We are excited to announce release 2.0 of Fullworks Anti Spam. 2.0 has been in the making for over a year and has gone through comprehensive real-world testing.
Version 2.0 Release
We took onboard ideas and feedback from our user community for new features and also took the opportunity that new generally available Large Language Model (LLM) AI brought.
Our research found that people want a spam protection solution that works seamlessly with minimal setup, yet they also desire extensive control and customization options. To address these needs, we have introduced a variety of new settings and options while ensuring that the default configurations are optimal for most scenarios.
People desire a black-box solution that handles spam detection automatically, but they also want the ability to introduce their own rules. In response, we added allow/deny lists.
While users want the power of machine learning and AI, privacy laws often prevent them from sending user data to third-party servers for analysis. To solve this, we created a unique solution where the analysis can optionally be run locally, using a mixture of locally classified data and global rules without calling home.
Detailed Enhancements
AI Analysis
The new AI analysis sits alongside the Machine Learning analysis and is highly configurable, perhaps more than any ‘black box’ spam tool with the ability to use either or both and apply rules conservatively or aggressively.
Some of our client base are not comfortable with transmitting their form data to third-party servers ( in the way the major anti spam solutions work ) to be reassured that they are not falling foul of privacy laws. So we have built a ‘no transmit’ option that still utilizes the Machine Learning, but is local to your WordPress install, that learns from both curated data and your classification of messages. This brings the power of version 1 without any privacy concerns.
Allow / Deny Lists
Our users wanted more control than the ‘black box’ approach of the major spam players and an ‘allow list’ was in high demand and as an allow list is similar to a deny list we thought we should build both. Allowing or restricting by IP, email, or partial content matches. Additionally we have incorporated this in our free community version that handles comments.
The allow and deny rules allow pattern matching so you can block or permit whole groups of emails and create sophistcated text rules, and the IP takes subnets so large ranges can be blocked or permitted with one rule.
Alerts
We only silently discard the 100% bot generated spam, every thing else, no matter how clever can have false positives so we log that are flagged as possible spam. To provide control we have created alerts where the interval is configurable. And if you have multiple forms packages you be selective.
Logging of Contact Form 7 and WP Form Lite emails
As CF7 and WP Forms Lite doesn’t log their emails unless you add an additional email logging plugin then an alert email does not help and also the self classification of spam (necessary for local Machine Learning if enabled ) would not work. So we make it easy for users and have implemented a basic email logging feature for these two popular forms plugins.
Gravity forms Anti Spam settings by form
Gravity form is used for many sophisticated forms, some with very little or no text input, in which case the classification of human-entered text makes little sense. We have implemented granular control by form so each individual form can vary from the default site-wide settings.
Version 1 Core Features
Version 1 of Fullworks Anti Spam has been very successful in protecting WordPress websites from spam for a few years now. The free version protects against bot comment spam and the premium version, for a modest price, protects many common forms plugins.
It was already utilizing multi-layer spam protection ranging from bot traps, ( without annoying Captcha or quizes ) through industry blacklists to Machine Learning (ML) token analysis using human-curated training data.
What is next?
We will continue to listen to our users and have a plan to add all the major forms packages.
Find out more
Visit the Fullworks Anti Spam product page for more information.
About Us
Fullworks Plugins
Fullworks Plugins started in 2011 as a WordPress Agency, after initially publishing some free community plugins transitioned in 2015 to focus solely on WordPress plugins.
Further reading:
https://fullworksplugins.com/
Alan Fuller
Alan Fuller is the owner and lead of Fullworks Plugins and started as a developer a long time ago before the internet was even an idea. With a career as diverse as contract programming to CIO brings the essential experience and understanding of technology products to Fullworks Plugins.
Further reading:
https://wpfounders.com/wordpress-plugin/alan-fuller-display-eventbrite-events/
https://freemius.com/blog/success-story-alan-fuller-fullworks/
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