My latest WordPress plug-in is now released: BotSmasher, a plug-in to stop spam by filtering WordPress comments, registrations, and contact form submissions.

This project owes a lot to Karl Groves, who developed and maintains the BotSmasher API (Application Programming Interface).

So, what can you do with the BotSmasher WordPress plug-in?

Well, the obvious: filtering comments and registrations. The plug-in takes user-submitted comments and registrations, checks them against the BotSmasher database of spam names, emails, and IP (Internet Protocol) addresses, and spits them back out if they’re spam.

But you can also submit spammers to BotSmasher if it misses your spam — and every time you do, BotSmasher gets a little better. Now, that’s not to say that every time you submit spam it goes into the general pool of “things that are spam.” Actually, it goes into the pool of things that you’ve marked as spam — and if enough people say that, then bang: it’s in the database.

Finally, BotSmasher includes a built-in contact form, configurable via shortcode or widget. That contact form is fairly basic right now, but for that average contact form, it’ll do what you need. The contact form incorporates every accessibility features I could think of, and filters contacts through the BotSmasher API.

If you notice an accessibility problem with the BotSmasher contact form – let me know! It’s always more than possible (if not probable) that I’ve missed something.