The CAPTCHA question

So, dear readers, I have a question to pose to you.

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!

Some statistical popularity

Sometimes, it surprises me what gets the most attention on my blog.

For instance, last Friday's post, A small rant.... has gotten 164 hits, 28 comments (well, 56, but that's because I replied to them all) and 4 shares on Google+!  It's not a surprise that some judicious grousing about something got attention, and there was some equal commiseration, and also some good discourse. I do want to emphasize that I don't dislike small dogs; I dislike irresponsible owners. Often the two dovetail, to my dismay, but to my relief, nobody seemed to think that I hated little dogs. So that's good.

Another popular post lately? The Doberman: Color, which I first posted on April 5. Are you ready for this? That one has gotten 1250 hits. I hope for people to be interested when I post Doberman specific things (this is kind of a "Doberman blog" after all, in addition to being a dog ownership one), and my color post has consistently received readership in the months since it first went live.

To give you a sense of scale, my total hits to date since starting this blog on April 7, 2011, is 57,257. I wonder how much it could have been if I did that color post earlier! Still, more than 50k is pretty good, in my estimation.

I'm not sure how many email followers I have, but I have 82 people who publicly follow The Elka Almanac using the Google widget dealie. Many of you also common with good regularity, which I really appreciate! I enjoy the dialogue that having a blog like this fosters with other dog owners. It really helps me get my nerd out. We're all on this road with our dogs, and I like talking to the people who are sharing the journey and seeing where it takes us.