Thor Schrock

As I explained in yesterday's post, Akismet banned me from posting comments on WordPress blogs because of my use of a trackback spam tool I tested out a few months ago.

After some searching, I found one other blogger who suggested simply contacting Akismet if you feel you were wrongly blacklisted.

While I definitely deserved some punishment for trying to exploit the trackback system, I had been "clean" form spam-like activities for a long time and had been working diligently for months to restore my blog's honor in the eyes of Akismet.

Could a simple email be the answer I had been looking for?

In fact, it was.  I used the contact form on the Akismet website to submit a "I have a support or feature request" service ticket.  I was completely honest in my email where I explained what happened and asked for the penalty to be lifted.

Here is what I sent through their contact form:

I was testing out Shoemoney Tools and his related trackback feature.  I used it for a couple days a few months back and ever since them all of my comments (even my own trackbacks on my own blog) are marked as spam automatically.  I am not a serial trackback spammer, and I figured after a few months of "good behavior" the penalty would probably be lifted.  Can you help me resolve this issue?  Thanks!

I was not very hopeful that my email would solve anything.  I honestly figured they must get 100 of these requests a day, so what would make mine any more or less compelling?

To my surprise, two days later I received this response:

Hi,

This is fixed but all those sorts of tools are junk, I'd stay away from them 🙂

I was shocked that my request was read and acted upon, but I received a personalized response form Akismet as well.

Thanks to Akismet for an awesome plugin that I use daily, and you have my word I will not try any other foolish auto-backlinking blog scemes in the future!