Thursday 4 September 2008

Plee to turn off word verification


There is an anti word verification campaign on the go at the moment & have to say that I'm right behind it especially as I love to blog hop. Also, as I take part in challenges & love to visit other bloggers that have taken part. Sometimes there will be up to 60 blogs a day, now that is an aweful lot when the word verification slows me down!
Word Verification is such a hindrance, but perhaps some people don't realise it is turned on! This said, it's very simple to turn it off & if your on comment moderation, it's not needed anyways, because you can then pick up possible spammers or robots at source....
Here are some comments backing the campaign:
First of all Julie campaigned in April, this is what she had to say on the subject:
Is this necessary?Why do you enable word verifiction?I can't read these. I can't. Call me challenged, stupid, an ass, whatever you want...but I'll be honest. I can't read them. I'm done straining my eyes.Are you afraid of spam? Spam comments? Help your readers. I'm sure everyone would rather you enable moderated comments before word verification. A little spam never hurt anyone, anyway..you can delete it just as easily as the robot sends it to you.
Chris has been continually campaigning and here is what she has to say:
ARGUMENTS AGAINST WORD VERIFICATION
Everyone will have their own view, but in my case, I regard the removal of word verification as a basic courtesy to my visitors who are kind enough to take the time to leave comments. Being aware of their comments through comment moderation, but not hindering them with word verification is the very least I can do to reciprocate their courtesy to me.The problem with word verification is that it takes too long. The characters are very often hard to decipher, and it’s frustrating when you get them wrong and have to re-enter the little suckers!So this campaign is on behalf of busy bloggers. Please spare a thought for the poor bloggers who work so hard at getting round as many blogs as possible to leave sprinkles of blessing and good vibes wherever they go. The terrible proliferation of this awful plague of word verification is a blight on their efforts to make the Land of Blog a cheerier place.I think most people don't realise that they have word verification on their blogs by default, or how easy it is to switch it off, and perhaps not realising how annoying it is for other bloggers. Either that, or they’re under the misapprehension that they will be bombarded with spam messages. This is not the case. I’ve had mine switched off now for three of the four months that I’ve been blogging, and have had two spam comments. The responses I’ve had from other bloggers to my earlier posts on this topic back this up. (You can see the comments in response to my previous post on this subject, HERE.)For safety’s sake, have comment moderation on for sure, but please consider canceling word verification on your blog. Maybe for a trial period, and see how you get on.Unless there are thousands of comments being left, comment moderation shouldn’t be too much of an issue for the blog owner, and other bloggers will also be more inclined to leave comments if they can see that you don’t use word verification.However, each to their own, and if you disagree with me, that’s cool. It's your blog after all said & done...........but if we don't ask we don't get LOL
OK.. rant over. If you have read all the way to the end, thank you for putting up with it, and ~ obviously ~ do what you wish on your blogs, but I had to say something. I love to get around and leave comments, but word verification spoils the experience.Of course, when I get my new job, all this will be academic to me, as I will then have a life, and I won't have time for much blog-hopping!! Not that blog-hoppers need to get a life.. Errr... think I'll stop digging now, before I get into REAL trouble!! lol ;o)

Very eloquently put Chris....I think you may have got away with it LOL


18 comments:

Christine (All She Crafts) said...

Thank you, Jane!! This is perfick!! That's EIGHT entries in the draw for you, my gal! Best wishes with that..

Chris xx

Dawn said...

Great to see it on your blog too Jane -

Bev said...

I so agree 110% - word verification does my head in. I'm going to snag the pic and put it on my blog if that's okay.

hugs Bev x

Christine (All She Crafts) said...

Oh, yes... so I did!! lol ;o) But I'm not as daft as m'cabbage is lookin, tha'knows... because you didn't leave a comment on my blog candy post! Please would you mind dropping a quick note on there, just to keep things tidy... in case you win, and somebody has a whinge that you weren't on the list... (sigh)

Thanks, hunny! (Sorry to be a pain!)

Chris xx

Kath Stewart said...

Thanks for highlighting the need to get rid of the dreaded VW...such a pain.
Hugs
kath
xxxxx

Ginny said...

ok i joined the campaign and turned it off on my blogs :0) and even put a link about it in my sidebar

now if we could only start a campaign to get everyone to turn the music off on their blogs ;0)

http://my5bratzcreations.blogspot.com/

Ginny said...

now we just need to work on getting rid of the music on blogs :0)

Anonymous said...

I would love to get the logo I see on your blogs girls for this compaign. I am so over word verificaion too...and the last comment on the music...just about gave me a heart attack the other day when this music thing roared out all of a sudden (I had turned the volume up to check out the crafters companion dvd which has to be on mega to even hear the young lady!)

I so do not want to be subjected to someone else's taste in music when I am trying to have a really good perve at all the pretty artwork!

Wow....that turned into a waffle and a half!

Lauren said...

I just turned off my word verification. Thanks for the post!

Tiina said...

It stops spam, so I don't have a problem with it. But good that you stick to your opinion.

Margaret T said...

most of the time (80%), can't read 'em too, I have to let my kids read 'em for me...sigh... thanks for the advice, I'd really want to take it... although i set mine on due to a chinese spam that never stopped in one of my blogs... and i get receiving the notification emails--- (torn, another sigh)

Linda Wescott said...

Love the campaign. I'm a newbie and had now idea I had word verification on...everything seemed so baffling at first. I turned it off as soon as someone told me I'd got it.....I want a user friendly blog. hugs.

Nancy said...

Bravo! You said it eloquently and perfectly. Let's hope others will listen. Now that Blogger has a spam guard, I see even less need for it.

Unknown said...

Agree with the campaign, and as a newbie, didn't even know I had it until I spotted this campaign and had a nosey!!! Hope by blog is now more user friendly.

luvthatstampin said...

I can't see how it stops spam since you've already had to put some kind of identification other than your log-in info. All that proves is you can see, and I have trouble with the contortions of the letters sometimes. My feeling--We don't want or need them. Thanks for giving me a chance to spout in the middle of the night!

Unknown said...

Luvthatstampin your very welcome to come and rant on my blog anytime :)
Thank you for visiting

Linda Dale said...

Wow, thanks so much. I did not realize we had a choice and could turn it off. I am net to blogging and will go and try to turn mine off now. Thanks

Chrissie Roberts said...

I agree wholeheartedly! It's such a pain and I nearly always get the darn things wrong.