Friday 11 July 2008

Life's too short for...

... WORD VERIFICATION!!!

This is an appeal on behalf of busy bloggers. Please spare a thought for the poor bloggers who work so hard at getting round as many blogs as possible to leave sprinkles of pixie dust and good vibes wherever they go. The terrible proliferation of this awful plague of word verification is a blight on their efforts to make Blogland a cheerier place.

So please (see.. it's a pretty please! lol)... Cancel word verification on your blogs! Have blog owner approval by all means, but word verification is a pain in the proverbial (insert appropriate noun here)!!!

I know it is supposed to prevent spam, but I got rid of it on my blog some time ago, and I have only ever had to reject one single spam message.

OK.. rant over. Thank you for putting up with it, and ~ obviously ~ do what you wish on your blogs, but I had to say SOMETHING!! I love to get around and leave comments, but this is driving me scatty!

42 comments:

Suzanne said...

I understand the reasoning behind this, but there are MANY who get WAY more than 1 and it's easier to require word verification than approve each and every comment that comes in.
Have you looked into Google Reader? You can skim through all the blog posts on your FAVE blogs and then open (and comment on) the ones you want....

Unknown said...

*clapping* bane of my life too Heather, to be honest I'm not sure if it is active on my blog or not, but I will go and look in a minute ;)
I have been thinking about saying something before, but unlike you I just didn't have *balls* for it rofl....
Jx

Christine (All She Crafts) said...

Thanks for your comments, ladies, and your positive responses.

Thank you, also, Suzanne. I like the sound of Google Reader, and have been intending to look into it, but it doesn’t solve the problem I am addressing here. Blogger approval of comments, however, WOULD solve the problem, and unless there are thousands of comments being left, that shouldn’t be too much of an issue for the blog owner, and it removes the annoyance to other bloggers.

It serves two purposes:

Firstly, if someone goes to the trouble of leaving a comment on my blog, I regard it as somewhat reciprocal to at least be aware of their comment/feedback, if not to reply to it directly. Requiring blog owner approval facilitates that.

Secondly, if you multiply the number of visitors by the amount of time it would take them to apply the word verification code (which very often has to be repeated as it’s so darned difficult to decipher the wretched letters), and compare that with the relatively short amount of time it takes a blog owner to rattle through a few comment notification emails and publish them, removal of the word verification code is (in my view) a simple courtesy for my visitors who are kind enough to want to leave a comment.

However, each to their own, and if you disagree with me, that’s cool. We can agree to differ and not visit each other’s blogs! lol ;o)

Peace. Have a good day! :o)

Heather xx

~Emma~ said...

Hurrah!!! Common sense in blogland at last!! I hate it with a passion and took it off mine a while ago.
I read every single comment that is left on my blog so have no problem sorting through the spam...AND...I don't know about Jane but with my fibromyalgia I sometimes really struggle focusing on the stupid things. Long live Heather!!!!
Huge hugs as you deserve it after this!! Emma.x

Christine (All She Crafts) said...

Wow!! Thanks! I'll get the soapbox out more often!! lol ;o)

Any advance on huge hugs, anyone?

H xx

Daisy Chain said...

Hi Heather,

Point taken, I've got rid of mine for the time being, and I'll see how I go. I haven't got thousands of comments to look through yet anyway.

Kind regards

Debbie xx

P.S. I've left you an email. xx

Just call me G said...

I'll snog ya!


ok thats going over board a bit... and will look a bit out of sync if I am not following your post in response to Emma's but sure you will get the gist :D

I took the word verification off my blog last week as I hadnt realised it was on there but after having a bit of a play around with the behind the scenes of a blog profile and because this gorgeous blogging mate was catching up with my posts ;) and I thought about how annoying it is with that stttttttttttupid verification thing on and the amount of times I get it wrong.. that the least I could do was turn the thing off.. it takes a second to click on publish or reject... and stops any spammer having even two seconds of my cyberspace to spam... (Think caped crusader mode here!!!)

