Spam is a big problem for all the bloggers out there-something that would come first on the list of things that bloggers would like to see eliminated from the internet. Akismet, as mentioned in the link above is a tool that does its job exceptionally well. It has a virtually unquestioned hold over the wordpress anti spam plugin market. Since it comes bundled in with the wordpress package, it is something that most new WP users notice after installing their blog. I was a bit pleasantly suprised that Akismet decided to give their newest rivals  a little publicity on their official blog.

The new competitor is called Defensio. Like Akismet, it needs you to sign up for an API key.

Darren has blogged about it too at Problogger

Have a look at Anne Helmond’s comment over there-

” I haven’t tried Defensio yet but its name sounds so Harry Potter-ish!”

I agree with that a hundred percent. Just like Ole Voldy and the rest of his death munchers use Imperio and Crucio to control their opponents… I feel like waving a stick, twirling it around in an arc and muttering over the spam- Defensio. ;)

A bit of fanfiction- everything in Harry Potter belongs to JK Rowling.This is just something that I felt like creating on the spot.

Tom Marvolo Riddle was an extremely frustrated man. He had just Crucioed a muggle computer owner, Tom Jones, into insanity and brought home a computer with him. That man had the temerity to ask him, the Dark Lord, whether he intended to pay for that stupid box that he had summoned with a flick of his wand. Needless to say, the Muggle hospitals would never be able to restore the man’s health back. St. Mungo’s might have been able to do it, for he didn’t curse the man to the extent that his darling Bella had done with the Longbottoms- Jones was a pathetic Muggle who could not stand pain.

Where his problems should have ended, they unfortunately began. He had brought the box home, for he had heard a kid telling his friend that anything could be found on the internet. And the Dark Lord wished in the deepest echeleons of his heart, that the secret to kill Harry Potter would be there on this’ internet’. It took him close to two days to figure that one out, and several Imperios and obliviates later, the computer was connected to the internet.

Sadly there was no such information available. Pathetic electronic item- he should have known better than to trust Muggles. He surfed through a little more, and decided that he would open a blog and ask for suggestions.

A few days later, Tom Riddle went to his blog, and was assaulted by pharmacy and sex comments. Phentermine, Cialis, penis enlargement…….. his face was contorted with rage by the time that he had finished reading the ”comments ”. He sneered at the thought of the pharmacy pills, but wondered about the penis enlargement. Did he have a penis ? The last time he had sex was a few decades back, and the penis was a small sacrifice in one of the dark rituals that he had performed to augment his power. A wave of pleasure swept through him, as he imagined him and Bella doing that….thing. For now though, he needed to blast these comments away and show the stupid invention its place. He mentally ran through his list of spells- An Evanesco- no, Stunning the comments did not help, the impediment jinx, the reductor curse, the unforgivables- nothing seemed to make the comments go. He conjured fire, and the CPU of the monitor emitted a shrieking sound,and he hurriedly cast the Aguamenti charm. The Elder Wand was not winning this battle…was the wand really that useful when it could not stop a Muggle from defacing his blog ?

Tom Riddle was perplexed. Few problems had ever troubled him in his life- for he had been an excellent student. But these comments, there seemed to be no way to get rid of them. Pity he had killed Burbage- she might have been of some use in such a situation.

Google turned to be helpful for Tom. He stared goggle eyed at the result that it had thrown up, and then grinned maniacally. A second later, the wand that had once belonged to both Albus Dumbledore and Gellert Grindelwald did its owner’s bidding as the deathly words for spam came out of his mouth, in a soft hiss - Defensio.