Word verification is absolutely the bane of my existence. I'm sure a lot of people wonder why I don't post comments on their blogs, when in fact I have posted comments, only to find out days later that the comment did not post. If your blog has one of those comment boxes where folks have to scroll down to comment, and then they are required to type in a word verification ... the comment box flips back up to the top. So, if people don't scroll back down -- yet again -- to see if they typed the word verification correctly, they often won't see that their brilliant, witty, sophisticated comment did not post.Argh...!
Having a blog is very much like inviting people to visit your home. I think the purpose is to make it as inviting as possible. In my humble opinion -- and I could be wrong, as I often am -- having word verification is like having a welcome mat that says "Stay away..." And don't even get me started on comment moderation. Even CNN, New York Times, Huffington Post, etc., don't have comment moderation anymore. If someone posts a comment you don't like, just hit "delete". You can even hit "delete forever". Fortunately, here on my boring-little-blog I haven't had to do that. But often if I post a comment on a blog that has comment moderation, I don't remember to check back to see my comment was actually posted.I don't always have time to respond to comments on my blog, but I love reading all of them, and I will often go back and read them more than once. You guys are a hoot...! However, I do like to reciprocate by visiting your blogs and posting a comment there. If you absolutely don't need to use word @#%^*#! verification -- please turn it off.
Hantk Uyo :-)
34 comments:
Jo ooohhhhh! What does that mean? I dont have word verification on mine..Hmmmm :)
I hear that people do this because of spam that allow computers to automatically leave garbage in the content's section if there isn't a way to filter them out by this verification.
Like you, I wouldn't moderate comments or put in that verification - it's just not a friendly feeling.
Diane
I took word verification off mine. I don't get many comments so it doesn't make a difference.
My friend has moderated comments because she was getting a lot of nasty comments. She and her husband were on the plane with the underwear bomber and a lot of people did not agree with what she had to say.
Yeah, but now that you know I have word verification, you won't attempt to comment because you don't want to do the word verification and I'm still sans your comments!
Ugh, I share your hatred for word verification and swiftly removed it from my blog after realising, at last, that it has absolutely no benefit. It merely looks unsightly and makes the comment section uninviting. I even wrote a poem about it called "Anti-Spam Protection" :D
I don't have word verification, or moderation. If I am offended by a comment, I'll delete it. I don't get a lot of comments, but that is okay too.
I don't have word varification and do get spam comments from time to time, but as you say they are easy to delet. I'm not oppose to them, even if they are annoying, the don't stop me from commenting.
I will say that there have been times I thought I posted a comment only to discover later that I didn't, but by then its too late.. or I didn't feel like retyping the whole thing again.
Okay, I'll turn it off because I sure wouldn't want to miss one of your comments. I tried to go without it for awhile back and I got lots of Chinese commenters. I still had to delete them, so I'm sure willing to try doing without it for now.
I wrote a comment on a blog that had a habit of running down Americans. After the word verification, I notice that there was also moderation. Days later, I realized that she didn't let ANY comments on her blog. I took her off my favorites list. I prefer conversation to speeches.
I turned it off once before because Kathryn at From the Inside...Out also commented how unfriendly word verification was...and within two days I was getting tons of comments in some gibberish language that I didn't even understand. I may try turning it off again to see what happens.
Word verification is nonsense. I do not blog as much as I used to but have NEVER had WV as part of my comment/blog.
I have noticed a few Chinese entries now and then but these are pointless comments, probably by some juvenile.
What I HAVE noticed lately is that a few emails have arrived asking me to promote some product or other via my blog. Again, I just ignore these.
Cheers, Phil
I do not use word verification, and i have not had any spam.
Jo! the main thing here is I am once again reading a very special persons very special blog.......it just feels so nice being back visiting you.....now what else have you posted over the past year that I have missed.....I will be visiting you here awhile so put the kettle on dear friend (smiles)
Lee-ann
How do I know if it is on or off?
I had it because I haven't minded using it on other blogs. I consider it the same as looking through your peephole before you open your door, but then I don't get nearly as many visitors as you do. I can see how it would slow you down!
I have turned word verification off, just for you! (But if spam becomes an issue, it might come back.)
Margaret =)
That was a good post. I agree and am amazed at the amount of work I have had to go through at times to leave a comment of a few words on some blogs.
I am reminded of what I tell my students: If I spend more time correcting your assignment than you spent doing it, we have a real problem. Heh!
Okay. To read this extremely interesting and most insightful comment, you now need to type the following
XI9Lo*/YA5_\/\/\?$%UL_-_-_-_-V9$
RETYPE THE ABOVE
Sign the second verse of Hark the Herald Angels Sign
Hold you breath and count backwards from 100 to 73
RETYPE THE ABOVE
Hit Submit or Enter while holding down the Control Key and looking out the window while counting slowly to 8. In Russian.
