Ponder this:

Tuesday, February 21, 2012

Word verification

I think I have turned the blasted thing off.
I hadn't turned it on to begin with. It just turned itself on. Lucky thing.
Frankly, I don't find it all that daunting. Apparently some do find it not only daunting, but absolutely enraging.
Never one to cause unnecessary anger, I have clicked the "no" circle.
I hope that it worked.


I've seen some saying that they just won't comment if they have to do word verification.
To me, that's like somebody saying, "Well, yes, I did phone you. But you didn't answer and I simply will not leave a message on a machine."
I find that a little uppity, not to say offputting.
Far be it from me, however, to cause any nice normal person to become . . . uppity.
So I think I have turned the blasted thing off.

22 comments:

Barb said...

Oh - thank you, thank you! I think maybe it's some kind of test to see if I'm getting dementia (and by the # of tries before I get it right, I might be).

Barb said...

PS If you want to be sure not to publish spam, moderate the comments (which is what I do). They come to my E-mail, and I either publish them or not. I rarely get spam but have a couple times.

June said...

Oh, I'm glad to know that it's off. Thanks for letting me know.
I just checked my comments and there were three absolutely nonsensical ones that had already been pegged by Blogger as spam, so I'm not worried.

esbboston said...

I turned off the word verification but then I was doing to much cleaning out spam in my email inbox as well as verifying the spam that Blogger thought was spam, so it turned cumbersome I and put it back on. But today I noticed something strange, it seemed that one of my friend's verification was worse than everyone else's, I couldn't even begin to decipher some of them, I kept having to ask for a different one with the circular arrow button. THEN I noticed that there seems to be another bug in the WordVeri software. It seems that it creates a weird word picture and was then cropping the edges off some of the letters as well as the usual wavy merged mess that is normally there. Again, I repeat my plea, please have these programmers shot out of a cannon.

threecollie said...

I had to shut mine off even though I get tons of spam because they put those new capcha things on. No one seems to be able to read them and friends who comment regularly were emailing me about it...pretty much what esbboston mentions above. I really hate dealing with the constant spam though.

JeannetteLS said...

Yes, I've read the same thing. And, while I have asked a couple of people whether they would consider it, I would never NOT read a blog. I think it's old eyes with an astigmatism for me. When the letters go over blurry gray blobs, sometimes I just cannot see. I have tried up to SIX times an failed. I am getting better at simply flipping through them until I can see one, but it IS frustrating.

I can spend about twenty minutes at a time at the computer before I have to get up and go lie down. (Don't ask. It's a disability thing.) When I am catching up on blogs, it can rob me of five of those minutes at a sitting. Not much, perhaps, but it feels like a lot.

I am with you, though. And if you get spam, well turn the sucker back on. I will turn mine back on if it gets to be a problem as well.

Olga said...

Thank you. I have not had that much trouble getting the two word verification right, but there is something both visually and conceptually annoying about it.
I have not had trouble with spam...maybe because I don't have such a widely read blog...

Carolynn Anctil said...

I'd like to turn mine off, and I have tried it, but every time I do, I get spammers leaving nonsense comments. Now, That's enraging. So, for now, I will leave things as they are. If someone reads my blog and enjoys it, that makes me happy. I love hearing from my visitors, but it's not compulsory to leave a message. Especially if gets their knickers in a twist.

DJan said...

I always try to leave a comment, WV or not, if I have something to say. Usually I can get through the new WV in a try or two. But thanks for turning it off. I'm happy that we are all moving into a new phase.

Hildred said...

I thank you too. I have just had to get out the magnifier with a light on it that I used for petit point in order to comment on my last visit...

Blipfillypicklepoo said...

Oh wow. I was only commenting so that I could get the squiggly word verification thing. Bummer.

knutty knitter said...

I wonder if we can bother those who set the silly thing up enough that they will change it. My eyesight just doesn't cope at all but I do see the need for some people to have it.

viv in nz

VioletSky said...

I used to sometimes find it amusing to see what nonsensical words the old verifications came up with - some could be quite humorous - but this new style is just plain annoying. i would simply not bother to comment if I hadn't anything original or important to say and not make a big deal out of it. Any spamI get seem to be caught by Blogger so I've not had a huge problem with that.

Hilary said...

I like your analogy but mine is more along the lines of "I tried leaving you a message but your machine kept hanging up on me before I could get it said." ;)

#1Nana said...

After you went to all that trouble to get rid of the word verification, I feel obligated to leave a comment. Too bad I don't have anything interesting to say...maybe next time.

Wanda..... said...

The WV was just starting to annoy me...most were doable at the beginning of the change, but I ran across some yesterday that took me 5 tries to decipher the letters. They were over the top in difficulty! But I did manage to comment!

rachel said...

WV does get people all steamed up, doesn't it! I just wish the new version was easier to read, that's all - and as I'm getting spammed, I'm thinking of turning mine on now.

broken biro said...

Has this just happened? I've seen a few posts about it, but do check out Maria Zanini's post on the subject - it turns out that the whole 'captcha' thing isn't just security - it's part of a project to digitise books by real people deciphering words which computers can't 'read'. 750,000,000 of us are helping to make 2.5 million books available digitally every year! Awesome is an over-used word, but in this case applies! I feel better about word verification now!

georgia little pea said...

The squiggly ones in black and white are a nightmare. Sometimes I have to have 2 or 3 gos before I get it right. I dont understand why they have to make is so difficult! I hope I turned mine off.

Linda Myers said...

Thanks. I turned mine off, too.

Lord Wellbourne said...

I never mind word verification. It keeps my ancient manuscript reading skills intact. And sometimes I find interesting sequences that I work out definitions for. I really need to get out more......

Rose ~ from Oz said...

I'm so glad I stumbled across your blog June, (and I did, stumble I mean) because I am such a glutz with computers....and quite new to blogging. The little I have read I enjoyed very much - I like your style! and hope I may visit again and perhaps join?
Best wishes,
Rose