Allowing spam (resource overusage)

Websites and applications that promote spam behavior can cause significant overuse of resources on your hosting account.

Is this an issue for me?

Here are some common causes of spam behavior on a site or application:

• Comment spam
• Allowing anonymous user registration
• Lack of captcha on user registration or email forms
• Exceedingly large MySQL databases
• Trackback applications or add-ons
• Running multiple websites for pure SEO purposes

How can I correct this issue?

You can try to correct any spam issues by following any and all of these steps:

• Remove all current spam users, posts, comments, and trackbacks from your application.
• Incorporate methods to prevent bots from spamming site elements (e.g. CAPTCHA, Akismet).
• Set up automated tasks to regularly remove spammy users, posts, and comments.
• Migrate to a VPS or dedicated server if the above steps are not an option.

Next steps

If you are still experiencing issues with resource usage, review your hosting for other possible causes at Common causes for resource overusage (Linux).

Note: You will want to make sure that you are correcting the underlying cause to any resource issue. Simply removing sites and/or files without correcting the underlying issue can cause the problem to recur.