Some time ago (I forget when exactly), I ditched the CAPTCHA verification for comments. I've gotten more commenters, either by merit of exposure of getting rid of the CAPTCHA, I'm not sure which. I've also gotten a whole lot of spam.
For the most part, spammers do say some nice and flattering things. Word salad, but hey, any port in a storm, right? In general, the Google spam catcher is very good, only rarely letting undesirable things through, and it's equally rare that it grabs a non spam comment. There are spammers who post rather adult material, though, which in addition to being creepy, has no place on a dog blog. And it's a pain in the butt to go through and remove things every time I look at my comment notifications.
So. What are your opinions on going back to CAPTCHA? I'd prefer not to, really. I know it can be difficult, and a pain. I know it can be outright wrong, which is a huge pain. There are some blogs I've tried to comment on in the past, and the CAPTCHA told me I failed when I knew I didn't. The kicker is that on some of those, when you fail, it wipes out the comment you typed too. Extra fun!
I'd also prefer not to go to moderated comments, because doing entirely moderated comments is just that much more annoying than getting rid of the spam that slips through the cracks. I also read an article the other day that said some sites are dropping CAPTCHA in favor of doing "ad verification", which irritates me thoroughly. I don't like ads for the most part, truth be told. They irritate me, they don't sell me things. In fact, if I find an ad or slogan particularly grating, it will cause me to avoid that particular company or product.
The current situation isn't unbearable, mind you. I could just carry on as I am. But I'm interested in your thoughts.
Also, I've (finally!) added a blogroll page, up in the top there. I decided to have it as a separate page instead of crowing up the sidebar because, well. My sidebar needs all the help it can get. If you think I've forgotten you, please don't worry. It's a work in progress!
I don't mind CAPTCHA, but I'm probably in the minority.
ReplyDeleteI don't mind it either, except in the aforementioned case, when I know for a fact I've answered correctly but the thinger says I was wrong.
DeletePersonally, I hate captcha and after receiving some requests, I removed it from my own blog awhile back. However, lately I've been getting a flood of spam (every day) and, though Blogger has been very good about catching it, I'm tired of wading through to make sure no "good" comments have been flagged. Like you, I don't want to have to moderate comments. So, this week I've been trying to decide if I should add the captcha back to the blog. This morning I decided I'm going to do it for a week to ten days as an experiment. If the spam does not decline, I'll remove it and accept the fact that I'll just have to deal with it.
ReplyDeleteIt's a hard decision to make! Especially becuase I get email notifications of comments, I can sometimes assume a "good" comment was posted, and then it turns out it wasn't. But spam was. Sigh.
DeletePut me in the hate captcha category. I comment less on blogs that require it. I just find it difficult to type all the coding.
ReplyDeleteWordpress is far from perfect, but one option I use is that if I have approved a comment from someone, that commenter is approved thereafter. That is not to say they some legit comments don't get swept up in the spam filter. They do. But I check the spam pretty much every day and delete spam comments. Lately less legit comments have been going to spam.
That is a neat feature for Wordpress to have (approved commenters). It would be nice if Blogger had something a little more involved like that.
DeleteI had a bad spam problem towards the end of last year. It went from a handful a week to 30 or more a day. Drove me nuts. I hate word verification but didn't want to have to moderate all the spam. Someone suggested allowing only registered users. Kazaam! The spam disappeared instantly. After a month, I thought I'd go back to leaving comments open to everyone. I swear, within minutes, the spam came back. So for the foreseeable future, moderated and registered users is the way I'm dealing with spam. Good luck!
ReplyDeleteonly registered users is a good idea! I do think that most of my commenters are anyway. Thanks for the idea!
DeleteI have no problems with captcha's, if it is helpful - why not. But I'm glad for the spam filter of WP - we have practically no problems with spam (knock on wood!!!)
ReplyDeleteYou're lucky! It's been a progressive nuisance for me.
DeleteThe only problem I have with CAPTCHAs is that some of them are REALLY difficult. They involve far away jpg's of a combo of letters and numbers along with your basic warped text before the jpg. Kinda ridiculous. I remember having to try like four times or something like that before I could get my comment to go through.
ReplyDeleteOtherwise, I think it's a wonderful way to keep spam out, especially with a high traffic blog like yours. I've had pretty good experiences with Disqus - and I've only gotten spam once. But, again, my blog isn't high traffic.
Some of them are really hard, I agree! It can get pretty ridiculous.
DeleteI've seen Disqus used on your site (and others) and liked how it seemed to work.
I've been working at a post on this subject. I have pretty much an open door on comments and while the occasional spam that isn't caught by Typepad is annoying, I hate to give in to the spammers by using a WV which I find extremely frustrating. If I don't guess right the first time, I give up.
ReplyDeleteI used CAPTCHA to begin with, and then went open door after I saw somebody else talking about it (I forget where). I definitely want people to feel welcome, and to comment.
DeleteI also hate captchas. As I get older, I find it really tough to read them.
ReplyDeleteThat said, I'll usually give it a good couple of tries because I understand the frustration of spam and want to support a fellow blogger.
One of the nice things about WordPress is that it has a good spam filter that is very easy to use. But the free WordPress account won't allow you to make money like Blogger does. And the self-hosted WordPress will cost you some money.
Whatever you decide, remember that those of us who struggle with the captchas really like you and make the effort to comment, even if it's a pain in the butt. :)
Aw, thanks Pamela!
DeleteI do feel that I picked right when I decided to go with Blogger (not like it's really made me any money yet......), but it's always interesting hearing about the small differences between the services and what you can and can't tweak with them.
I can't read some of the CAPTCHA jumble of letters. Some being most. I mostly comment on blogs during my commute, on my iPhone. So CAPTCHA's an even bigger pain.
ReplyDeleteI'm seriously considering removing it from my blog, too.
I have problems reading it too sometimes (I blame my migraine brain). Doing it on an iPhone really must make it that much worse!
DeleteI hate CAPTCHAs, and they do disincline me to comment. Does Blogspot have a different anti-spam verification you could use? Something like, "Write the answer to 5 plus 2" or "Write the word 'ghost' (without the quotes)" that a human could do easily but a robot couldn't? I've seen that around, and I have it for registration on my own (Wordpress) blog now because I'd been getting so many spam registrations.
ReplyDeleteI don't know if blogspot has something similar to wordpress, but basically if someone has never commented on my blog before, I have to moderate it. Once I accept their comments once, they can comment freely without having to moderate them again.
ReplyDeleteI personally hate captchas. They're irritating to say the least, but if you brought them back, I wouldn't be any less likely to comment. =]
Personally I hate the Captchas, I sometimes can't make out the words/numbers they are asking for and I tend to comment less on blogs that have them. I can tell you that my Wordpress spam catcher (askimet) catches most spam, but it also sometimes catches a reader, which means I have to go into the account three and four times a day and do a quick scan for legitimate comments. And yes, I do get that many spam comments. Honestly if I had a dollar for every spam comment I received, I wouldn't have to work. That being said, I've had people complain because they have to type their names in to comment, but I experience that too with other blogs. I don't know the answer, I think you just have to do what feels right for you.
ReplyDeletei'm sure you know what i think of captchas, which is to say they are evil horrible inventions meant purely to torture innocent people who want to be a part of a community. i'm 100% of the notion that comment moderation tasks should lie in the hands of the blogger and not fall on the shoulders of the readers.
ReplyDeletehave you considered a third-party system?