Bit 1: Looks like the ban symbol has been removed from the comments. That's too bad. Dunno if it is by design or accident so perhaps this should be put in the bug report section? I suggest you look into using my TuringTest plugin. It's very easy to use and it doesn't depend on warped-word pictures for protecting against the robotic spammers.

Bit 2: The basic antispam plugin shouldn't be telling you it is empty. After installing it if you click on it's name does it not take you to a settings page with many options to set up? For example you can tell it feedback with more than 1 link is automatically considered spam. I personally don't use it but it's a pretty strong tool. IF yours doesn't have this settings page then I suggest you do the shotgun method of fixing it.

Download the installation package again. Unzip it on your computer. Find the basic_antispam_plugin folder in the plugins folder, delete the same thing from your server, then upload the new one from your PC. This would fix a corrupted file IF that is the problem.

Thanks for the reply, Ed.

I didn't even think of the ban symbol being a potential bug or an intentional removal. I'll report it as you suggest.

As for the basic antispam plugin, I do get the options page you suggest. However the Plugin variables (advanced) field labelled "Code" is empty. Should I have a value inserted in there? As a result of this empty field, I get the following note:

Note: The plugin code is empty, so this plugin will not work as an "opt-out", "opt-in" or "lazy" renderer.

I tried the shotgun repair method :), but nothing changed.

Perhaps it would help if I didn't automatically set all new comments to draft status.... I'm probably not going to be able to see if the antispam plugin works with this setup!

Thanks also for the suggestion of the Turing test plugin. I may try that if the spammers continue to drive me crazy.

Thanks again!

Just for the record, the ban icon is back in 2.4.

Thanks, Francois!