Spam Catharsis
Catharsis. Definition: The process of releasing, and thereby providing relief from, strong or repressed [spam].
This plugin is not needed for a plain, vanilla installation of WordPress. However, if you have a plugin that replaces your commenting system, a plugin such as Intense Debate, your blog may be suffering from a build up of repressed spam. If left untreated, this could drive your MySQL server to a mental breakdown.
Certain plugins allow all comments to remain in your local database – even the ones that they themselves consider spam. On some blogs the spam comments can out number real comments a thousand to one. If the spam comments are never purged – this can create a real mess. If you have
Spam Catharsis was originally written in February of 2011 to provide a purging relief to a popular culture site that had built up several hundreds of thousands of spam comments – none of which were visible to visitors. It was only visible as their database grew and grew. Once the commenting plugin was removed, the dashboard of the site was nearly non-functional.
The Spam Catharis plugin operates on a daily basis removing from your database any spam comments that are more than 15 days old. The first purge that executes may take a while to complete, depending upon how bad your situation is. After the first run, the plugin embarks on a daily maintenance routine so to make your site operate as fast and efficiently as it always had.
There is no configuration. There is no option screen. Install it and you are done.
Download
Latest version: Download Spam Catharsis v1.0.1 [zip]
Installation
Extract the zip file and just drop the contents in the wp-content/plugins/ directory of your WordPress installation and then activate the Plugin from Plugins page.
Because this plugin can create an intense load on the database the very first time it is activated, it is recommend that the first install is done during off peak hours.