Akismet is a service that filters spam from comments, trackbacks, and contact form messages.

[2] The founder of Automattic, Matt Mullenweg, says that he decided to create Akismet so that his mother could blog in safety.

Mullenweg's first attempt was a JavaScript plug-in that modified the comment form and hid fields, but within hours of its launch spammers downloaded it, figured out how it worked, and bypassed it.

[6] One is an official Akismet plug-in release for the open source internet forum software Discourse.

The Akismet service is free for personal use and, as of November 2021, commercial plans start at less than $10 per month.