I keep running hot and cold with word verification. I turned it on in the fall, when blogs were just beginning to be hammered by the splogs, or spamming blogs. As soon as I posted an article, the spammers arrived. Then things start to quiet down. I turn verification off. And the spammers sneak in, and not just to new posts, but reaching back into comments a year old, they add their new ones.
Shoes. Increased semen production. Cars cheap! Boner enhancers. "you have a great blog. You're really making things happen. Check out my blog at...." People selling acreage on the moon. Jewelry. Books. Oxycontin and Vicoden over the internet! (hmmm!). Teddy bears. Steaks Fed-exed! Sex pictures of M.I.L.F.s in action! Real estate! Nekkid girls! Nekkid boys! Horse sex!
I turn it off and get complacent again. Until the post I just created about something (reasonably) serious is spammed with another Exciting Offer! And I turn it on again. It's a war of attrition. I want people to comment, and they, like me, find word verification irritating. . .especially if you're a marginal typist and it takes at least two (or more!) tries to pass the word verification challenge. . .
---o0o---
5 comments:
I also struggle with this Word Verification love/hate relationship.
I hate that I have to use word verifcation to reply to a comment on my own blog.
I hate that they put the letters so close together that I often mis-type.
I hate that when I do this, they make the letters huge and far apart as if to say "Try again dumbass".
However, I hate comment spammers even more. I look forward to reading my comments and when it's just a bunch of "enhance your penis" comments I feel entirely too rejected.
Plus, I don't even have a penis.
Leave it on. Survival of the fittest I say...
Pete and Miss Sassy are right. . .I'm sticking with it.
I recently had a message where like eight different comments were about increasing my semen production--you need volume pal!
Well, my volume seems fine. . .Or, ot DID. I'd never questioned my production before! If I was Ron Jeremy or John Holmes, it would be pretty danged helpful in performing my craft. But now, here I am, wondering if perhaps my volume IS wanting and if maybe I'm not a little light on my feet if I can't emit a fifteen feet volley?
But almost even worse are the comments advertising something like paving private roads economically? Or the one from an army recruiter? I don't imagine they get a lot of response on this blog... /jack out
Only fifteen feet?
I've been trying to figure out the right moderation balance too. My goal is to keep things as open as possible, so people can see their posts immediately after posting. I've been able to do this by blocking agressive spammers and moderating posts containing certain words, like common pharmaceuticals. That's how I do it on a movable type blog. I haven't tried word verification, but that may be worth investigating as well.
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