Wednesday, August 22, 2012

This Shit Pisses Me Right Off

That would be this:


Blogger asks us to "prove you're not a bot" while Wordpress just gives us indecipherable words that sometimes takes up to three tries to get right (Blogger's WV is indecipherable at times, too).  It's ALMOST enough to make a body decline to comment on the blogs that use this shit.  My biggest problem/issue is the fact bots don't type... so WHY does the word picture have to be so fucked up?  Why not use straightforward text?

There's no reason to use word verification if you're on Blogger.  Google has got that spam-catching thang down to a veritable, fail-proof science.  I can't recall the last time an actual spam comment made it on to EIP. 

26 comments:

  1. Uh-oh. Mine doesn't do that, right? Just asks for a name and email, IIRC.

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  2. Look at me, trying to use my OpenID. That'll be the last time.

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  3. I cringe every time I have to type something I can barely decipher. Sometimes I have to type it several times. Sometimes I'm pretty sure I typed it wrong, but it works anyway. I hate it.

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    1. I hate it, too. It's a freakin' CURSE.

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  4. Buck, you have addressed a subject near & dear to my blogging heart. Have addressed it myself in the past, and I must say I made a few converts.

    First off...The Globber's spam filter is excellent. Of the hundreds (maybe thousands) of spam comments I've gotten, only ONE actually made it on to the blog (and that was within the first couple of weeks of its roll-out...none since). The only beef I have is that they still haven't solved the issue of subscribers to follow-up comments getting the spam comment in an e-mail, too. Minor bitch there...hopefully, my 13 readers know it for what it is.

    There are several Globbers I read that I finally quit trying to leave comments, due to the difficulty of Globber's WV.

    Secondly...While we're at it, Wordpress has almost as cumbersome a process. There are several spam catchers that can be used on a Wordpress Blog...I think the first one I heard about was "Akismet." Could be wrong...but I think that's what it's called.

    Thirdly...the whole concept of CAPTCHA is stupid. I don't think a "robot" would no more be able to read plain text than the ridiculous characters that The Gooble throws up at us. The concept is not completely stupid, but why not make it at least user friendly to us "non-robots?"

    Occasionally I have to verify to my The Gooble Account that I am who I am while using my iPhone. If I try to log in to my The Gooble account from a very unfamiliar location, I will often be forced to go through a process which involves typing in a CAPTCHA code presented to me on my little bitty phone screen.

    Merciful Lord...I can barely read plain text on the thing...much less characters that look like a retarded horse tried to write in cursive!

    It always takes at least 3 tries. About then, I'm afraid they're gonna lock me out due to too many failures.

    Seriously.

    NO ONE attempting to build blog traffic, or conversational commenting should use WV.

    Period.

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    Replies
    1. Well said. Hopefully a few MORE folks will take yer oh-so-appropriate rant to heart.

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    2. I'm assuming that you've got some one particularly in mind when you write "MORE folks."

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    3. Not really... just anyone/everyone who still uses that krep and there are more than a few of my daily reads that DO.

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    4. Hmmmm...I figured you were calling out a specific blog bud.

      I was wrong.

      Again.

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  5. Do you still lurk/visit at Ann Althouse's place, Buck. A guy over there was just complaining he took FIFTEEN tries (poor guesser or lost his glasses, I guess) WHY she uses WV on Blogger I'll never know as she gets complaints about it constantly...it IS a pain in the you-know-where..

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    Replies
    1. I lurk at Althouse from time to time. I haven't commented there in years.

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  6. I know you are eternally frustrated with my WV Buck and regrettably I can't change it nor can I shut it off. So I know I'm in the MORE folks category... :-(

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    Replies
    1. That you are. The screen shot was from YOUR blog, btw. ;-)

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  7. Kris, why can't you change it or shut it off?

    I mean...are you under some special dispensation of hatred that The Blogland Spammers have foisted on you?

    I'm stumped. EVERYBODY ELSE CAN.

    Just sayin'...

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  8. Hey Loozy-Andy, you got it right. Akisment has caught almost 3,000 spam comments for me. I always have a few in the moderation folder, but just a few, and to date not a single one has made it through to the front page.

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    Replies
    1. Glad to know that I was right about at least one thing today.

      Thanks, Seattle Andy. Made my day...after being rawng on everything since rolling out of the sack, it means a lot. Really.

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  9. you get it right in 3 tries? Rock On!
    Phil USAF Ret

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  10. Andy - I don't use Blogger or WordPress as my host. They turned on the spam feature with WV and it's not an option to turn it off. To be honest, I don't want to; before they turned it on I'd get slammed with the crap all the time. Since they turned it on, nothing gets thru. I've complained to them about it though...many times.

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  11. It may be a good thing I didn't see this until I read the BP's post. I mighta been hard put not to write one of my own. Heck, I might do that anyway... some day... if I remember.
    Anyhow I'm not gonna say one way or another how my experience with spam has gone. Not now anyway.

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    Replies
    1. Spam is always topical. And it used to be what's for dinner, in the way-way-back.

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  12. Spam should be fried, literally and figuratively.

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  13. Spot on, Buck. Blogger's spam filter is superb. It catches just about everything for me. The odd one or two that get through once every couple of months? I delete 'em by hand. No problem. Why anyone would voluntarily put folks through such hoops in order to leave a nice comment is beyond my understanding.

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  14. I've tried to shut mine off and haven't had any luck with it. Am I having a stunned AND stupid moment?

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Just be polite... that's all I ask.