Wednesday, October 29, 2014

Comments and CAPTCHA

We all love to receive comments, but unfortunately, spammers know that, and they often flood our blogs with spam that is thinly disguised as a comment, but is actually designed to advertise their websites. One way to avoid spam is by implementing word verification. A person who comments must solve a CAPTCHA before the comment will publish.


Most of us don't do that because it is a nuisance to our readers. In Blogger, the spam filters are very good at detecting spam comments, and Blogger puts these comments into the Spam folder before they ever reach your posts.

However, there has been a change at Blogger HQ. In order to thwart the spammers more severely, a new rule has been enforced. The new rule only impacts readers who wish to leave a comment anonymously. Here is what happens.

A person with a Google account who leaves a comment while logged on to that account will see this.

The reader enters a comment which is published with no further fuss.



If, on the other hand, the potential commenter chooses to comment anonymously:

that reader will then be presented with a CAPTCHA to solve.
But it doesn't happen every time. If you have a Google account and are logged on to that account, then choose to post an anonymous comment, you won't see the CAPTCHA. If you don't have a Google account, or have one but are not logged on to it, you will see the CAPTCHA.

Got it? The confusing part is that this happens regardless of whether or not the blog owner has word verification turned on. So if anyone tries to leave an anonymous comment on this blog and runs up against two illegible words, it isn't my doing. Blame Blogger and Google!

From Hermione's Heart

16 comments:

ronnie said...

Confusing indeed.

I was going to ask you if you know why CAPTCHA kept appearing so thanks for this Hermione.

Love,
Ronnie
xx

stay at home mom said...

Hi Hermione, thank you for making that clear. The spam-comments have become pretty annoying lately, but I never really knew what to do about it. At least now I have a clue why this happens. Thanks!

hugs

Nina

Enzo said...

Thanks Hermione! I have been meaning to ask if anyone knew how to prevent the showers of spam.

So in theory, this new CAPTCHA rule should no keep more spam away.

abby said...

Thanks...good to know.
hugs abby

Ami Starsong said...

Golly I think I must get confused more quickly than the average person.

I often try to copy the captcha and get it wrong and have to keep trying. Very trying indeed!

But thanks, Hermione for taking the time to explain all this to us. It does help!

Hugs
Ami

Roz said...

Hi Hermoine, thank you for letting us know. The spam comments have been getting more frequent lately.

Hugs
Roz

Baxter said...

I get the captcha thing. I understand why. but some of them are just very very difficult to decipher the numbers and letters smushed together. Oh well. whatever it takes.

Baxter

Autumn said...

I stopped letting anonymous people comment on my blogs. Although Blogger is good at catching them, my email is not. I would get dozens of emails a day from anonymous spammers. My problem has been solved so far!

Cat said...

Thanks for researching that Hermione...wondered what was going on. Had someone contact me regarding captcha on my blog and I know I don't have verification turned on! Most of the captcha I've run into as been numbers rather than letters...much easier. ;)

Hugs and Blessings...
Cat

smuccatelli said...

For awhile there they used a series of numbers that were a LOT easier to figure out than those damned smushed-together letters. What was wrong with that?

Anonymous said...

I do not use my Google account when commenting, just my wordpress and I have to complete the captcha- which is a bit of a pain at times.

However I can understand why it is necessary. When I was looking fro freelance work to do on the internet through one of the big freelance websites, there were hundreds of jobs available making comments on blogs.....

Hermione said...

Ronnie - Confusing AND annoying!

Nina - Glad I could be of service.

Enzo - That's the hope - it will stop the anonymous spammers.

Abby - You're welcome.

Ami - I often get them wrong too. One blog I visited made me do an arithmetic question.

Roz - They have for me too.

Baxter - The ones for this situation are far harder than the ones that you get when the blog owner turns them on intentionally.

Autumn - That's another solution, but I have a lot of anonymous friends I wouldn't want to turn away.

Cat - That's exactly why the question came up.

Smuccatelli - I hope they change to the easy to read numbers.

Bean - What a job opportunity!

Hugs,
Hermione

Aimless Rambling said...

Thanks Hermione for the explanation.

Jon said...

May I please have my Kool Aid now? I'm going to defenestrate myself one day soon because of technology.

Hermione said...

Leigh - It was my pleasure.

Jon - May the force be with you.

Hugs,
Hermione

Dr. Ken said...

I've always hated the "prove you're not a robot" (or CAPTCHA) when I've run across it. As others have mentioned, half the time I could never make out the numbers or letters that they were asking for, and would have to try again and again (and sometimes, again and again and again). I don't have verification turned on at my blog, but I do moderate all the comments coming in. Blogger does a pretty good job of separating the spam, and usually the spam comments are pretty easy to identify.