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Akismet

Note: Before 8.11 only issues submitted via the API and for non-project members were submitted to Akismet.

GitLab leverages Akismet to protect against spam. Currently GitLab uses Akismet to prevent the creation of spam issues on public projects. Issues created via the WebUI or the API can be submitted to Akismet for review.

Detected spam will be rejected, and an entry in the "Spam Log" section in the Admin page will be created.

Privacy note: GitLab submits the user's IP and user agent to Akismet. Note that adding a user to a project will disable the Akismet check and prevent this from happening.

Configuration

To use Akismet:

  1. Go to the URL: https://akismet.com/account/

  2. Sign-in or create a new account.

  3. Click on Show to reveal the API key.

  4. Go to Admin Area > Settings > Reporting (/admin/application_settings/reporting).

  5. Check the Enable Akismet checkbox.

  6. Fill in the API key from step 3.

  7. Save the configuration.

Screenshot of Akismet settings

Training

Note: Training the Akismet filter is only available in 8.11 and above.

As a way to better recognize between spam and ham, you can train the Akismet filter whenever there is a false positive or false negative.

When an entry is recognized as spam, it is rejected and added to the Spam Logs. From here you can review if they are really spam. If one of them is not really spam, you can use the Submit as ham button to tell Akismet that it falsely recognized an entry as spam.

Screenshot of Spam Logs

If an entry that is actually spam was not recognized as such, you will be able to also submit this to Akismet. The Submit as spam button will only appear to admin users.

Screenshot of Issue

Training Akismet will help it to recognize spam more accurately in the future.