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    Category: CleanTalk

    • Stop Fake Emails: CleanTalk’s New Non-Existent Email Notification

      Stop Fake Emails: CleanTalk’s New Non-Existent Email Notification

      Spammers often use fake email addresses to hide their identities and avoid consequences for their actions. This can lead to a deluge of spam comments, registrations, and other unwanted activity on your website. To combat this, CleanTalk Anti-Spam has always had a powerful feature: Non-Existent Email Notification. But now, this feature has evolved to a new form—to be useful not only for site owners but also for site visitors! 

      Now, if the email you’ve entered into a form is somehow non-existent (for example, you made a typo in it), you’ll see it right away. No confusion, no hassles, no pain!

      How it Works:

      When a user submits a form (such as a comment or registration form) on your website, CleanTalk’s system instantly checks the validity of the provided email address. If the email address is found to be non-existent or invalid, the user will receive an immediate notification. 

      An email is existent.

      An email is non-existent.

      Benefits:

      • Real-time feedback: This provides immediate alerts as you type, highlighting potential errors or typos in your email address.
      • Simple visual cues: Clear indicators like checkmarks or warning icons can quickly show whether an email address is valid or invalid.

      Experience the Difference

      By implementing CleanTalk’s Non-Existent Email Notification feature, you can significantly enhance the usability of your website while minimizing the impact of spam, and a new aspect of this feature provides even more comfort for your visitors!

    • CleanTalk Anti-Spam as a No-jQuery WordPress Plugin for Optimal Performance

      CleanTalk Anti-Spam as a No-jQuery WordPress Plugin for Optimal Performance

      With this update, we polished CleanTalk Anti-Spam to do what it’s supposed to do the best. And here’s what was improved in the plugin in more detail.

      What Did We Do

      1. Reducing jQuery Dependency
        • Why jQuery? jQuery was often included to handle some JavaScript tasks but sometimes added extra weight to your website.
        • New Approach: We replaced jQuery with native JavaScript where possible. This will reduce the amount of code needed to load and parse, hence offering faster page load times.
      2. Simplify Handling of AJAX
        • AJAX and Anti-Spam: AJAX helps perform real-time anti-spam checks. However, incorrect AJAX requests may make your website slow.
        • Improved AJAX: We further improved our AJAX handling by reducing the number of requests and enhancing the data transfer process. This will keep the anti-spam checks lean without interfering with the user experience at all.
      3. The debug_ajax Option
        • The debug_ajax option was only given for development purposes and seldom, if ever, used in production environments. To make the plugin core even slimmer, we removed this option.
      4. comments__manage_comments_on_public_page Option
        • That is when comments need to be enabled on a public page. Comment visibility and comment moderation make the option work seamlessly without compromising security.

      Results

      With these optimizations, you will be guaranteed that your website-essentially pages with an active comment section see a significant improvement in speed and performance that will positively reflect in the visitor experience with better SEO rankings and hence a better overall user experience.

      Let’s see what PageSpeed Insights has to say:

      Before

      2024 12 06 14 01 12

      After

      1

      Update Today

      We recommend that you update to the latest release of CleanTalk Anti-Spam to take advantage of these performance enhancements.

      Automatic Update:

      1. Check for Updates:
        • Go to your WordPress admin dashboard.
        • Navigate to Plugins > Installed Plugins.
        • Locate the “Anti-Spam by CleanTalk” plugin.
        • You’ll see a “Update Now” button next to the plugin name.
      2. Update the Plugin:
        • Click the “Update Now” button.
        • WordPress will automatically download and install the latest version of the plugin.
    • Important Update: Changes to Our Frontend Malware Scanner

      Important Update: Changes to Our Frontend Malware Scanner

      We are always looking for ways to improve your experience with website security. As such, we will sunset the Frontend Malware Scanner within our plugin on December 1st, 2024.

      Why the change?

      • After evaluating the data we can certainly say that very few of you use the front-end malware scanner. While it is a nice feature, it has just not been that popular.
      • Also, this scanner is not as effective as we expect it to be.
      • So, we’re putting our energy into the stuff that counts. We will spend most of our time on the parts of the security tools that you use and love. This way, we can keep your website safe and sound without all that extra hassle.

      Where will this take us?

      We’re focusing our resources on making our Malware Web Scanner even more powerful! This robust tool scans and blocks threats in real time, ensuring your site stays protected from the latest online dangers. If you’ve been using our Frontend Malware Scanner, consider switching to the enhanced Malware Web Scanner to experience its full potential in safeguarding your site. To identify potential vulnerabilities and security risks, it will analyze websites for:

      • Malware external links
      • Public blacklists
      • Exposed repositories
      • Internal links
      • SSL certificates
      • CMS identification
      • Server information

      What does this mean for you?