(Then go have a drink!)
I have comment moderation on for posts that are older than two days only so I don't miss anything that someone commented on last week, or year if they are in the archives! Otherwise I agree...hate, hate, hate the word verification...makes me feel like I done don't know how to spell!!!
I hate the kind of commenting of which you are speaking. I have found i can't do it on Firefox at all. It simply disappear into the ether. If i feel it is important enough, i open a different browser (Chrome) & post my comment. It is a pain, & so i don't usually bother.
I DO comment moderation on posts 5 days & older. For a while i was getting a lot of spam on some older posts. Comment moderation has kept that from being posted. But i don't do moderation or word verification on current posts.
I understand your pain! Some of the words for verification are pretty funny, tho.
Word verification is awful, especially the stupid non-words they ask you to type.
However, some of my posts are are being hit with unrelenting spam. Lately, Blogger has improved its spam detection, so I haven't set up word verification.
Come to think of it, it's up to Blogger to control the spam.
I have word verification on to avoid the spam comment as I have been getting quite a few in the past, but I do hate the one where it reloads before asking the verification for the same reason you do. If you don't know its there you close the window before doing it.
Part 2. But on your request I will take it off for a little while and give it a go again. Till the spam finds me again.
(Typing this while laughing at Russell's comment.)
I also hate having to jump through hoops to leave a comment. Sometimes I just give up. I do get some spam on my little blog, but it's easy to delete.
A little spam, did someone say? Spam is a big deal--esp. when it infects your laptop & you have about 5 cents left to fix it. I'm using the Google Spam comment thingy in beta & I hope it will help. Moderating comments is very friendly. It happens to be what sort of blog one has & why.
Cheers.
Hi Jo -
Just for you I have taken the word verify off. As long as i don't get too much spam I'll keep it this way. reply away!
I know. THose things bug the heck out of me and I've missed posting a few times myself when I 'thought' I had posted.
Spambots LOVE my blog. I'm not really sure what that says about the content of my posts but regardless, the only way I have found to control them are with the word verifications. I know that it can be an inconvenience to my mini list of readers however it's better than having my posts littered with trashy links. I've had as many as 25 comments in a matter of an hour from one overly aggressive Spambot.
I also do Comment Moderation so I can keep track of my comments. I found that some of my readers were commenting on older posts and I was missing them. So as a way to keep track of new comments I adopted this as well.
I use both of these things as tools to ensure that my blog stays "trash free" and "up to date" Maybe there are other tools out there that might help me with these issues without commenter’s feeling as though they are being subjected to scrutiny but I just have not found them yet.
Periodically I use word verification because I find 73 comments to ancient posts advertising porn sites or whatever. But for you, I'll remove it now if I presently have it -- I've forgotten. I hate it too, and agree in theory about the Go Away "welcome" mat.
Hey Jo, your blog is not boring at all, I truly enjoy reading all the posts here! =)
Take care,
Janelle
Seems that when the Chinese and Google were having a pissing match there was a boatload of spam going around in comment sections. Google upgraded their spam filters and so far I have not has a spam problem.
Hehe, I don't mind word verification, although it can mean be really dedicated to making sure something posts. Half the darned time the computer claims the word I typed didn't match the verification word. So it's a bit of a hassle but I don't mind it.
However, I type like the wind, Jo. Seriously, I type close to 100 wpm at this stage of my life, and word verification sucks out loud when typing is a bit of a challenge. I'm sure people actually guessed that I type very quickly simply because my comments are so darned long a lot of the time.
Anyway, I don't have it on my blog, and I do spend time deleting spam. I know that some of that spam contains, or leads to malware but I also run Norton 360 (which is a processor hog, but you make your bargains in life) on my PC. I try to remember to delete the spam from my Mac because it's less likely to get swarmed by the oogie boogies.
Anyway, it doesn't bother me when people have it, but it also is a nice surprise when people don't.
I've never used any such thing. And the world is a happier place for it.
I removed it last night and today, woke up to a vast number of "Anonymous" comments advertising things I don't want, so I had to reinstall it. Sorry, Jo, but you know the welcome mat is always out for you!
For those who think this is an "either/or" - you can do comment moderation or word verification on older posts, but leave it free for the current ones. This works well for me. Most people comment within a few days. I find the spam stuff tends to turn up much, much later.
I agree Jo - word verification drives me bananas. Half the time I get the verification wrong because it is so convoluted. Blogger has a fairly good spam filter now and it will catch spammers quite often.
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