Skip to main content

Commenting Requires Login, To Suppress Spam

Some blog owners don't understand the need to identify themselves, when commenting on our blogs.

We see an occasional question, in Blogger Help Forum: Get Help with an Issue, about comment authentication.
Why, if I've selected "Anyone - including Anonymous Users" under comment settings, for "Who can Comment?", do my visitors complain of having to login?
This blog owner, like many others, does not understand the Blogger spam mitigation policy, in Blogger Comments.

Blogger lets us select who we wish to allow to comment, on our blogs.

When we do not moderate, they require authentication, to cut down on the spam. Moderated comments, with CAPTCHA ("Show word verification") not required by the owner, appear to go straight to moderation.

Comment authentication makes genuine comments more normal.

By requiring authentication, Blogger makes it more likely that a comment, awaiting moderation, will be genuine - instead of more spam. This encourages us to moderate comments more frequently - and helps us publish moderated comments, more promptly.

And more frequent moderation discourages spam - and makes it more likely that we will see actual comments, later.

Blog owners choose how to allow comments.

As a blog owner, it's your choice how / whether to allow comments.





  • Anyone - includes Anonymous Users.
  • Everybody with a Google, or an OpenID, account.
  • Everybody with a Google account.
  • Blog members only.
  • Comments disabled.

Blog readers choose how to publish comments.

Depending upon the choices that you provide, your readers choose how they may authenticate.

  • "Anyone" allows a reader to comment anonymously - or identified.
  • If they wish to comment anonymously, they login, using a CAPTCHA.
  • If they wish to comment using a profile, they login, using an account.
  • Login is generally only required, with the first comment.

"Anyone" allows a reader to comment anonymously - or identified.

"Anyone" allows anyone to comment anonymously (if they wish). To cut down on spam, anyone commenting has to login.

If they wish to comment anonymously, they login, using a CAPTCHA.

Solving a CAPTCHA lets them remain anonymous - but still identify themselves as a person, not a bot. Any comments, awaiting moderation, or published, are more likely to be genuine - not spam.

If they wish to comment using a profile, they login, using an account.

They can login, as permitted, using a Google or OpenID account. Anyone able to login with a Google or OpenID account can still publish a comment anonymously, if they wish.

Login is generally only required, with the first comment.

If someone has to login repeatedly, to comment, they have a problem with identification, and filters. With cookies and scripts properly permitted, login (with the first comment) will be remembered (with any later comments).

The Blogger / Google login status, and the ability to post comments, is sensitive to both cookie and script filters. Your readers may need to enable (stop filtering) "third party cookies", in their browser and on their computer - if they wish to comment, most easily.



Both a #Blogger blog owner - and blog readers - get choices how to authenticate when commenting. Depending upon the choices made by the owner, the readers get more, or less, choices.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Embedded Comments And Main Page View

The option to display comments, embedded below the post, was made a blog option relatively recently. This was a long requested feature - and many bloggers added it to their blogs, as soon as the option was presented to us. Some blog owners like this feature so much, that they request it to be visible when the blog is opened, in main page view. I would like all comments, and the comment form, to be shown underneath the relevant post, automatically, for everyone to read without clicking on the number of comments link. And this is not how embedded comments work.

What's The URL Of My Blog?

We see the plea for help, periodically I need the URL of my blog, so I can give it to my friends. Help! Who's buried in Grant's Tomb, after all? No Chuck, be polite. OK, OK. The title of this blog is "The Real Blogger Status", and the title of this post is "What's The URL Of My Blog?".

With Following, Anonymous Followers Can't Be Blocked

As people become used to Blogger Following as just another tool to connect people, they start to think about the implications . And we see questions like How do I block someone who's been following my blog secretly? I couldn't see her in my Followers list (hence I couldn't use the "Block this user" link), but I have looked at her profile and could see that she's Following my blog. Following, when you look at the bottom line, is no more than a feed subscription and an icon (possibly) displayed on your blog, and linking back to the profile of the Follower in question. If someone Follows your blog anonymously, all that they get is a subscription to the blog feed. If you publish a feed from your blog, and if the feed is open to anybody (which, right now, is the case ), then it's open to everybody. If someone wants to use Following to subscribe to the feed, you can't stop this. You can't block it before, or after, the fact. You can't Block w