I have in the past clicked on one letter and then enter when having to verify a post... just in the hope that i get an easier one.. and I would rather the folk who visit my way didnt have to do that...

Another thing as well is that, for people who I know live alone/have been poorly .. its a bit like the milkman of old... if its verified by blog owner ... I know they have been around... silly maybe but it works for my over protective self...

Owner approval gets my vote..

BTW... thank you for the lovely comments on my blog..

Gxxx

~Emma~ said...

Ok so lets get see how high we can get your soapbox!! Would you be happy for me to copy some of your post and put it on my blog? It would really help me if people got rid of it. I always end up having to hit the disabled verification...makes me feel completely dumb!!! (No rude comments please!!)

Lavender stamper said...

As I was ill last weekend I have extended the date on my blog candy
I will do the draw this Saturday at 4pm
You just have to tell me what you are Lovin at the moment.

http://lavender-stamper.blogspot.com

Christine (All She Crafts) said...

Absolutely, Emma!! You copy away! Busy bloggers unite!! lol ;o)

Who can we picket first??

hehehe!!

Heather xx

Kath Stewart said...

Well done Heather - couldn't agree more I took mine off ages ago and have never had any spam..would they dare..other Mither Hen here would sort them out. No in all seriousness, when you are visiting lots of blogs and leaving lots of comments it is the proverbial pain in the ass and it really pisses me off when the letters are so close together that you can't decipher them - OK girls...girl power is what is needed here - let's stand up and be counted. Put a post on your blog tonight "LET'S GET RID OF WORD VERIFICATION".

Kath
xxxx

Christine (All She Crafts) said...

Woohoo!! You go, girl!! I knew you wouldn't let me down!! hehe!

Heather xx

Juliet said...

You are absolutely right! I hadn't realised WV annoyed me so much until I read your post. Off to change my blog right now.
Juliet xx

Christine (All She Crafts) said...

Yayyyy!! Thank you, Juliet! We can change this world.. one blog at a time!! hehe

Heather xx

Sammi said...

Hello!! I came here from Emma's blog :) I do not have word verification either and dislike it too.. I often get it wrong..ahhhh!!

I put it on a while ago after gettin one spam comment... I took it off again not long after as it annoyed me to much on other peoples blogs :)

I do not have the comment moderation but I do get all comments emailed to me, there have only been a couple of spam ones which I have quickly deleted! this works for me! :)

Thanks Heather!!

Lorraine Robertson said...

Hi Heather I was one of those people with word verification, strange how you don't think about it after the initial set up. Like you I find it so annoying so as of today it has been removed from my blog.....

Thanks
Lorraine xxx

Unknown said...

I turned it off a couple of months ago after a really bad w.e when I wnet on a number of blogs and they had all merged into one another. I was having to input the damn things three times over and the laptop nearly went out of the window ;) I do read my comments and there is a bin next to them, so if they are spam, I just bin 'em
Chrissy

~Emma~ said...

Heather for Prime Minister...now theres a thought! You go girl!

Cazzy said...

Heather - that is such a good idea! I will do it now.

~Emma~ said...

For making me laugh so much this week there is something on my blog for you!! LOL!

Sharon said...

I wondered why some blogs had it & some didn't !! I didn't realise you could turn it off LOL!! Off to have a look now & see whether I have it or not.
Sharon :-)x

P.S I can highly recommend Google Reader, it's fab & saves all the going in & out of peoples blogs just to find they haven't posted anything new. xx

Sharon said...

I had it but I'e turned it off YAY!!
Sharon :-)x

Dawn said...

Heather - I've been cursing this myself and didn't bloomin' realise it was set on my OWN blog!!! EEEEK!! Duly removed so thanks for making me look twice - I had been wondering what other people saw when leaving comments!! DUH!!

Hugs

Dawn
x

MeandLilG said...

