Monday 1 July 2013

Captcha that

Although I have resisted comment moderation for some years, the tidal wave of spam my pathetically unloved little bloggette is receiving has become irritating beyond measure.  So you will notice that, nowadays if you are kind enough to leave me a comment, you will received a snotty little message in return which, rather arrogantly, announces that your comment may be visible after blog-owner approval.

However, having watched the video I have placed here, I've changed over to using a captcha code for verification.  Slightly more fiddly and involving more work on behalf of you, the punter, but watch this and you will see why.

I discovered TED talks a while ago and, when we have nothing better to do, the Shah and I are given to perusing Netflix where you can find many short TED films (none longer than around 16 minutes) on hundreds of fascinating topics.  This one is delivered with humour and, if you have a quarter of an hour to spare, I recommend you watch it.  You'll learn something!


Finally, all I can say is that I am delighted to have thwarted the spammers and I hope they leave me alone from now on (unlikely, but I can dream).  At least I can say that the code means that I captcha the arseholes.  Sorry but you didn't think you were going to get away without one appalling pun, did you?!

10 comments:

  1. I've been inundated too - what's going on? Anything that comes through as anonymous gets deleted straight away - hopefully I don't have any genuine commenter who sign themselves "anonymous".

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  2. It's so tedious, isn't it? I can't believe that people get something out of doing this!

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  3. I think I refuse anonymous commenters too, don't think I have captcha though, do I?

    Must remember the TED vids next time I've got a loose 1/4hour.

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  4. Blogger offers captcha as an option although you can just choose to approve the comments yourself. But given what they are trying to achieve with captcha (which you will understand when you have watched the vid) I think everyone should use it.

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  5. I used to do Captcha and so many people complained about it - and I must say on blogger they make it so tricky to even read it, evne humans can't do it. I took off everything and got 82 spam on one post - the one which said Stripes and Sailors and mentioned a dance which sailors do, whcich worries me as it means spammers on hit dirty filthy words the most. Took off "anonymous" comments and now spammers gone - or maybe not...I just wish the captha was easier to read (sp???)

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  6. I do applaud the whole premise of captcha but completely take your point about how irritating it can be. Might have to resort to barring anonymous comments too.

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  7. That video is incredible. Makes me see Captcha in a whole new light. Love the idea of duolingo too.

    With regard to anonymous comments, if people stop them, they also stop other visitors who just use their name. My friend Katia (FunkyWellies blog) can only access my blog via the anonymous/name section so I keep it on for her and others who are not Blogger-based.

    By the way, the spam has improved hugely in the last couple of weeks. I was having to comment moderate loads every day whereas now there are only a few. So maybe Blogger has started to tackle the problem.

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    1. Good point about the anonymous commentators....I think captcha is great now,I understand it but it does get a,bit irritating so i might go back to good old vanilla-flavoured moderation in a while!

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  8. I think this is a brilliant idea and I am going to share it everywhere and take credit for it. All right then, I'll credit you xx

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  9. It makes a change for me to be ahead of the field! But it does make sense - it might just pee other off though?! X

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Oh go on - say something for God's sake...