Look at this impressive chart:
Now that looks like a lot of something. Too bad it’s spam. Yes, this graph is generated from Akismet’s log of the spam comments it has caught over time.
Amazing isn’t it? In one day, such as September second last year, this very blog would have been slammed with 848 spam comments if not for the aid of the Akismet spam filters? Imagine if we didn’t have such defenses; the internet would be an unbearable, and running a blog would be a nightmare. We may complain to no end about the spam messages that slip through, but I think we all know that it could be a lot worse.
I don’t like spam messages of any kind, but at least emails aren’t public. Comment and forum spammers earn the most of my contempt. To me, leaving spam comments is far worse than sending a few spam emails.
Thank you, Akismet developers, for helping to keep the nasty stuff to a tolerable level. Turning your plugin off for even a week would be suicide.
I think I can speak for everybody (who isn’t a bloodsucking scoundrel) when I say spam is a plague. Note that when I say I don’t like spam, I refer to the digital kind and not the tasty, canned lunch meat. 
(Spam sketch by Monty Python)
