Latest spam-comment tweaks for Movable Type 4

I've made a few changes in my spam-fighting techniques for Movable Type 4. I had the spam filter set at +3, but just about every "legitimate" comment was ending up in the spam file.

I changed the spam-filter setting to +2, and now I'm getting only a few obvious spam comments per day in the "non-spam" comment area (none of them are published until I do so manually, so it's not like all the effort behind sending out this large volume of spam is doing anything for those foisting it upon me).

And I think I figured out why some legitimate comments are ending up marked as spam: fake e-mail addresses. I'm not sure why Movable Type asks you for your e-mail address and Web site (as if every one of us even has a Web site ...), but the system appears to check whether or not the e-mail address supplied by a commenter is legitimate. If it's not, you can guess what happens (the comment is marked as spam).

So all those commenters who think they're being clever by not providing their real e-mail address -- NOBODY but me sees it, by the way -- all it does is get your comment routed to the spam file, where I can usually recover it before it gets automatically deleted. But still ...

Anyhow, since I'm habitually checking the spam comments for legitimate comments that are stuck in there, I started DELETING the spam comments after I check them. I was running up 2,000 spam comments per five days (the length of time I have them set to remain in the system). Since it's so easy and quick to erase ALL spam comments (there's a button for it -- and did I forget to say it's fast?), I've been getting rid of the spam as soon as I check it. It makes it way, way easier to check the spam the next time -- and it takes a load off of the system as well.

So in a nutshell, I've "weakened" the spam filter slightly, but I'm also zapping the spam myself instead of letting the system do it automatically. Less spam means plucking your comment out of said spam, should it land there, is much easier.

So far, this is working for me. ... I'll probably have the whole thing nailed down by the time we go to Movable Type logins for commenters.