Upgrade. In 1.8.7 and 1.9.2 you can set the default status of comments to 'draft' so that you'll have to approve (publish) them before the world sees them.

Thanks EdB. Webmaster provides the package as part of a hosting service. I'll see what they have to say...

I'm pretty sure there used to be a hack that did what you want for 0.9.2 but upgrading is the best bet. Never mind features and all that - the spam problem is pretty much history with 187 or 192. Anyway if they won't upgrade your installation you could try diligently searching the forums for an old hack.

Thanks EdB. I've just checked with them and it sounds like it could be 'in the pipeline'. They've suggested that I install it myself, which sounds like the way to go... Is 192 the obvious choice?

187 is "super stable". That branch will probably not see an update unless a security issue comes up. 192 is "stable" and is where development happens, but it's also got one (easily fixable) bug that really bugged me when I set up a multiblogger environment. Either way, upgrading going forward will not be a problem.

Are you comfortable editing files? Are you okay with a 'stock' skin for your blog? If NO and NO then go with 187 because it's got a heck of a lot more skins available for it. If either or both are YES then go with 192 so you can brag about how you're on the bleeding edge of blogiddyness.

Or flip a coin.

Thanks EdB. I'm comfortable editing files, etc, however I also like the sound of "super stable". I think I'll give 187 a try.

Hi EdB. FYI, I upgraded to 1.9.2. All looks good. What's the bug that I need to look out for? Also, I notice the doco refers to a /blogs/admin directory, however I don't seem to have this. Perhaps a mistake in the doco?

Are you going to have anyone other than you blogging? Will the other bloggers be able to post in more blogs than they have permission to access settings for? If YES and YES you'll want to apply the answer found in http://forums.b2evolution.net/viewtopic.php?t=10098

It's not a mistake in the docs: it's an artifact. ;)

Actually that might not be a good way to describe it because it might apply to the 092 package, but the manual is made by people who volunteer to write the manual. At the time it was right but the world moves on and no one's gonna get fired if they don't fix it. Manual pages that say what version the page applies to are the more reliable stuff - not that everything wasn't accurate once upon a time.