Cav's Place

Over a year and a half since I switched to it, last night I switched back away from WP-SpamShield, which for my own use I’ll mention claimed to have blocked 72673 spam comments during this time, and returned to Akismet. What’s more, at this point I’d seriously advise everyone to be careful with WP-SpamShield because the developer’s attitude and refusal to admit its obvious behavior and the changes made to the code make me suspect malicious intent. It may of course simply be a case of thinking too highly of himself and too poorly of users, but I’m just saying I see reasons for concern and strongly advise caution if you care for your security and privacy, or even simply want to be taken seriously when you point out issues.

The story is that I first noticed a problem several months ago, at which time I had tracked it down to setting the session cookie and suspected it had to do with the change of ISP. Since as of then my IP could no longer be resolved and the problem also appeared on dad’s computer but not when using other connections, I eventually assumed it was a matter of WP-SpamShield trying to resolve it, possibly multiple times, before finally allowing that cookie to be set after a 24-second delay. Took it back and forth at length with support and, while the problem was never admitted and instead blame was laid on everything from my host to my WordPress version, theme or even browser, the issue was eventually fixed in an update. That delay still appeared when I tried to submit a test comment and when updating WP-SpamShield, but it made sense for it to check things then.
However, as of some point between version 1.9.7.7, when it was still fine, and 1.9.8, which I updated to directly about a week and a half ago, that delay appeared again whenever something was written to the database, therefore badly affecting the back end. Judging by the list of changes, I’d hazard a guess that something introduced in version 1.9.7.8 was the cause, but definitely can’t be sure and either way that became the lesser problem once I updated to 1.9.8.1, as then I started getting that delay on every single page and operation. 24 seconds to load a page, 24 seconds for something to be written to the database, 48 seconds for something that does both, such as publishing or saving changes to a post. As such, my site became next to unusable for me with WP-SpamShield active.
So I sent another reply to the old discussion I had saved after dropping it back then, but all I got back was another condescending reply listing all other things the developer thinks are wrong or simply doesn’t like even though none could explain the issue, telling me there’s nothing else they can do if I refuse their advice and closing the ticket, saying I can open another if I have other problems. Which I obviously did, once again explaining exactly what’s going on and why none of the proposed “solutions” tackle the actual problem I’m reporting, but there was no other reply.
Admittedly, I was frustrated and dismissive in that new ticket, but don’t see how it could have been considered abusive, yet when I posted a comment to another review mentioning slowing down a site, that was exactly what I was accused of, again being told that they “bent over backwards” trying to help me, yet again ignoring everything I was saying and force feeding their attempt to blame everything but WP-SpamShield for a problem that only appeared with it enabled, while nothing else that was mentioned as a potential other explanation was changed in any way. As I yet again pointed that out, I was simply told I was wrong and that was the end of it.
Well, I don’t appreciate being, albeit somewhat indirectly, called either a liar or an idiot or both, so I recorded video of the issue, using different browsers, then showed it go away with WP-SpamShield off, then reappear as it was reactivated. Then also showed it happen on another site I had found after searching for sites using WP-SpamShield, which should make it perfectly clear that it’s not something specific to my host, theme, WordPress version, options or anything else of that sort. Also made another short video to show the IP issue and how the delays fit right into the picture, and offered to test other sites or scenarios as well if needed. But I was unable to send the links as a support request, at the time being unsure whether that was due to an error or a ban, so I sent them by e-mail… Which resulted in me being banned from the site entirely.
Now I don’t take posting bad reviews lightly and have to admit that WP-SpamShield does also do what it should very well, in terms of eliminating spam, but at least these latest versions also very clearly do things they shouldn’t, the developer’s attitude and refusal to admit this is a huge red flag and today I felt I had exhausted all options of solving the problem amiably and at least somewhat privately, so I did post this story as a two-star review and, well, you can see what happened next. Not that you’d need to by now, since it’s pretty much the same story of what I’m saying being ignored while the developer force feeds his ideas to me and anyone else who may be reading, blaming anything other than WP-SpamShield for the problem and continuing to accuse me of being abusive while also adding harassment to the list now, since apparently sending the links to those videos as evidence amounted to that in his view and justified the ban.

But now that I wrote another personal post and not even about Sunday, let me also add something I kept forgetting to mention so far, which is that I received both Baldur’s Gate: The Original Saga and Baldur’s Gate 2 Complete on GOG. As I wasn’t even accepting the other games I was nominated for in The Community Giveaway, I definitely had no intention of asking for the second or entering another giveaway for the first otherwise, but when they stopped being available on their own on April 29 and people donated several keys for those who’ll just want the originals at some later time, I winced and awkwardly did so after all. Too awkwardly, in fact, as I asked for the second right after it stopped being available separately, but my request was missed due to how and when it was posted and I eventually even more awkwardly repeated it, obtaining the game on May 4. Got the first from that other giveaway on May 13, after donating Arx Fatalis to The Community Giveaway on May 11.
Now this hardly means I’ll get back to the first Baldur’s Gate in the foreseeable future, much less that I’ll start the second, but they’re there in case I ever will get to that point. Been years since I tried and abandoned the first, after all, and I was never sure I cared to continue it at a later point, but this counts as at least some amount of incentive to at least make another attempt, even if not too soon. Hope my old saves will work with the GOG version though, because even if I wasn’t far along I’d rather not have to actually start over, even though in some ways that may be the better option.

And one more thing I didn’t mention in a personal post is the fact that I hit my head quite hard against a metal bar during the May 6 protest. Entirely my fault, didn’t pay attention as I tried to duck under it while stepping forward and down, and I mentioned it in the post about those protests, but should probably add it here as well, especially since, while the lump pretty much went away by the end of the protest as a result of me spending most of the time keeping my hands cold and pressing and rubbing them against the area, you can still see the mark where the skin was scraped off. Also, that part of my head did feel slightly weird at first, there was an occasional dull pain that seemed located deeper, but that also went away after a few days, so I hope there will be no other consequences.