I just tried to access this site and received the error message from my webhost that I’d been using too much CPU and the site had been suspended.
Looking at the error logs, I see that I can probably cut down on CPU usage if I discourage spam commenters a bit more1. So is there an experienced WordPress user out there who can recommend the best way to do that? It’s not spam filters I’m looking for – it’s something to stop the spammers being able to post at all. I tried implementing the plugin “Did you pass math?” a while ago and it seemed to stop genuine commenters as well as spammers, which wasn’t the intention. I don’t really want to restrict the ability to comment so that only registered users can comment. But if I have to, I will. Any ideas anyone?
I’ve also switched on the WP-cache plugin in the vain hope that will reduce CPU usage.
Any other bright ideas? If it helps, I’m with Bluehost (using their basic package), and I’d rather not move for the second time this year, or fork out more money for a virtual private server (my advertising revenue is still lagging behind even the cheapest webhosting charges). Thanks.
- would you believe it: since I moved to my new webhost three months ago my stats tell me I’ve received TWO HUNDRED THOUSAND spam comments – that’s 2,000 a day [↩]
could the rss feed reader be eating cpu?
Hmmm. Very good point. Quite likely. When I looked at the error logs yesterday it seems my site has been having this problem for about a week. And it was about a week ago that I upped the number of feeds I was reading by about 50 pct. I can’t get at my cpanel for the next couple of days to see whether polling an RSS feed eats cpu – but if so I’ll see if I can reduce the polling frequency. I think at the moment it’s set to poll the feed every time someone reads the page – and Celebrity BlogWatch is really humming at the moment.
Still interested in ideas for cutting down on spam commenters though, because they account for probably a quarter of my cpu usage if I remember the error logs right.
Thanks again for the idea.