I've hated word verification for as long as I've had it turned on. I really wish Blogger had full comment moderation (that is I could delete comments or edit them, like removing HTML links). When I started blogging I quickly got comment spam, so I turned on word verification (being the only way I saw to correct this). The other option is to do comment moderation (which means I need to log in and approve all comments), but I'm not nursing this site to make that an enjoyable experience (would you like to comment and then not see that comment show up for a day or so? I wouldn't).
Camille, though, has turned hers off, and so far things look okay. So I'm going to follow suit. If comment spam becomes a problem, again, I will turn it back on. Comment spam doesn't do anything for my readers, and it mostly is to spoof the search engines into counting more links to sites and so push up ratings (which I find reprehensible).
So word verification is off. Don't make me turn it back on. And Blogger, give me real comment moderation tools!
3 comments:
I think blogger has better spam filters than it used to, or maybe word ver cut down on the number of spammers who found this fertile ground.
Shamus Young of the hilarious "DM of the Rings" screencap parody, uses a really simple word verification scheme, where the difference is that the word to be verified is a non-English letters and numbers word that is the same every time. The thinking (and he thinks he's been borne out in this) is that the robots are simply thwarted by the presence of word verification, not the relative strength of the letters and numbers combination. He does it on a WordPress blog, of course, but he routinely hits mid-to-high double digits in his comments, so it's not like he's a backwater.
Dave, I love that it's d20. My comment thing is just another example of why I need to roll my own, soon. I'm cheap, that's my only excuse.
I'm hoping camille. Even with word ver I've gotten two other SPAM (not the Goodman link, that was cool and at least on topic, so I'm okay with it). So why make people jump through hoops and still have the problem? And then I saw your post (haven't ready Scarey's rant on it yet) and figured it was time.
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