One thing that annoys the bejeebers out of me are CAPTCHA codes. I understand their need in certain instances (though right off hand I can't think of one) but I absolutely despise the Sneaky CAPTCHA.
You know the ones I'm talking about. You go to a blog, see an interesting post and decide to make a comment. Upon reaching the comment page there's no sign of that obnoxious CAPTCHA code, so you go ahead and spill out that wonderful comment, hit publish or submit and . . . CRYING OUT LOUD, that frigging code pops up out of nowhere.
Why try being discreet about it ? If someone is going to have that irritating thing then have it out in plain sight for all to see, don't lure us in and then club us with it after the fact.
Bloggers often get involved in blog challenges that require visiting numerous blogs and, out of courtesy, leaving a comment. If there are 30 or more blogs to visit can you imagine how time consuming it would be if each had a CAPTCHA code that had to be deciphered and entered ?
In the past I've made suggestions to bloggers about changing their comments setting to Self Moderate and getting rid of the CAPTCHA.
If you're moderating your comments you have the authority to delete anything you deem as spam or inappropriate.
Also I couldn't help but notice that a lot of CAPTCHA blogs receive few to zero comments. So why DO bloggers have them and why, when it is suggested that they remove it, do they insist upon keeping them ? Do they really love CAPTCHAs? Do they actually seek out sites with these codes because they like to see if they can guess what those smears are? Or could it be that they really don't want to be bothered with comments? Is it really all that much work to view one's emails, read the comments that others leave and hit one of 3 options: Publish - Delete - Mark as Spam ?
Last night I visited a Canadian blog and I swear their CAPTCHA's are designed by demons. I stared at one smudge for almost 10 minutes and could not figure out what the letters were. I even called my hubby in to see if he could figure it out and he too stared at it for a couple of minutes and declared, "I have no idea !" So I took a guess and the demon code happily informed me that I had gotten it wrong and to try again . . . so I tried again and got the second one wrong too. By now I had wasted a good 20 or 30 minutes of my time over a friggin' CAPTCHA code. Finally the third attempt met with success, I don't know if I truly guessed it correctly or if the demon had simply taken pity upon me.
Today I visited a few blogs, read their posts, typed up my comment and when that cursed CAPTCHA code popped up. I blew it, clicked on the little X at the top right hand corner of my screen and exited their blog without even attempting to decipher the code.
Naturally that meant my comment would not be published but at that point I really didn't care. A couple had been blogs that I had previously left suggestions regarding the removal of their computer generated security code, I mentioned that by removing the CAPTCHA they could, perhaps, receive more comments.
Obviously they chose not to take my suggestion so I chose not to leave a comment. Was I being mean? Was I being unfair or unreasonable?
Photo above was actually taken from my monitor I could not make out what the second word was so I took a wild guess with "Jzntern" and amazingly guessed correctly ! Also, amazingly there were no other comments left on this blogger's blog except for mine. Could she not want comments?
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Captcha has long been a real bone of contention with me too. I found a craft blog this year on a-z and she had captcha on. I commented on A, with a 'ps your captcha is still on'. I went back to B, commented again, 'captcha is still on'. C, same thing. By D I was apoplectic. I stopped following her. That's what she gets. Not only was it on, she had it also set that 'comments will appear after blog owner approval' so she already had a screening system in place to get rid of spam.
ReplyDeleteCaptcha will not deter spammers or trolls. If you disable the ability to leave anonymous comments, that's the only way spam will be reduced. There is absolutely no reason to have it turned on unless you want to really piss people off. I only follow one blog that still has it on, but b/c she is an outspoken left wing feminist in a very conservative southern state, I understand why it's on b/c she blogs about politics.
BTW, I have a 'Relax this is a captcha free blog' badge on my blog...feel free to steal it if you want to use it too.
I'm with you JoJo. A few days ago I thought about swiping. . . er borrowing . . . your Captcha Free Blog badge, so thank you for offering it. :)
ReplyDeleteI do not like captcha and I find that the older I get the more I dislike them and my old eyes are not alone.
ReplyDeleteWhat I hate even more is captcha in addition to moderated comments. Choose one or the other not both.
KJ, I concur whole heartedly. I've visited several blogs that have both the CAPTCHA and self-moderate comments. I even asked one blogger, via my comment, why the double kill?
DeleteTo say the captchas are frustrating is an understatement. If I don't get it on the second try, I give up, but can't leave a comment to let the blogger know. This has been an issue with bloggers for as long as I've been blogging.
ReplyDeleteComment moderation is the way to go if someone doesn't want to deal with spam but still wants to get comments on their blog post. That's just my opinion :)
Annette, I think you're in the majority with your opinion. And yes this has been an ongoing issue with bloggers in general. I've read several blog posts complaining about being in a blog challenge and being frustrated by the many blogs that had Captchas and either refused to turn them off or perhaps did not know how to disable them.
DeleteThanks for sharing your thoughts! I totally understand where you're coming from, but do you know, for my settings, I can't control that -- I only have options for "who can comment" and "comment moderation". Perhaps it's the version or whatever? For what it's worth, I could write to Google, but there are friends whose blogs I follow which have the captcha thing, and I just do the extra step and leave a comment anyway :)
ReplyDeleteI am so sorry to hear that Blogger Blogspot does not give you the option to shut off "Word Verification". I think that is very irresponsible of them as it should be an option rather than a requirement.
DeleteIn my settings I do have the option of checking either yes or no to have or not have "Word Verification" which is the Captcha code. So sorry that your version doesn't allow for you to choose.
Agree! My blog is small and not attacked by spam very often but Blogger is good in sieving spam, except for comments that direct you to a selling site but this is not a big problem :)
ReplyDeleteIf the captcha takes immediately I'm okay with it. When you have to keep re-entering, they're def. annoying.
ReplyDeleteI hate the alpha Captcha and am SOOO grateful when I get the numeric version... so quick and easy. I'm lucky to have a small blog so I can get away with having my W.F. turned off. I do my best to get through Captcha when I comment, but, yes, it can be annoying :(
ReplyDeleteI can't believe how many blogs have these, it is infuriating, life is definitely too short for all that extra stuff. I agree with M. the numeric ones are easier, I just type in anything if I can't read the first one but if the second one comes up equally weird I just leave like A. said.
ReplyDeleteTotally appreciate you mentioning this :) T.