What version are you running, and do you keep your antispam tables fully up to date? If you are running .9.1 and have the completest antispam list possible then the hit to your server will be minimized. Static pages do not, AFAIK, automatically refresh themselves, and apply only to the main blog page. That means when the spammers hit individual posts - which is what they do - you won't have any benefit from static pages. .9.1 was released primarily to address the spam problem AND the server load from spammers who are blocked but still keep hitting your web.

Static pages are good when you have a blog that gets like a million hits a day, but you only post every now and then. What you would do is make your new post then go in and tell it to generate a static page, not that I've ever done it! Thought about it, but not enough to actually take action on it.

First, make sure you're using 0.9.1. It has some serious performance improvemnts, especially if you're getting hit by spam. Then, make sure your blacklist is up to date. Go to the antispam tab and click "request update" until it stops giving you new items.

If you do decide to use static pages, then create a file "index.html" or whatever you want to call it. It can be an empty file to start with, just make sure it's writable. Your server will probably show index.html (if it exists) rather than index.php. If not you can rename the php file, or use .htaccess to make sure that the static one shows.

To generate the static page, go to the blogs tab and click Gen! in the static file column.

You have to regenerate the file after each blog post. But you'll be given the generate link right after you post.

This is probably not the solution that you need for your current problem. I think it's more for sites that suddenly get a ton of traffic to the front page and their server cant' handle it. You might find that an upgrade to .9.1 and an up-to-date antispam blacklist fixes your problem.[/code]

EdB beats me again. Well done, sir. I'll leave my duplicate post since it shows that two people agree on the same solution.

Thanks for the response.

Apparantly, I'm still using 0.9.0.12.
The server administrator told me he had upgraded to the latest version a month ago (deleting my hacks in the process :-/ )

I'll try upgrading.

Currently, I've put my blog site behind a password with .htaccess.
Only the folder with RSS feeds is publicly accessible now, thanks to another .htaccess file.
It's an acceptable compromise, but not really wat I wanted.

I guess I could make an htaccess file that limits access to the php-pages, while allowing access to the html pages. I could try making a hack that refreshes the static pages after each post.

I'll let you know if this works out.