Turned it off on mine, too. Hi there! Popped over from a link on Emma's blog - thought I'd say hi to a fellow nutter! Great blog! :)

Laura Davis said...

Heather,
Thanks for the sweet comment on my blog:) Kazan and I are having so much fun at 2S4Y! Thanks for all your support!
Yes, we are very fortunate to live in Beautiful Colorado! I am so glad you enjoyed your visit here:)
Cheers,
Laura

Cass said...

Well said.I hate it too.I think mine is still on though,so will remove it ASAP.

Cass xxx

Christine (All She Crafts) said...

Thank you, thank you, thank you to all of you who have responded so positively so far!! Yayyy!! :o)

Heather xx

P.S. Well, I may just run for PM, Emma.. I couldn't do any worse than our current one, could I? (sigh)

P.P.S. Thank you for the offer of a snog, Gina. Umm... after careful consideration... errr... no, thank you. ;)

Beth said...

This is such a good idea! I did this long ago and was hoping everyone would do the same, thanks for speaking up! :)

Cindy Vernon said...

I have had spam, recently as yesterday, 3 msges on 1 post, but I still have no word verification. People comment on my site more without it and I personally hate it when I go to other people's blogs and sometimes opt to not comment when I have to do the stupid thing. I just x out and move on to a new blog.

Classroomfree said...

Well missy, I've taken mine off just for you ;o)

(The comment verification thingy that is, I don't know what else you were thinking of...)

andrea said...

heather there is something on my blog for you,saphira from trimcraft

Ali said...

Hi Heather!
Scrappy Ali from trimcraft. have been up all night putting stuff on my blog!! I now have a slide thing and music!!!
Don't know if I've got the word thing you are talking about, maybe you could check me out and let me know! Then I'll probably need some more of your fantastic instuctions to get rid of it! How do I know if I've got spam (sounds like a disease!) lol
Thanks for all your help
Ali

Ali said...

Hi Heather it's me again!
I've managed to get rid of the word verification thing all by myself!!!
but could you let me know how I can tell spam from normal comments? and what do I do with it if I get it?
cyber-fritters maybe? lol
look forward to hearing from you
thanks
ali

Anonymous said...

I have to agree with this.. it drives me nuts.. lol!! I'll try a couple times, but after that, I just give up. lol!! On my blog I have to ok a comment from someone who has never commented before, but after that, they're free to comment as often as they like with no word verification, moderation, etc... MUCH easier that way! lol!

Daisy Chain said...

Hi Heather, you've got a fantastic response, well done for converting us all. I've had no trouble so far after taking mine off.

Love Debbie xx

P.S. Did you get my e-mail

Deb said...

Here, here! WEll said! Can't stand the blooming things, have been known to swear at them on numerous occasions!

I did try the moderating comments but that took up too much time too, now I just think 'let the blogger beware'. You don't open links from suspect comments! Simple!

I am on the WV abolishment team!

Sue said...

Well said Heather, as you knoew i have already taken it off mine too for the very same reasons,it's takes so much more time typing them letters in and then having to do it again cos ya get one wrong...doh.lol
i just got 4 lots of spam in one day but nothing since:-)

sue
xx

Karen Owen said...

I so agree with you! I detest word verification. I suffer through it because I love my friends' blogs, but I've also made the appeal on my blog. I do not have word verification or even comment approval, and I have never had a problem in about 18 months of blogging.

Leanne said...

After reading this, I made sure that I turned it off when I started my blog. I understand what these verification things are for but my gosh, they really get on my nerves!!

Jill said...

Heather,
I also hate word verification, but thought it was the "best" way to go. I'm going to turn mine off, and just keep moderation on, and we'll see what happens. As far as Google reader, do I have to do something on my blog so others can be connected?

Ultramum said...

Thanks for this post - I've linked to it from my blog and joined the campaign!

AnnMarie said...

Hi, Heather
I'm in with you all of getting ride of word verification, I have done mine , and so far so good.
Thanks for making me Word Verification free!!!!!