Thursday, February 23, 2012

PLEASE Turn Off Word Verification

 Cucumber Gap Trail (GSMNP) - February 20, 2012
See end of post for what I also saw two hours later on the SAME trail!

It was my intent to include this as a caveat to my normal Monday morning post, however it has become such an issue that I decided to plead my case in a separate post today and be back to much more pleasant things on Monday.
 
When I started Gains and Losses almost two years ago, I knew NOTHNG about blogging or blogging platforms.  I just wanted to write.  Blogger seemed to be where most of the blogs I'd begun reading were posted from and it was really easy to get my blog started.   When I came to the "Word Verification," it seemed prudent for security reasons to check "yes."  After that, I pretty much forgot about it.  My guess is that those of you who still have the feature turned on don't even realize it!

For whatever reason, Blogger has chosen to significantly increase the difficulty of word verification adding an additional word and making one of the two words virtually impossible to read.  I have researched this from a non-partial viewpoint and learned that there is truly NO benefit (security, spam prevention or otherwise) to having word verification turned on.  I have since removed that feature from my blog.

This morning, I tried commenting on a blog of someone I read ALL the time and would not, for any reason, stop reading.   However, it took FIVE tries before I could read the word verification garbage well enough for it to accept my comment.  Needless to say, that is frustrating!

IF YOU HAVE THIS FEATURE ENABLED ON YOUR BLOG, PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE TURN IF OFF.  I AM VERY CLOSE TO DECLARING THAT I WILL NO LONGER COMMENT ON BLOGS THAT HAVE IT ENABLED.  MANY OF MY BLOG FRIENDS HAVE ALREADY MADE THIS DECLARATION AND ARE STICKING BY IT!  I DON'T WANT TO DO THAT, SO PLEASE HELP ME OUT BY JUST TURNING OFF THE FEATURE.

If you don't know how, follow these steps.:

You cannot turn them off from the new interface.  (this is important - blogger doesn't WANT you to turn it off!)
Go to your old dashboard. 
Find your old dashboard by clicking on the settings icon (little grey wheel) top right of your new interface.
It will give you a dropdown menu.
Click on Old Blogger interface
From there proceed to Settings, then Comments.
Uncheck Word Verification.

THANK YOU!

Would you believe that I found this near the end of Monday's hike on the same trail where two hours earlier I was hiking in snow??   That shouldn't happen!   Nor should I be seeing a wildflower at ALL in February.   Go figure!

Have a great weekend!   See you right back here on Monday morning!

17 comments:

  1. I've noticed the same thing about the verification words being much harder. I wondered why the change was made.

    I get a ton of spam comments and those are almost all caught by the spam filter. Based on that and your research, I'll turn mine off now.
    Lori

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  2. It is a big annoyance, I hope everyone turns it off and just uses comment moderation instead.

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  3. AMEN AND THANK YOU. I have wanted to gripe about the word verification for years, but since I use Wordpress, I did not want to sound critical or whiny about other's blog choices. You are right. This latest change is ridiculous. Wordpress has a very good spam filter and they do not require any word verification. Thank you for bringing this up!

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  4. Thanks - if we're on moderation, there should be no need for that. Love the pic of the white flower. To me it means there is hope for spring to be here very soon!

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  6. AMEN!!!! I actually have my next thumbs post drafted (although I don't plan to publish it until next Thursday) and talk about this as thumbs down. I cannot believe how hard it is to read those things! I even tweeted about it hoping that Google would eventually hear enough buzz to change. I'm very grateful to the bloggers who have already turned it off.

    I will say, though, that I get a lot of spam on my blog. Wordpress has a way to filter it out and I check the spam filter typically daily because sometimes it catches a real comment in there too.

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  7. Just turned mine off...I honestly didn't realize I even had it. Whoops! Thanks!! And that's wonderful you saw a periwinkle flower! Cute little flowers they are :)

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  8. Thank You!!! I wrote about this yesterday but you said it much more clearly. It's ridiculous and has definitely stopped me from commenting on a couple of blogs. Go Sister!!!

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  9. And here I thought it was just my bad eye sight!

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  10. I turned mine off. I've been annoyed by this new change myself. Did you ever receive my email? I sent you my tracker page.

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  11. I'm kind of relieved!! I thought it was just my bad vision. I can never read them and so I can't comment on blogs that have them. They're very frustrating. I'm really glad to know it's not just me!

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  12. I changed mine - thank you! I was wondering why I've hardly got any comments on my latest post...
    Oh and the periwinkle - it flowers here (Southern Ontario) all winter, as long as it's protected a bit. I thought that was normal?
    Dawn

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  13. LOL - I hate the word verification, too!

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  14. Ditto!

    (You're so much more polite than I am! LOL)

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  15. I agree. I have hated them from the start. My eyeballs are just not that good. Lol

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  16. I don't like this either. I did not even know I had it turned on. It's off now! Thanks for bringing this up!

    Keep focused!

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  17. DITTO here, too!!! I can't tell you how many times I have had to repeatedly fight that thing just to make one comment! If people would disallow "anonymous" commenters, that would also get rid of some of the spam.

    I hope people get the message. It's about respecting the TIME of their readers. And the stupid word verification takes so much time, and I have excellent vision but still can't get it right. Think about our friends who have vision problems, how frustrating it must be for THEM!!

    Thank you for spreading the word.

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