Unable to find WangGuard servers.

I am having the same issue as well. The site https://wangguard.com has been down for over 24 hours.

I have the same issue. Nothing found anywhere right now about problem/downtime….

• This reply was modified 8 years, 1 month ago by JoInThai.

I am having the same problem. It looks like their website is down. I’ve been flooded with sploggers, my e-mail is clogged with them.

According to wangguard.com tonight:

“After 6 years of work and only 6 donations,
I don’t see that people appreciate WangGuard, so I’m Shutting Down WGG”

Which means either the author has indeed given up and ended the service abruptly, or else the site has been hacked.

Time will tell, but I suspect the former.

I have also seen both the WangGuard server connectivity being totally down for over 24 hours now.

I also went to wangguard.com to see if I could contact Jose Conti directly to see if the server was hacked. I only saw the same message “filklore” saw, claiming that the author has given up and shutdown the server.

I note that there are over 10,000 active installs of this plugin shown at https://www.ads-software.com/plugins/wangguard/

If it is truly the case that the author has shutdown the server because of a lack of payments, that is such a shame. I will be scrambling to find a replacement, if such a plugin exists, which I doubt. The concept of a splogger reporting cooperative seemed to work well for our site, identifying hundreds of would-be sploggers over the course of about 2 years.

Regarding lack of payments: I never received any notice that the “Limited time” period had elapsed. We were well below 5000 API queries/month but are a small startup company and would gladly pay a modest amount per month for the service – it is well worth it.

While this may sound strange on the surface, I truly hope the WangGuard server being shutdown is merely the work of sploggers trying to shutdown an adversary, not a decision by the author.

Wangguard’s Twitter account is presenting the same message, so unfortunately it seems likely to be true.

I struggle to believe that a service as valuable as this only had 6 paid contributions in 6 years though, so hopefully that isn’t the end of the story.

I’d also be happy to pay a small ongoing monthly fee, even though the site I’m using this on is still in development, and then pay an appropriate commercial amount as we start to operate, and then scale.

Hope to hear something from the author here…

What does

don’t see that people appreciate WangGuard

even mean?

The plug-in has 4.6 out of 5 stars and the author sets his fees himself based on usage.

If the author decides to call it quits for whatever reason, then why not delist the plug-in from wordpress as a first step? To just do it out of the blue seems quite odd to me. There must be more behind this story.

So what are you migrating to? I just got on board less than a week ago.

• This reply was modified 8 years, 1 month ago by magdamunro.

I have no idea what to migrate to – I don’t find anything that is equivalent.

Like I said in my previous comment, we would be happy to pay a modest monthly fee, say the same monthly fee akismet charges, because I see the benefits to our website to be the same or greater than akismet. I just did not see any notice about a fee now being required.

I can’t read minds (at least I don’t possess the needed tech), so I was awaiting a statement that the development cycle had reached a point where payment was expected. I never received such a statement before seeing the server shutdown – reportedly due to “lack of appreciation”. Hey, I appreciate it – just let me know what the expected monetary appreciation is.

Just a few hours ago I spotted a survey in the last update that I had not seen before. I filled it out, and it gave some compensation money amounts I thought were very reasonable (maybe even too reasonable). Like I said above, I would be happy to pay akismet rates for WangGuard – if I knew that was expected.

Anti-Splog seems like an alternative but is

“only compatible with Multisite installs”

so I can’t use it. I’m not sure what a Multisite installation means in this context. Also it is untested with the current wordpress version.

You can get it for free I think but to get wangguard like server checks you need to pay for an API. I’m not sure if it’s available separately or only as part of the WPMU DEV Membership.

• This reply was modified 8 years, 1 month ago by magdamunro.

@magdamunro – Anti-Splog, whilst probably viable (not researched), requires WPMU DEV membership @ $99/month (or $600 in year 1), if this is the only plugin required.

I’d really like an update from Jose on the state of play. I’d be happy to support WangGuard, but if a solution / pricing plan isn’t implemented soon, I’m forced to find an alternative.

@tjdurden, No, this is not correct. You can use Anti-Splog as is (if running in multisite mode), but without server checks for free according to the makers. Granted the latter is what it takes to achieve something like Wangguard, so you’re correct on that level of usage.

• This reply was modified 8 years, 1 month ago by magdamunro.

@magdamunro – Yep, that’s what I meant. The free features don’t make it viable, standalone product.
Let’s hope WangGuard support continues. There’s not much else in the market.