A couple of y'all mentioned the new captcha stuff going on with Blogger, and so I went and read a couple posts about it and decided I'd just go with it and trust the spam detection thing Blogger is using. I removed the word verification yesterday, and it's been spam ever since. Spam detection has caught most of it--all I have to do there is click to agree to remove it--but some is slipping by, and that means I have to go find the comment and delete it. Or I can ignore it. Either way, though, it irritates me. It irritates me beyond reason when I think about people who will deliberately be a pain in the butt so they can make money. I know, I know--that happens all the time everywhere, but here's the deal: there are all kinds of things I know are out there but that I don't want to have to think about. There are things human beings do that make me want to hunt them down and smack them silly, and that's a waste of time and energy, not to mention the bad karma and stuff.
Sure, sure: everyone has to make a living. Sure, sure: the economy sucks. Sure, sure: people have to do what they have to do. I know that, but I don't *want* to know it. I don't want to know that there are people who make a living spamming and phishing. I don't want to think about the people who make a living setting up porn websites--and I don't mean erotic stuff, kinky stuff. I don't care about that. But the violent stuff? The illegal stuff? The really creepy, run-for-your-life stuff? I don't want to think about how people are willing to be involved in that in exchange for money. The military-industrial complex. People willing to go kill other people for money. I look at this stuff and think, "Good lord, man, is there *nothing* you won't do for money?" I mean, sure: if you're starving. Then you'll do just about anything. But otherwise? There's got to be a line somewhere, and I think I draw that with spamming. Seems like a good place to start. So I'm not going to help them out, and I'm not going to let them irritate me and force me to take time from whatever I'm doing to go in and delete their comments so someone won't inadvertently click on a link.
I'm sorry about the captcha. I really am. I love y'all's comments. I'm not sure, but I think if you sign in with blogger--if you have a blogger ID--you can bypass that. I know that there are blogs with word verification where I don't have to play--it just takes my comment. Maybe that's a fluke.
I hope Blogger figures out something, because this right now is just ridiculous. But as long as there's money to be made, someone's going to be trying. I just don't want to play along. I hope you'll hang in there with me and comment in spite of the difficulty. If someone has a solution--if there's something I've missed about tweaking the settings--please let me know.
And, hey, Blogger! Surely you can fix this. Do something, please~~
Posts
making do
2 days ago
14 comments:
I agree, 100%.
On a related note, lately, in my email I've noticed I've been getting email spoofs from "amazon-orders" informing me that I cancelled an order for items I know I did not order. Luckily I went w/my gut instinct and just click "report phishing" to Hotmail. This a.m., my husband, whose job is, in part, related to the security of customer payment data said, "just hover over the link, see what it is." And I did. And naturally, it's not coming from Amazon.
Not sure what else can be done re: the captcha, spam, spoofing, and phishing. It's a modern day shell game, all an attempt to distract us, while someone else attempts to pick our pockets.
I don't leave many comment because I read my blogs on the reader. The last few times I have left reader to comment I noticed the double word captchas & didn't bother, & this is w/ being signed in. :(
Thank you for trying to accommodate those of us that were having a hard time reading the code words. But really, if it is causing you grief, put them back. I'll just squint and roll with it. :=)
I have no problem taking the time to type in two words, whatever it takes to make it easier for you !!
Thanks, y'all--I'm still tweaking: it looks like the comments I get via email that are spam are actually not posting but are going into a folder on the blog, which is good, but it would be REALLY nice if they'd indicate that in the email so I know it hasn't posted. Grrrrr.
I haven't had word verification on my blog for a long time before captcha came along and so far so good although i don't receive half the traffic you do. The words are just so darn hard to read sometimes. Hope they figure something out.
I hate the word verification. Ia m just too lazy to do all that typing a lot of times. I love reading blogs and I read a lot of them and often I do it in the dark before bed time but the word verification turns me right off so these days I mostly just read. Blogger does put the crap in a spam folder but they do email them to you anyway and once in a while, it is from a genuine reader but that is very rare.
I read more often than comment. I understaind the reason and don't mind the one word verification. The new 2 word system always leaves me struggling with that second shaded word. Sometimes I work with it, sometimes I give up.
Lets see what happens this time.
Darla
Ha! Just FYI my comment went though with no verification, I'm signed in on my Google Acct. for what its worth.
Darla
I don't mind the verification... Of course I don't comment a lot, but I really hate spam so if you have to go back to the captcha, I'm with you!
I had the exact same problem. I turned of the option to receive e-mail when I get a comment. I hated to have to do that, but at least this way there's no spam in my mailbox. Blogger does indeed do a pretty good job seperating the spam from the real stuff, but it is a pain to have to go to blogger now to see if I have comments at all. Still, the new word verification is so horrific that I'm willing to suffer a little to have it turned off. ;-) I don't know why they changed it in the first place. Blogger had one of the view word verifications a normal person could actually read!
Hi, I saw an interview on a PBS (I think) program a couple of years ago about the two word system. The original intent was to transcribe out of print books etc... to digital searchable copy. here is a link to a story. Don't know if this is the same guy, but I remember being interested in the idea of transcribing one word at a time. I guess because I thought the idea was interesting, the double captcha doesn't bother me. Anyhow long comment. I read and enjoy you every day no matter what :)
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/29/science/29recaptcha.html
I just went through the same thing with my blog. A couple of my regular readers asked me to remove the Captcha thing - and they have gotten very difficult to read - so I took it off. I've had constant spam ever since, and I don't have near the visibility you do. By the way, being signed in makes no difference - you still have to go through the captcha thing. Oh well.
I agree - and the freakin' words are getting longer and harder to read!!!!
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