      • Don’t sweat! All the other security features within the plugin will continue to work just fine.
      • Even more protection: We keep going further with the online scanner to make it even stronger in protecting your website.

      Questions?

      Our amazing support team is here for you. Just email them, and they will answer if anything crosses your mind. Thanks for your understanding! We look forward to serving you more with the best website security.

    • Improved Accuracy in Your Personal Area Widget

      Improved Accuracy in Your Personal Area Widget

      We’ve been busy bees making your personal area widget even more helpful. Now you’ll have a clearer picture of how we’re protecting your site from spam. And a special shout-out to those of you who shared your thoughts – your feedback is what helps us make these improvements!

      1. Clearer Spam Count: The “blocked spam” count now specifically reflects the number of spam requests blocked over the past year. This provides a more relevant overview of your spam protection activity.
      2. Comprehensive Data: The graph now includes data from both Anti-Spam and SpamFireWall, giving you a complete picture of all blocked requests. This helps you better understand the overall effectiveness of your security measures.
      1. Precise Terminology: We’ve updated the widget’s wording to be more accurate and avoid confusion.
        1. The widget title has also been updated to “7 days Anti-Spam and SpamFireWall stats”
        2. “Spam attacks” has been changed to “Requests were blocked by Anti-Spam and SpamFireWall” 
        3. “Spam blocked” in the legend is now “Requests blocked”

      We’re excited about these changes because it means you can relax knowing you’ve got a clear picture of your spam protection and any potential trouble brewing. And this is all thanks to your awesome feedback! We love working together to make things better.

      We’re on a mission to make your experience top-notch, and you’re a big part of that! Your feedback helps us steer the ship in the right direction. So if you ever have a suggestion or spot something that could be better, don’t hesitate to let our support team know. We’re a team, and we love working together to make things awesome!

    • Bots and Your Website: How Much of Your Traffic is Fake?

      Bots and Your Website: How Much of Your Traffic is Fake?

      Not all your website traffic is genuine. Hidden within your analytics are bots – automated programs that can mimic human behavior. Think of them like little robots that visit your website and pretend to be people. While some bots are harmless (like the ones that help Google find your site), others can cause trouble. They can clog up your contact forms with spam, create fake accounts, and even place phony orders. Those fake traffic bots are like a bunch of party crashers at your online store who aren’t there to buy anything, just to cause a mess!

      Just how big is this problem?

      Well, studies show that up to 30% of all web traffic might actually be bots! That means almost one in three “visitors” to your site might not be a real person. And when it comes to contact forms, things get even worse. Experts say that up to 40% of all form submissions could be spam generated by bots. That’s a lot of wasted time and effort dealing with junk! Even registrations and orders can be affected, with estimates suggesting that 10% of new accounts and 5% of online orders could be fake.

      fake traffic bots stats

      Why should you care?

      These sneaky bots can cause a lot of headaches for businesses. They can:

      • Waste your time: Dealing with spam messages and fake accounts takes time and effort away from real customers.
      • Mess up your data: Bots can make your website statistics unreliable, making it harder to understand how real people are using your site.
      • Hurt your reputation: If your contact form is full of spam, it makes your business look unprofessional.
      • Cost you money: Fake orders can lead to financial losses and logistical nightmares.

      So, what can you do about it?

      Imagine having a super-smart bouncer for your website, someone who can spot fake traffic bots before they even get through the door. That’s what CleanTalk Anti-Spam and Security plugins do! They’re like a 24/7 security team dedicated to keeping your website safe and clean.

      Here’s how CleanTalk helps protect your forms and keeps spam away:

      • CleanTalk is a pro at protecting all kinds of forms on your website, from contact forms to registration forms and even order forms. It checks every submission to make sure it’s from a real person, not a spam bot trying to cause trouble.
      • CleanTalk can even help you get rid of spam that’s already on your website. It can scan your comments and other content to find and remove those spam links that bots leave behind.

      CleanTalk is like having a dedicated team of experts protecting your website, making sure your forms are safe, your content is clean, and those pesky bots are kept far, far away

    • Moving On: A Farewell to UNI/UniForce

      Moving On: A Farewell to UNI/UniForce

      Hey everyone,

      We’ve got some news about our UNI/UniForce product line, and while it might not be the easiest thing to share, we wanted to be upfront and personal with you all about it.

      Here’s the deal: we’ve decided to sunset UNI/UniForce. What does that mean exactly?

      • November 1st, 2024: This is the day we’re putting a pause on active development. 
      • November 1st, 2025: This is the official end-of-life date for UNI/UniForce. After this point, we won’t be able to provide technical support for it anymore.

