Upgraded 2.2.1 now get tons of spam comments

The free Spam Free WordPress plugin was scaled back when it was replaced by Simple Comments. Some spam bots can get past the spam blocking found in Spam Free WordPress, because it is much weaker than the spam blocking in Simple Comments.

I would suggest upgrading to Simple Comments, which offers a free trial so you can make sure it works before buying it.

I’ve experienced this too. No spam for the best part of a year, do the upgrade then BAM. Loads of spam.

Are you saying you removed some of Spam Free WordPress’s ability to block spam when Simple Comments was introduced?

The changelog for v2.0 just says “Removed free license offer from the plugin” – nothing at all about removing functionality.

Spam Free WordPress uses much weaker spam protection than Simple Comments. If you need something stronger then upgrade to Simple Comments. Currently there is a 3 day free trial for Simple Comments.

Spammers are constantly changing their approach, which is why comment spam has more than doubled in the past year, and spam protection has become a full-time effort that only a commercial plugin can provide.

While I do see your point about a commercial product, and understand your direction for the plugin, I would have liked to at least see the features of the plugin that existed in the free version not be removed and maybe support be end of life-d instead. This would have given us users who do not wish to move to a commercial version right now the time to consider it. I’m sure it is worth the cost since I know your previous free version was working great for me. But with my site not being revenue generating at this time I am trying to keep any costs to a minimum.

For now I have reverted to an older version, once spammers become prevalent with that version I will then look at moving towards Simple Comments