[click on pictures to enlarge - taken via iPhone]
This picture has really no interest whatsoever. I just thought the sign would somehow illustrate my little ramble.
When you click to comment today, you will notice something new. Yes, I am having you enter those annoying cabbalistic signs in order to post your comment. You guessed it: I just got my first spam comment. The fact that it is charmingly written in Portuguese will not change my mind - I simply don't want my humble little blog to become a free advertising channel for broadband internet, Viagra, anti-wrinkle cream and the likes.
Blogger offers several options for comment posting. So let's debate them.
• approval of the owner or not.
I opted for a free forum. Why? No need to be a control freak here. I think that comments that post right away encourages people to post them, to come back and read others' comments. While the approval process does not.
• Pop up window or not.
At first I went for the no pop-up option. But after commenting myself on a few blogs, I realized that the pop-ip is much more comfortable: it allows you to comment on a picture while you can still see it in the next window.
• Cabbalistic code or not.
Well, that's the object of this post: I just changed my mind thanks to the great folks at Cresnet. And I hate it.
So what about you? Which options did you opt for and why? How do you police your blog? Any comment or abuse story to share? Do you get spam on your blog?
13 comments:
At the moment I have to consider myself quite lucky 'cuse I didn't get any spam yet. Replying to your poll:
1. I prefer the direct post without any approval procedure (if I cannot approve people has right to read what people else write)
2. Pop-up definitely. I can read the caption while I'm writing the comment (like now)
3. I really hate them anyway i undertand who has to face spam
My blog is about six months old and, so far, I've got three spams, all of them from a bloody idiot down in Nicaragua who uses a few keywords to find blogs on Google then he visits the blogs and spams them. In short, I have not yet had to deal with a spambot.
I decided that as long as the spam I get stays manageable, say, one or two a day, I don't mind the second or two it takes to delete them.
You see, I wouldn't mind the letter code so much if the stupid thing wouldn't make you retype because you took too long to type your comment (heck, sometimes I have a comment window open for a long time because I'm multitasking or whatever) and when that happens I always have to retype the bloody code which really pisses me off royally. In some blogs it's even worse: you mistype the code and your comment gets wiped out! So on to those blogs I have to remember to copy the text before submitting it, just in case, which is an even greater royal pain in the ass.
I'll probably have to retype the code now... :(
UPDATE: Yep. I'll have to retype it... :((((
• fabrizio: thanks - we share the same views.
• fénix: good points. I may change my mind... I hate the code thingy too. Absolutely hate it. I have had the case several times where I had to retype the code. I never realized it might have been a timing issue. Good to know.
Hmm..made me ponder. Ok, I hate to fill in this squiggly wiggly letters myself because sometimes you can't tell if it's a capital 'o' or not! (same for 'c', 'k' and 's'!)
But I guess that really helps in preventing spam because some evil people just want to make a quick buck by advertising in everyone's blog. I'm sure they have a software to that, en masse.
Good reminder Eliane, I'm going to check on my comments settings! I've never wondered how my visitors were getting pissed all this while!
One other thing... That idiot I was telling you about, spammed at least one other Daily Photo Blog, can't remember which one now, and that blog had the letter code, yep, because it wasn't a bot, it was a human, a miserable spamming idiot who can recognize and type the code in. See?
As I said, as long as it doesn't get out of hand...
PS: yes, your beautiful photo, it really is a beauty, shows a great angle of Boston's Old State House.
•photolicious: the approval process and the code are two painful feature.
•fénix: you are right, I know you are. It might have been in Portuguese but it was clearly tailored to my blog. I think I will get rid of the code. Let's wait till this post get out of the page (by next week it will be gone).
I don't use Word Verification on my blog but have been getting a couple of SPAMS lately. But since I signed up for e-mail notification when someone posts a comment, I can go in and delete the spam easily. Currently, I get like one per week so it's still fairly easy to do the monitoring but if it gets out of hand, I may have to switch the Word Verification thing on.
Yeah, the word verification is a pain, but I can usually type it correctly the first time. The popup window is ok because as Farbrizo said you can see the picture you are commenting about, because it makes it difficult to visit the sites of people who comment in the little popup window.
I have not gotten spam on here, but plenty on MySpace.
•ming: good points. I need to setup that email notification - would make this more manageable indeed.
•clueless: I think I might remove it soon - I just hate it. I need to see how that email notification works first.
•jd: funny enough, I never got spam there (I mean on my blog and comment page - but by emails, yes).
I have the word-verification on but might reconsider - on other blogs it annoys me too when I can't tell the difference between v and u or g and q and copy my comment before posting just in case I lose it -- most annoying though is sometimes when I've forgotten which of my blogger IDs I'm posting with and sometimes it comes up asking me type my ID in and then says -- you are logged in as [other one] - whether I decided to stay or change it always loses the typed in comment!
I get the odd spam from time to time and for me the essential is having email-notification as then I can quickly delete it.
My preference is for comments NOT in a pop-up box
I live in fear of something somehow killing off my computer, so I've got the work verification thing going, hoping that I'm doing the right thing. I do hope that no one gets annoyed with me. I myself don't mind typing the stray letters although some of them are much easier to read, therefore easier to type, than others. Sometimes I look at them and try to think of a phrase that matches the letters, like for this one, gvtfia, Give Veronica the fish in apricots. Call me crazy, but I love words!
•hyde: I just removed the word-verification and opted for the email notification. We'll see how that works. I can see how this can be a pain when you have to switch logins.
Really? Pop-up is so much more comfortable: you can see the picture you are commenting on. I sometimes click to comment, then think of something to write only to realize I've just forgotten what the picture was about.
•lynette: I did not think of the virus possibility - good point. You are silly (the good kind of silly) and that's why I like you! :) And don't forget to give Veronica the fish in apricots! :)
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