
I just installed and activated the Commnet Reply Notification plug-in. You can start using it. BTW is there a way of modifing the Notify me of follow-up comments via e-mail text? I prefer it reads Notify me of replies to my own comments via e-mail
Not to worry, Kim. I edited the source of the plug-in. Problem solved ;=)
Ooooh that’s a great idea! I should go do that too! I like that wording a lot better!
What are you using to put your comment policy between the comment box and your submit button?
I also had to edit comments.php to add the comment policy between the comment box and the submit button. Remember to backup your comments.php file should in case s**t happens.
Thank you so much for the tip. I just went in and unchecked mine.
You’re welcome. It’s been long since I stopped by your blog and your short RSS feeds ain’t helping matters either. I’ll hopefully find some time soon to stop over. Cheers.
Thanks very much for this. I’ve always hated writing a comment and then being directed to that blank page. Unfortunately, I might have been causing the same problem for others.
lol. That was exactly my thought when I discovered this. I hated the white page BUT I was unknowingly serving it to my commenters. I just wish Akismet would show a message instead of that awful blank stare.
Hope this hasn’t been happening on mine though it is very possible.
Go check it out and be sure.
This has turned into a lot bigger of an issue than a lot of us originally gave it credit for. It undermines the very fabric of the blogging communities ability to look out for fellow bloggers and takes the power of choice out of our hands into a “big brother” Automattic. We have enough trouble with Google being big brother and really don’t need this. I’m actually very happy with the new GASP plugin and find it more light weight than Akismet was with adequate results. I could put Defensio back in place, as I had good results with them except that they aren’t fond at all of my use of Keywordluv so I dont feel like hassling with them. Thanks for shedding light on this issue Chuks.
Defensio if I ain’t wrong requires an API thus for me it’s just another version of Akismet. Thank God for Gail and Andy. G.A.S.P is simply amazing