I guess there must have been a major increase in spam overall, because a lot of the blogs I’ve visited have captcha’s. What’s a captcha? Ok, I know you know what it is. It’s the little box that you have to write indistinguishable letters and numbers in the right order to be able to post your comment. When it fails, which for me is at least half of the time, you get to try again, and again, and again. Some blogs eventually allow the comment to be moderated and others I just give up on leaving a comment. You can also choose to listen to a garbled audio of it, which is impossible to understand.
On top of that, many of the sites who do NOT use Captchas, use tiny check boxes under the comment to click that you are NOT a robot or you can solve a math problem or pick a picture. Some blogs deal with the spam issue by moderating everything, which leaves you unsure if your comment went through at all and you don’t always get a message that it’s moderated so your comment may be lost in Cyberspace! Then when you try to submit again you get a duplicate message, but the comment is still not showing.
Ultimately, the goal of most blogs is to reach people and start conversations, but if leaving a comment is impossible or difficult then we lose a huge part of our purpose and our audience.
I’m not sure what the best solution is for Blogger. I tried Disqus, but it wouldn’t allow comments from mobile devices or anonymous comments (even when there was no doubt that the comment was from a real person). It also required people to login-which is another major turn off for people (Just believe me-it is!).
I wanted to use Intense Debate with CommentLuv, but it wouldn’t work with my blog in Blogger at all and I was never able to figure out why (probably incompatible with some of my code).
Currently, I just have it set for regular blogger comments that come to e-mail so I can check them relatively quickly and if it is spam remove it. I know it’s not ideal and if anyone has a better solution in Blogger that does not require people to login or do gymnastics please let me know!
If you have a blog using Wordpress, there are a few options that people use to avoid spam. One is simply turning on Askimet in the Wordpress settings; other options include using Mollom, Gasp, or Spam Free Wordpress.
Does anyone else share in my frustration with the difficulty of leaving comments on some blogs?
Sure do! I have even posted on how to kill it in Blogger since I think a lot of people do not realise that they have it turned on. I dont have it and havent had any real spam issue - I am moderating the comments though - mostly so I can make sure to reply by visiting their blog. Cheers
ReplyDeleteYep. I usually try twice and then give up if I can't get past the captcha. I'm on WP, and use Askimet, which allows me to approve your first comment, and then every time you comment after that, you don't need my approval. I like that.
ReplyDeleteI was seriously considering writing a post about how I would no longer comment on people's blogs who had these, I can NEVER get those things right. I'm glad to know i'm not the only one, they drive me crazy!
ReplyDeleteHa! I love the poem.
ReplyDeleteIf I have problems leaving a comment on a blog, I just move on, I don't fret too much about it.
Personally I do what you do, just manually look through them and the rubbish ones can be spotted really quickly - it seems the least bothersome route for me.
Cheers,
Gordon
Carole, thanks for offering a totally reasonable explanation for moderating!
ReplyDeleteAnnie, I actually tried five times on one last night before giving up. It was the one that clinched it for me, I needed to do a post on it! I've heard that Askimet with wordpress works really well and it's fairly easy to setup!
ReplyDeleteThe Great Gordino, I'm glad you like the poem! I normally don't get upset Like you I just move on, but with the challenge I really WANT to leave comments and show support, and just reached my breaking point on it last night. I really believe most people don't even realize how hard they can be or that they even have it on.
ReplyDeleteThe spam ones are really obvious!
Shelley, you are definitely not alone. SOme of them would be impossible for anyone. I don't understand why (since they are pictures) they can't simply be readable for humans pictures. They really do drive me crazy, especially when I was running into them or versions of them blog after blog after blog.
ReplyDeleteCapchas are extremely frustrating for me and my spouse both, too. I use Blogger as my blogging platform and I truly wish there was a better way to make commenting easy for my readers and, at the same time,prevent spam comments. I turned capcha off several months ago. I do moderate my comments because Bloggers spam filters don't always work. I am going to tweet this post, too. Thank you for expressing the frustration of so many bloggers.
ReplyDeletethey frustrate me because sometimes I can't make out what letters they are. I have no idea if I have this on my blog either. I am not sure.
ReplyDeleteheather
Definately share the frustration, sometimes write a long comment and something goes wrong and i lose it and give up. Some are toocomplex 4 me and i give up, Why are some captcha's so hard for me, not a robot, to work out!? I have no solution. Your site looks great by the way.
ReplyDeleteHeather and Kathy. I agree they are frustrating and I went and left a comment on your blog. I was successful in completing the captcha, so you'll see a comment form me (Emily), but you DO have a captcha on your blog.
ReplyDeleteLee, I think that's the most frustrating part for me, when I've taken the time to write a well thought out and longer comment and then lose it, I get frustrated and what's more sometimes with the Fibro Fog I can't remember all of it and am totally unable to recreate it. So frustrating. Glad to hear the fixes I made to the html corrected the issues my blog was having!
ReplyDeleteBookworm, thanks for the tweet! You're right Bloggers spam features don't always work, I end up having to remove comments a couple of times a day, but it is so few at this point, that I like to leave it available and easy for everyone else to leave comments. If it started getting really bad though I'd have to rethink my plan and may end up moderating like you.
ReplyDeleteHi Emily! I also really struggle to get the captchas right. Sometimes up to 5 times and then I give up. At first I had nothing on my blog, but then I had some really weird comments in other languages. Now I moderate my comments. Wish I didn't have to. When I write a comment I love seeing it immediately! :-)
ReplyDeleteHi Elizabeth, you know I'm not that irritated by blogs (especially now that people's comments on this have given multiple good reasons for moderating) that are moderated as long as it says that clearly somewhere, so I know when I send my comment and it doesn't show up what is going on. Every once in awhile I'll get one in a different language, but the spam ones I normally get are just random generic nonsense that ends with a link and always shows as anonymous...
ReplyDeleteWhahaha! I definitely agree with you! I just try one time and when I fail, I leave. Less stress :-) .
ReplyDeleteThanks for visiting and following my blog! <3 Liz
Thanks Liz! I'm glad you agree and I usually try more than once if I can remember what I typed (or if it doesn't erase what I typed and I just have to keep trying captchas, but stopping after once would certainly eliminate the frustration!
ReplyDeleteI recently put that on mine, because I got a little spooked by a site that did not have captcha---it was on facebook. And somebody had a really ugly attitude and robot. Come see my blog. I'll uncaptcha it. And I do understand. I usually have to do those things 2 or 3 times. http://learningtobalancelifechanges.blogspot.com/
ReplyDeleteHI Deborah, I can understand being spooked, but when I left a comment on your blog you didn't have the captchas which I was glad of! I used to think the difficulty with captchas was another Fibro thing like my mental capacity had diminished or something (I do deal with the fog so much more than I'd like), but this seems to be a universal thing, which has me feeling better!
ReplyDelete