What is Mollom?

Mollom is a service provided as part of an Acquia Network subscription that helps prevent unwanted and abusive content from being posted on your Acquia Drupal web site without inconveniencing your legitimate users. Mollom works by analyzing content submitted to your site then automatically classifying it as "spam" (bad) or "ham" (good). Mollom blocks content that it is certain is spam, and lets content be published that it is certain is legitimate.

The small percentage of content in between (when Mollom is not certain whether a piece of content is legitimate or not) passes through an extra layer of protection before being published to your website: The user submitting the content is presented with a simple visual or audio CAPTCHA challenge - a "Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart" - that humans can easily solve, but generally stops automated "spambot" contributions dead in their tracks.

All Acquia Network subscriptions include some level of subscription to the Mollom service. Acquia Drupal includes the Mollom module, and all Acquia Network subscriptions include Mollom subscriptions. Basic Acquia Network subscriptions include a "Mollom Free" Mollom subscription and Professional and Enterprise Acquia Network subscriptions include paid subscriptions to "Mollom Plus".

Activating Mollom content protection

1. Activate the Mollom module at Administer > Site building > Modules (?q=admin/build/modules).

2. Enter Mollom subscription keys - To allow your site to communicate with Mollom's servers, you need your Acquia subscription's public and private Mollom access keys as listed on your Acquia Network subscription page. You can find your keys by navigating to your Acquia Network subscription page at http://acquia.com/network/dashboard/subscription and clicking on the name of the subscription in question. Enter them in the fields provided at Administer > Site configuration > Mollom (?q=admin/settings/mollom).

3. Spam protection settings - Once you have successfully connected to the Mollom servers, you will be able to edit the Spam protection settings and enable Mollom for various types of content and user interaction on your site. In the basic, out-of-the-box configuration of Acquia Drupal, the five forms shown below can be protected.

4. Keep Mollom settings up-to-date - As you add and activate modules on your site that allow user input - the contact form, for example - their input forms are added to this list and can be protected by Mollom. Every custom content type added to your installation can also be protected, but you need to update the Mollom modules settings accordingly.

   

5. User registration and password request forms - When Mollom protection is enabled for these user interaction forms, Mollom will always present a CAPTCHA challenge before submission.

6. Mollom exceptions - Mollom provides a "post with no checking" permission which allows you to give trusted user roles the privilege of posting directly, bypassing Mollom's anti-spam measures. You should limit giving roles with this permission to friends, editorial staff, collaborators or other user groups you trust. Mollom also allows site administrators to report content as spam when deleting it from the site, and it provides a link for users to report emails they receive through their personal contact forms as spam, too. This information is communicated back to the Mollom servers and is used to improve the accuracy of Mollom's spam fighting algorithms.