Well, she sorta speaks for me. Daphne is off on a generalized rant against Blogger as a platform. I don't agree completely about that, as Blogger is VERY easy to use and is relatively hassle-free, compared to other platforms. And I HAVE considered moving to another medium, but have always stopped when I read of the hassles encountered by others with platforms such as WordPress. As a matter of fact, Lex's top post today is a cry for help concerning some arcana associated with the latest iteration of WordPress. We don't need the hassle... no, we most certainly don't.Random Friday night thought; I hate Blogger. The whole thing is a slow, unwieldy bastard for the user and pure hell for the reader trying to leave a comment. I wish all bloggers who do this hobby with some passion would change platforms to something more user friendly. Throw away your training wheels and start flying down the road, writer people. Let’s face it, comment windows that open in a little corner without the full post, suck big time. Comment windows that open without the full body of the post sitting right above, really suck. Making me key in random letters and numbers to leave a comment is the worst.
But about that capcha thing, otherwise known as the Security Word... I responded to Daphne thusly:
Making me key in random letters and numbers to leave a comment is the worst.I feel the same way about comment moderation, too. Moderation kills spontaneity and conversation among commenters and bloggers... especially when it isn't used in a timely manner. I understand some folks, like Blog-Bud Cynthia, get anti-military Leftards dropping perverse and obscene comments in their blogs on a routine basis. But that would be the ONLY reason I can see for comment moderation... that being you have a history of stalkers and idiots haunting your blog. Otherwise? Not so much. Not at ALL, in most cases. But, Hey! To each his own, and all that. Your blog, your choice.
That's MY pet peeve about people who use Blogger. If you're one of the Big Dogs who gets thousands of hits an hour, using capcha will keep spam-bots away. But if you're small fry with 200 hits or less a day, what's the frickin' POINT, other than to irritate your audience?
That said... I know from reading other people that Wordpress ain't all THAT easy. Blogger, for all its faults, is largely hassle-free. I like that.
I do agree with you, but let's cut the ladies some slack on moderation. My wife Joyce had a creep who loved to leave really weird anti-Semitic comments, so she turned on moderation just to make sure the creep never saw the light of day (and thus hopefully would grow tired of pissing into the wind).
ReplyDelete:(
ReplyDeleteOkay, I'm off to do some policing...;)
Generally (which is a dangerous word, I know) ...you get what you pay for.
ReplyDeleteI use WordPress, but I self-host which means I have access to source code. And yes, I'm a programmer by profession so I know more than a casual user, but I don't write my own theme. I do know enough to search for one that is compliant and paid a very small amount for it.
Additionally, the theme writer includes documentation on how to do customization so that WordPress upgrades will live happily with it. And WordPress blogs info on the changes and how to accomodate. This is all for self-hosting - not sure about the freebie WordPress.
For moderation, there are several options including the ability to set words in the subject, url or body to send a post to moderation - similar to Outlook rules for spam. I believe that moderation options are available in the dashboard for freebie WordPress users as well as self-hosted, i.e. the dashboard which is set up to be a guided options page is the same for a self-hosted blogger as for a freebie blogger.
Google Blogger has a dashboard also and I'm thinking there must be moderation options as some blogs use the word thing, some complete moderation, some very little...
All of this stuff requires some effort on the user's part. Very little of it is as cryptic as the link Les had in his post which I didn't understand either.
At any rate, I come back to "you get what you pay for" and by payment...in $$ as well as some effort.
For the record, I pay $96 per year for my hosting service which allows for 4 domains. I host 2 blogs (1 is my test area) and my business web site. The host also has automated WordPress installation as well as upgrading. For the upgrades, I chose when I want to upgrade and the auto-procedure also automatically backs up my original before it upgrades so I can roll back if there are problems. If using the Freebie version there is a backup plug-in.
So...a minor rant of my own. Being in the "biz" and knowing exactly how much effort it takes to develop, upgrade and manage software, I see the "problem" from a different perspective. I think the various platforms do a most excellent job at providing a venue for anyone with a computer and internet access to broadcast whatever it is they would like to broadcast, to the world, via the internet, at no charge if they chose.
Bob: I think Joyce fell into that stalker and idiot category I mentioned as a justification for moderation.
ReplyDeleteChristina: That was just MY opinion on the subject... but if'n ya feel moved to turn off Word Verification I shall NOT complain! I might even do the Happy Dance! :D
Ann: Thanks for your input on this! I'm thinking "ExileInPortales.com" would be a way-cool thing to have and $96/year seems a small price to pay.
But... I am most certainly NOT a coder, even though I kinda-sorta used to play one (after a fashion) in real-life... if you count supervising developers as such. It seems like all the guys/gals with WP blogs I read have "issues" every time WordPress comes out with an upgrade, some of which aren't trivial. Having a compliant template is a great good thing, but stuff happens... as you know. And then there's the lil matter of importing nearly four years of archives into the new domain, about which: Aiiiieee!
I think I'll stay put. That said, I agree with your bottom line: the various "free" platforms do an EXCELLENT job of giving folks access. Who'd a thunk it ten years ago?
i love blogger, but haloscan at several thousand comments when i switched over - that sucked heavily. otherwise never a problem.
ReplyDelete"ate" not "at" - geesh...
ReplyDeleteOkay. I now feel like Opposite Girl in Bizarro World from Ann in Montana. I don't even KNOW if I have a sign-in for comments! I've just now learned how to use the little HTML tags (sort of! Guess not -- I've been trying to post this for 10 minutes!). My daughter set up the Blogger acct for me and taught me how to use it (up to a point!) as a gift.
ReplyDeleteSo, what I'm saying is, I guess I don't have a dog in this hunt. Mine's out basking in the sun.
I did have one Union troll leave a gazillion character comment once in opposition to a post about EFCA that Buck advised me to delete. So I did, and that was empowering! 'Nuf said by me.
nanc: Ow on losing your comments. That hurts! Blogger irritates me occasionally but I like it, all things considered.
ReplyDeleteMoogie: You do have word verification enabled. You can disable it by unchecking the box in the "Show word verification for comments?" (it's a "yes/no" thing) in the comments tab under settings... then click "save settings" at the bottom of the page. If'n ya wanted to.
I blog at two versions of WordPress and at Blogger. The newest Wordpress is almost, but not quite, convincing me to change platforms. The older WordPress is inept and I have to write the post in blogger and copy and paste it. Blogger is still the most reliable overall.
ReplyDeleteI HATE that I have to moderate comments at my military blog, but I do. When a Gold Star Mom contacts you to say, 'can you take this "we applaud soldiers who kill their officers" off of your tribute to my son who was killed by a demented soldier', you end up having to do it. No Gold Star Mom should be subject to that.