We had a huge influx of spam registrations in a short amount of time (50k+) and we needed a tool to take control. We didnt want to leave it to automated tools like Akismet because:

1. We dont like relying on external services.
2. It would be an overkill to use a huge anti-spam or firewall tool for what we hoped was not a sustained attack
3. Even if it’s a sustained problem, we wanna observe with our own eyes and take action with our own hands.