I recently started getting a lot of spam comments on one of my sites, so I tried different techniques to stop that as the manual labor of doing it myself was getting exhausting.

Here’s what I tried:

• Akismet – I install it on every site but it wasn’t enough to stop spam on this site
• Project Honeypot – Ended up not implementing it as it was too cumbersome
• CleanTalk Anti-Spam – Did not pick up the vast majority of spam comments
• Anti-Spam – Did not do the job either
• Removed the URL field in the comment form – Didn’t help

Finally, I ended up installing the hCaptcha plugin and putting up a captcha for comment forms. I did this against my wishes as I hate captchas with a passion, and even that didn’t prevent the spam commenters.

Next, I installed Comment Blacklist Manager and AntiSpam Bee. I also installed WordFence in the hope that it would stop the spammers from even accessing the website. Too many requests from spammers to submit comments can slow down your website and affect performance too. I’m still monitoring the effects of these last two actions.

If anyone knows a better, automated solution that doesn’t involve captchas let me know in the comments below.

Every now and then, I have the need to transfer emails from one account to another. I mostly use Gmail, but sometimes I have to deal with other systems, such as a recent case involving my dad’s email, where he was using another system and wanted to move to Gmail.

Such moves typically involve thousands of emails, so the easiest way for me to do it is to load up the two or more accounts in an email client, then drag and drop emails between them. Before I do so, I typically make sure that everything is backed up.

See my other posts on backups:

• How to backup Gmail accounts on Synology
• How to backup Gmail on Mac
• How to backup Gmail with Gmvault

I’ve tried out several clients and found that Mail on Mac and Outlook on Windows work best for this use case. I’d originally tried using Thunderbird but last time round I ran into a problem where if you select more than a 100 or so emails it never completes the transfer, so it was taking me ages and was very unreliable.

Thought I’d put this out there in case anyone runs into this use case and problem.

When you buy products online, especially from Chinese websites like Aliexpress or Gearbest, you might be a bit doubtful of whether the products they sell are original.

This is especially the case for small electronic goods like camera batteries. The best way to determine whether a good is fake or not is to do the following.

First, before buying, closely inspect the wording of the seller’s description. Sometimes they will write the model number in the title and use the wording “original”, but in the finer print details further down below they will not include the brand or the words “genuine” and “original”. This would usually mean it’s not an original item.

After buying, closely inspect the packaging and item and compare it to the originals. If that seems to be the same (any differences should make you seriously doubt the authenticity of the product), you can check the weight of the product. This is usually a clear giveaway. For example, I have some original Sony and Canon camera batteries, and the fake ones I bought are just a few grames lighter, while all the originals are exactly the same weight.

Looking for a new theme for your WordPress website or getting started with WordPress? There are thousands of themes out there and your website creation journey can get stalled right there as you search and search for the right theme, possibly making some bad choices.

I’ve been in the WP space for more than ten years now so I’ve seen it all.

Here’s what I consider the best themes for 2023:

• Astra
• GeneratePress
• OceanWP

I would pair these with a page builder, and the number one choice right now is Elementor.

If you can’t decide between the three themes above, consider the following:

• OceanWP has the most design options and flexibility, although the others come close.
• Astra and GeneratePress focus more on being lightweight and speed optimized.
• Astra has integrations that the others don’t yet offer, for example, LifterLMS and LearnDash.
• GeneratePress has the best public support forum so if you’re a beginner building your first site this could be an important consideration.

In the end, you won’t go wrong with any of those three themes.

Learning how to build themes

If you’re interested in WordPress theme development, Chris Coyier has an excellent resource post on the topic.

If you ever had the misfortune of having a disk corrupted you know how bad it feels to lose your files. Here are some tips on recovering files on a Mac.

First, a word of advice. Before using your cards on photographic equipment, always format them so you make sure that you’re starting from a clean and well-structured drive. Failure to do so increases the chances of corrupted data and makes it messier to recover files later.

If you’re already in possession of a disk with corrupted data, you need a fix. I analyzed the following software packages in my evaluation:

• Easeus Data Recovery
• Recoverit
• Disk Drill
• PhotoRec and TestDisk

The first three are premium software packages, while the last-one is open source and is a command-line utility, so it might look a bit harder to use. If you have the patience to learn how to run software from the command line and you have time to read the manual, then you’ll be fine.

In fact, this is my favorite software for recovering files and fixing otherwise broken file systems.

From the other three software packages, only Easeus Data Recovery got me results as good as the PhotoRec and TestDisk combo. I would, therefore, recommend it if you want software that is user-friendly and does the job. I wasn’t impressed with the other two as they were either not that straightforward to use or didn’t recover files as well as my favorite picks.