= Protecting message boards from spam = BOINC message boards may occasionally suffer from attacks from spammers. In order to help moderators deal with unwanted messages, anti-spam system from [http://www.akismet.com/ akismet.com] can be used. It is disabled by default; when enabled, every time a forum post is made a remote database at akismet.com is checked to see if the message is spam. If Akismet reports that the message is spam, it is blocked, notifying the user on screen. == Enabling Akismet == In order to use Akismet anti-spam system, you have to acquire a free API key (12 character alphanumeric string). You can get the key by registering for a [http://www.wordpress.com/ WordPress.com] user account. The API key will be emailed to you after you register. ''Note: If you are a commercial entity or if you are making more than $500 from your website, please get a commercial key instead.'' Once you have the key, you have to add a new tag to your config.xml to enable the system: `1234567890ab` To test if the system is working, create a user with name "''viagra-test-123''" (this is an official test string) and try creating a new thread. Akismet should block the message.