Do you know what CAPTCHA is (besides evil)? It stands for "Completely Automated Public Turing Test To Tell Computers and Humans Apart." Humans can read it but computers can't, so it's supposed to filter unwanted spam from bots. We hate CAPTCHA!
Why do we hate CAPTCHA so much? I mean, who would want their blog comments filled with spam?
Here's the problem with CAPTCHA:
Can you read all that?? I can't! It is SO frustrating to see an amazing blog post, and then be asked to "Prove you're not a robot." A lot of times, I have to refresh the CAPTCHA image several times before I find one I have any hope of being able to read. Then when I finally find one I think I can read, take a stab at it, and it's wrong, I get frustrated and give up on commenting on that blog. Some of you Bento Bloggers out there are missing out on some comments!
"But I don't want spammy comments from bots!"
You can do a couple of things to reduce spam on your blog. You can change the permissions for who can comment to either "Registered User" or "User With Google Accounts," or you can set your blog comment settings "Comment Moderation" to "Always" or "Sometimes," depending on your preference. If you use blogger, go to Settings > Posts and Comments > Comment Moderation.
Helpful hint: the switch to turn the word verification (CAPTCHA) off is directly below that!
I personally have mine set to "anyone can comment" and "moderate posts sometimes." I don't want a real person to be unable to comment because they use WordPress or other blogging platform! With the settings at "sometimes," blogger catches most of the spammy comments, and I delete the ones it doesn't catch.
If you've never turned your CAPTCHA off, it's probably still on. Go turn it off! It's evil and costing you warm & fuzzy blog love comments!
If you've already turned it off because you hate it as much as I do and you would like to spread the CAPTCHA is evil awareness, feel free to add this button to your blog!
Awesome job! I hope that people have learned some useful information here. Turn CAPTCHA off!!! The default for blogger is for it to be on. Please turn it off.
ReplyDeleteThank you!
DeleteGreat post, I'll hv to add the button on my blog. :)
ReplyDeleteThank you!
DeleteI didn't know about moderating sometimes (like for older posts). Turned that on! I've been getting spammy comments on some old recipes for no known reason... thanks for the post!
ReplyDeleteYea! No more Captcha!!! I always moderate my comments.
ReplyDeleteDown with Captcha! We're not robots! We can't decipher code!
ReplyDeleteI have moderation turned on for anything over a week, works great for me.
And for people on their cell phones, it's impossible! I finally decipher the code, and then my phone autocorrects it just as I hit Enter! AAAAAUGH! Half the time when my keyboard pops up on the screen, I can't even SEE the CAPTCHA. So no comments if I'm browsing on my phone. No one is worth all that hassle. No one.
ReplyDeleteGreat post!!
ReplyDeleteDown with CAPTCHA!! We want pretty food not wonky words that make no sense!
Great Post! I'm going to try and add the button to my blog. I'm still pretty new at blogging so here's hoping it works lol
ReplyDeleteI totally agree. I really can't read the blurry letters.
ReplyDeleteVery good post!
ReplyDeleteDown with CAPTCHA! It is the worst! Blogging and commenting isn't meant to be stressful but those wriggly letters sure make it so sometimes!
ReplyDeleteHave any of you guys tried a CAPTCHA bypass browser extension program? I'm using one called RUMOLA at the moment to enter the terrible things for me and it works a treat! I can give my poor brain a rest and comment on everyone, even those poor souls who haven't figure out how to turn CAPTCHA off yet!
xxxxx
Ps. The link to try the software is www.skipinput.com if anyone else would like to give it a go!
"User With Google Accounts," Keep in mind that not everyone has and wants one of those. If the captchas were readable, I wouldn't have a problem with them. Why they chose to make those things so complicated I will never know.
ReplyDelete