The Seed Capital for Startups Blog

Automattic Kismet / Akismet: the little company that dropped the ball

Earlier this year I looked at installing a third party spam-filter for my blog. One of the filters I looked at was Automattic's Kismet or Akismet program but decided against it because a search showed that  users complain about the high percentage of false positives it creates.

A few months then go by during which I completely forgot about Automattic Kismet (or Akismet). Then a few  weeks ago I notice that some of my comments to other people's blogs are not being posted. Being inquisitive by nature, I emailed the bloggers in question as to the reasons for this. They apologized and explained that Akismet / Kismet had flagged me as a spammer (a false positive if there ever was one!).

Now here's where it gets interesting. I look up the Akismet site and contact them through an online form to request an explanation. A few days go by and I hear nothing back. Since there is no telephone number for them, I then attempt to contact them with a v-mail left with the secretary at their venture capital backer True Ventures. More days go by and again I hear nothing. Early last week I discovered that the president of Automattic has a v-mail box at the True Ventures. So I leave a message asking him or someone else involved with Akismet/ Kismet to contact me.

It's now a week later and I still haven't heard a peep out of them. I don't know why this is. (Maybe they are feeling shell-shocked from all the complaints? Not just mine.)

I run a number of sites selling an array of products. If just one customer in 500 is not happy, it's a cause for concern and a situation we rectify immediately. If a customer were to leave a message about a problem, their call would be returned promptly and in many cases by the CEO (yours truly).

On the other hand, Automattic doesn't appear to give a hoot about the bugs in its filter.  My advice to bloggers is to not use Akismet / Kismet  if they don't want to risk having their regulars flagged as spammers.

Top Ten Spam Subject Lines

I have a superb email spam-filter which I quickly scan every morning--just in case it caught something that it shouldn't. It rarely happens. These days most spammers identify themselves with their absurd subject lines.

Many are good for a giggle:

-Come, come, Lord Mortimer

-For two months of the year preparations are carried out for the grandiose military parades, and the roar of tank engines can be heard on the airfield.

-The man came soon after Ivan's breakfast

-Matter is woven with motion

-A vast, splendid embassy behind high walls

-The wagons aren't as much work, because you can only load it, and then when you get to where it's going, you unload it.

-We stayed at first in ranch house and would drive in in the morning.

-Wolf Larsen was apprehensive.

-You can delete it, but theres no need to.

-Nonsensical or hysterical responses will be either ignored or publically displayed.

Who crafts these literary gems designed so artfully to entice the recipient into opening them?

I picture Borat on acid.

If you have any good ones please share.