      We know this might come as a surprise, and we truly appreciate you sticking with us and using UNI/UniForce. This wasn’t a decision we made lightly. Sometimes, in the tech world, we have to make choices about where to focus our energy to build the best possible future.

      What happens next?

      We understand that you might be looking for a replacement solution. Great news! CleanTalk offers a robust set of APIs that can be integrated into a wide variety of applications. You can find out more about CleanTalk’s API options and how they can help protect your projects here: https://cleantalk.org/help/api-cleantalk-all 

      CleanTalk also provides a powerful blacklist checking tool that allows you to instantly verify if an IP address, email address, subnet, or domain is listed on any major blacklists. This can be a valuable resource for maintaining your security and reputation. Give it a try here: https://cleantalk.org/blacklists 

      If you have any questions about this transition or need help exploring alternatives, please don’t hesitate to reach out to our support team. They’re always happy to help!

      Thanks for being awesome!

    • WordCamp US 2024

      WordCamp US 2024

      Let share a few notes from WCUS2024,

      1. Disney moved a few dozens of websites to WordPress. They use SEO to measure value of content/posts, looks like the trust algorithms of search engines to confirm valuables of sites. Here are examples,
        • https://disneyconnect.com/
        • https://disneyparksblog.com/
      2. There was a such interesting case of rebuilding  https://www.recipetineats.com by https://humanmade.com. They’ve boosted site views from 25M/month to 45M/month. Key moments,
        • Hosting, backend and frontend improvements returned up to 20% of boost.
        • Added schemas for recipes.
        • Used X-Ray to track PHP code. I hope this is link is correct https://github.com/aws-observability/aws-otel-php link to home page of the project.
        • Moved the site to enterprise ready plugins. Under ‘enterprise ready’ they mean superfast, secure and maintainable plugins.
        • They used old platform and design during the rebuilding. They had good data to compare results before and after the project was done.
      3. Elementor uses Patchstack to validate reports about vulnerabilities. Elementor has its own ecosystem for working with other plugins; according to them, every 30th plugin created on wordpress.org operates within this ecosystem.
      4. Gravatar they are working on creating a “network” profile, not just an avatar. In the future, they see themselves as a Single Sign-On provider. It’s interesting why websites do not widely use Facebook/X for the same purpose—I’m referring to the idea of a network profile. An example of a network profile is https://gravatar.com/ronnie.
      5. I spoke with 6-7 participants, and 3 of them use CleanTalk. Some were even surprised—why aren’t we showcasing our work? 🙂

      Bonus

      I’ve found a few scenery locations in Portland, OR, here are photos of them as well as me and some of our customers. Thank you guys for a great camp!

      Timothy and Zach from https://www.bigscoots.com.
      Timothy and Zach from BigScoots.
      IMG 0632
      Portland Japanese Garden.
      IMG 1368
      PDX.
      IMG 1367
      NorhtBridge burger in Bdridgetown BBQ. The best burger I ever had!
      IMG 1366
      Jonahtan and co from Kiinsta.
      IMG 0655
      Steel Bridge.

    • PAYG is no longer used in adding extra website

      PAYG is no longer used in adding extra website

      The Pay-As-You-Go payment method will no longer be used when adding extra websites to your Anti-Spam or Security license. When you need to add an extra website and no free slots are left in your current license, your plan will be automatically upgraded.

      If you have any questions feel free to ask a question in the comments below or create a private ticket.

    • The Real Person Badge – the Anti-Spam New Feature

      The Real Person Badge – the Anti-Spam New Feature

      Bots are among us all over the internet. They visit websites, gather information, and write comments and reviews. So how do you distinguish such a bot from a real comment or review author? That’s where The Real Person appears.

      The Real Person is a benchmark system for WordPress that separates real users from bots. It shows a special badge for the author of a comment or review, that the author passed all Anti-Spam filters and acts as a real person. As well as his email is also confirmed to exist.

      Here’s an example of what The Real Person badge looks like on a WordPress website. You can also see the live badge in the comments below the post.

      Screenshot 2024 09 25 115706

      The Real Person is free and is a part of the Anti-Spam protection cloud service.

      How to enable the feature

      The feature is disabled by default. To enable it follow the short guide.

      Don’t forget to check The Real Person badge in the comments below ↓

    • Service outage on September 19th

      Service outage on September 19th

      Dear CleanTalk Clients,

      We have experienced a service outage that lasted approximately 12 hours and 15 minutes. Due to a failure with one of our servers, there was no connection from 5:15 PM (GMT0) on September 19th to 5:30 AM (GMT0) on September 20th. As a result, some spam attacks could be missed by our anti-spam plugins and reached backend of sites.

      We are pleased to announce that the issue has been resolved and full service has been restored. Our team is now working to address any potential consequences of the outage and implement measures to prevent similar occurrences in the future.