Thank you Linda... really helpful. Already I have started to relax and not worry about spam comments messing up the front page of my blog... and the time taken in deleting messages was becoming quite silly... in fact, when you start finding ways to delete spam more easily and efficiently... makes you realise quite how bad the situation had become.

Not ideal, but I'm glad it worked for you... and actually, the users/visitors are who I worry about most. I want people to come past and feel they can leave a comment... and the spam I felt was partly preventing them from doing so.

I'm feeling better already :-)