Akismet is NOT free
I have three websites now. That's two more than I had when I first bought Akismet. Yes, I say bought because I don't recall it ever being called a donation and I certainly don't recall a sliding price scale down to zero. I have always been charged $5 per month for my site. It is set to auto renew which it did this year. A couple of weeks ago I was notified that I had a comment to review so I went to my first website to review it and I was confronted with the following notice;
Akismet
Akismet Error Code: 10007
Howdy! We're glad that you're enjoying Akismet! It looks like your Akismet Plus subscription is currently being used on more sites than it supports. You will simply need to access your Akismet account and update your subscription. Please click on the link below for some further details.For more information:akismet/errors
This notice BLOCKED my ability to manage my comment. I knew they were serious. So I took their offer and signed up my other two sites. I figured I was up to $15 per month but I sought confirmation. I emailed Akismet and asked if my original $5 monthly charge will stop now. Here is their response:
Email; [#2361161]: [akismet-support] Contact form "Yes, the $5/month charge will be discontinued - replaced by the $15/month charge. All set!"
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Happiness Engineer | at wordpress
I shared this information with WA members in the comments section below the lessons and there has been a tidal wave of protest.
No one seems willing to accept the concept of paying for Akismet. The insistence that it is free is deafening. So, once again I took to emailing Akismet, this time with the question "Why, if Akismet is free to other members of Wealthy Affiliate, is it not free for me?"
The following email reply was received:
Hi again, Stephanie!
If that is the case, then the other members of Wealthy Affiliate are violating the terms which we've set for the usage of free keys - which is that they must be used on non-commercial sites.
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Happiness Engineer | at wordpress
There you have it. Straight from the horse's mouth. Only non-commercial sites can use the free Akismet key. As soon as you monetize your site you become a commercial site and are no longer entitled to free Akismet.
Recent Comments
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Hi Stephanie,
Following you now. Thanks for the info on Akismet. I will change before I get called out by the "Happiness Engineer". I assume that getting sign-ups for WA and putting up a Jaaxy offer are considered monetizing the site by Akismet.
Hi Randell, Yes, placing any ad on your site transforms it into a commercial site making it ineligible to use the free Akismet tool.
I have cancelled my Akismet account and received my refund. Yes, "Happiness Engineer", lol, that's rich! I'll follow you back.
Best, Stephanie
I realized that the first time I went to their site! So it is a little miss leading to say its free when we are all here planning on making money!
Stephanie your conclusion is right. When I first joined WA and was setting my website up, I read up on akismet, and I'm pretty sure I read something to that effect ( personal websites were free). I've paid for their monthly installment of $9.99 per month ever since, even though it was suggested in my lessons that it was free.
Tell 'em where to shove it! I use Antispam Bee which IS free and it works just fine. ~Marion
Yeah, I think I am going to start using that. Thanks, Steph and Marion for the information.
It looks like Stephanie may have a point....according to Askismet's pricing page it's only available for free on non-commecial sites.
http://akismet.com/plans/
But perhaps our sites are considered "non commercial" until we actually start monetizing or making money with them?
I have messaged Kyle to ask him to clarify this for us....
There is a slider and it's free. However, after one year they want to charge you. I got rid of this dingy anyways and use Growmap Antispam. Ever since, I get less spam than with the other. I also got rid of the ugly Captcha mess. Growmap gives you a check box....."prove you are human" , which is much nicer.
In other words, Good riddance Akismet
John
Well this I did not know. There must be some confusion on the matter because Kyle specifically says in the videos that it is for free. You only choose to donate. I haven't sold anything yet on my site, so Idk. If Akismet is certainly not free once I start selling stuff on my site, I guess I'll deal with that when it comes. I'm still confused by this. There are other free plugins that combat spam. Maybe I can get rid of Akismet, but I think Akismet is giving you the BS business. For everyone else it's free. You probably signed up for them and accidentally donated, not knowing you could slide it down to zero. Now they're forcing you into paying more each month, which really isn't cool. They should not have an option to slide to zero. If they want payment they should make it a requirement. So you didn't do anything wrong. They're just trying to screw with you, which isn't cool.
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You should NEVER have to pay for spam removal on your blog. There are many other free spam checkers and tools you can use if Akismet is trying to guilt you into paying for their services.
You are in NO WAY obligated to pay for their service. If they have a free option, you can use it.
If you are setting up an akismet site, you should always choose the basic plan.
http://akismet.com/plans/
This is more than adequate.
If you want to use another (and very free) plug-in, this is an excellent alternative here:
https://wordpress.org/plugins/wp-spamshield/
Hope this helps you out.
Hi Kyle, Thanks for your input. Clearly Akismet differentiates between commercial and non-commercial sites and sells their services accordingly. I disagree that I was guilted into paying, It was more like BULLIED into paying. They BLOCKED me from responding to my comments until I purchased two more licenses to use the same key. I can accept that they have rules and I will move to a free service. I'll check out your suggestion. Thanks so much.
Stephanie
Yeah, that is horrible. I am so sorry to hear you have gone through this and the way Wordpress is behaving in this situation. I would cancel your "payment" and use the free plugin that I mentioned. We are also going to be stripping Akismet from the training here at WA as they were once "free" for everyone, and they have slowly pulled the rug out from their user base.
I will have an update on this tomorrow morning (via blog post)...I might even push it out sooner than this.
Thanks Kyle.
Here is an update on this as well: Akismet Plugin - The Dark Side of Greed. You have spoken, we have taken concise action on this here within WA. :)