He raises a valid point: bloggers of all stripes must walk the fine line between the following two seemingly opposing concepts:
- Efficiently protecting against the human and technological nasties that threaten our sites daily.
- Keeping things easy-to-use for visitors.
I added it to the site as soon as I started to receive my own unwelcome visitors. But Utenzi's words have struck home. It amounts to punishing visitors because of the idiocy of others.
So if you're OK with it, I'm going to run without word verification for a bit. I'll see how much comment spam comes in. Some of it might be amusing, after all. I'll delete it, of course, but I hope its temporary presence in my comments section doesn't bug you too much. On the flip side, it'll be easier for you to leave comments. So feel free to go nuts!
Your turn: Comment spam - good or bad? What would you do to a comment spammer if you could meet one in person?
Posts
18 comments:
Carmi here. Damn, that's impressive: not 15 minutes after I pull word verification off the site, I get two pieces of comment spam. Impressive!
I'll leave 'em up for now, just for the fun of it.
Is that the best you can do, spammers? Come on, be creative!
Yikes. It looks like you'll need to put it back in, Carmi. Wow. I've not had word verification at all and it's rare for me to get spam. I wonder why--but maybe my case is unusual.
Michele sent me--but to do no harm. Sorry, Carmi. I might have to ammend that post of mine!
Well, it will keep bots out but sadly, morons can still type and leave crappy messages.
I, however, am here to say hello. I love coming here and Michele sent me.
I usually get 1 or 2 spam comments right when I post and then nothing. So I just check back about five minutes after a post and then delete the spam. they are so easy to spot it's not a big problem.
LOL...it's kinda weird that as soon as you remove the word verification, there they are...spammers united!
Yes, the word verification is a bit of a pain...but having dealt with spam so bad that I actually changed blog platforms (I was getting several HUNDRED spam messages in a 15 minute time span!), I'm more than willing to type those lil' letters.
Michele sent me! Altho I love it here anyway. :)
If I met a spammer in person I would not hold a normal conversation. Instead of responding to what he/she says, i would always respond with a pitch for something I am selling.
Michele sent me. That's hilarious that the spam appeared instantaneously! I kind of like word verification, particularly when curse words come up.
Wow! They were quick! I just find it frustrating that you constatntly have to protect yourself these days. you have to protect from internet spammers, people who steal your photos and info and claim it as their own, and just random idiots who delight in trying to spoil everyone elses fun. It's invasive and rude.
I don't mind seeing spam in other people's comments, but I would hate dealing with it in my blog.
If I could meet a spammer in person, I'd give them such a bawling out!!
Carmi, the site for those babies was sent to me by a friend, in email. He finds all sorts of wonderful stuff on the web, as he sits at the computer all day long!
Personally, I hate comment spam and that's why I changed to haloscan. It's free, or $12 (1x) if you choose to upgrade, and there is no spam.
I'll do the word verification, but it's nice when I don't need to. Sometimes I can't get the letters right because they are so twisted. Usually if I don't get in 3 tries I give up. Oy.
It's ok, put it back in. By now everyone understands comment spam. I doubt it would stop someone from commenting. I'm on Typepad and I guess they have built in software. I've never been hit by spammers (yet). Even though I'm tonight from Michele (who says hi by the way), you know I would come for a visit anyway right?
Hey Carmi! Michele sent me tonight. I think that the spam is very annoying (although pretty funny o nyours tonight). The word verifications usually make me laugh. I try to make them into acronyms. I'm a freak, I know.
Have a good Happy Thanksgiving!
I agree with Utenzi that maybe the word verification should be shorter. Why can't it have fewer letters?
Btw, Michele sent me!
I'm going to suggest Haloscan again. Actually there are several free programs for comment programs and spambots don't seem to touch them.
Have a great day :)
I don't have any problem with using word verification. And I love it on my blog because it stops the spam. And if I met a comment spammer I'd make them eat only spam for the rest of their lives. Even if they were vegetarian. Or maybe especially if they were vegetarian!
How funny that as soon as you took it off, you had spam. I don't really mind word verification, although it is always a nice little surprise when I don't have to type in some random letters at the end of my post.
I think they watch the newly updated pages list, and spam those.
I, too, use Haloscan, but have also recieved spam on it. But not nearly at the rate you get it with blogger comments. Maybe because you can block users by their IP addy, if you need to.
I personally like not having to type those silly letters.
but the spam is more of an annoyance for visitors and authors ;-)
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