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If You Use CAPTCHA Screening On Your Blog, Try Publishing A Comment, As A Guest

Not all Blogger blog owners, using CAPTCHA screening to reduce abusive comments on their blogs, know first hand what the typical CAPTCHA puzzle can be like.

We're seeing a few concerned blog owners, in Blogger Help Forum: Something Is Broken, asking why they're seeing fewer comments on their blogs.
I'm hearing from people that they can't post comments on my blog. I tested, and comments are working just fine. What is the problem, here?

Not all blog owners bother to test the CAPTCHA, on their blogs - or even know why they don't see one, when commenting.

Not all blog owners, enabling Word verification in their blog commenting settings, bother to read the tool tip behind the "?".
Show word verification
This will require people leaving comments on your blog to complete a word verification step, which will help reduce comment spam. Learn more.
Blog authors will not see word verification for comments.
The simple advice
Blog authors will not see word verification for comments.
does not sink in, to everybody.

This leaves many blog owners unaware of how frustrating it may be, for their guests to comment, on their blogs.

If you're a blog owner, musing whether to add word verification to your blog, in an effort to cut down on the spamming and trolling going on in many blog comment threads, maybe you should try posting on your blog, as a guest. With "Show word verification" set to "Yes", logout from Blogger - or clear cache, cookies, and sessions (yes, all 3!) - then restart the browser, and try leaving a comment on your blog.

What you discover may not please you. Then ask yourself how many of your readers will have the patience, to solve a CAPTCHA, every time they wish to publish a comment?

As a blog owner, you have 3 settings which are used, in proper combination, to provide a safe environment for your readers to leave comments.
  1. Authentication.
  2. CAPTCHA Screening.
  3. Moderation.
Consider using one or both of the other two options, if possible.

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Comments

Ana said…
I hear you saying: if the moderation is on you can delete the comments.

Hello! We have other things to do in life. Spend fifteen minutes deleting garbage...

I'll never understand why things change for the worse.

It was not like that. When I started blogging it was a "normal" word verification.

All of a sudden it was changed for this format.

And now you're saying that we should not activate it.

I'll take it as a joke.
Perpetua said…
Hear, hear. I hate it and won't use it. I'd moderate first, but so far am managing without.
Nitecruzr said…
Ana,

Your blog, your choice. My blog, my choice.

If you think your blog guests are willing to put up with the frustration, then by all means, use CAPTCHA screening.

You're still going to need to moderate - either before or after comments are published. If you don't moderate, don't complain about the spam filtering problems - either false negantives, or false positives.

http://blogging.nitecruzr.net/2008/10/comment-moderation-in-blogger-blogs.html

http://blogging.nitecruzr.net/2011/08/blog-owners-discovering-dangers-of.html
Jans Funny Farm said…
When Blogger changed everyone over to the new "dashboard" last year, they evidently turned word verification on by default, even on blogs that previously had it turned off. I have spent the last months writing posts on this subject and occasionally trying to get past it to tell other bloggers they have it on. Thanks for posting this info.

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