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Wednesday, February 18, 2009

A Post Like PBS Fundraiser


I typically don't share with you viral emails, but I got this one from a coworker and watched it because I knew I'd be quizzed on it at some point during the day. So I watched.



After viewing this, all I could think was (1) I need an aspirin with a mojito chaser and, (2) Quite selfishly, I might add, and I still can't get decent broadband internet out at the corner of noplace and nowhere?

Which brings me to my next harangue. People, I am begging you, please consider removing Word Verification from your blogs. Maybe you don't realize that you have it on? Maybe you aren't stuck with the dismal, but expensive and limited internet we have in our lovely, pastoral setting. But please, for the love of all things bloggable, kill your word verification. It's not just that it slows your commenters down, it does, but sometimes we can't leave comments because the gibberish word jumble won't load. Last night I invented new curses and oaths as a result of a battle with word verification. Even The Spawn noted that I was crossing the line from a string of fucks, shits, hells and damns into the worst kind of off-color language they'd heard yet. I was cursing in French with a combination midwestern/southern accent that made light bulbs burst and paint peel from the walls.

I know some of you have to do comment modification because of stalkers, trolls, and commenters who throw fits about your other commenters (me), but I'm talking to all the rest of you who have word verification, knowingly or unknowingly, those who use it to cut down on the occasional spammer. Consider dumping it, please and thank you. Really, thank you.

(If you use Blogger, you can find the word verification under Settings, Comments, Word Verification.)

Begging over.

46 comments:

  1. Word verification is super super irritating. Half the time I fuck it up because it's hard to figure out what the slanty letter actually is. And then I get frustrated and don't comment.

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  2. Hmmmm, well since you visited my blog last night.... ok, I'll turn it off and see how it goes. I did kill anonymous postings. Maybe that'll be enough.

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  3. Just for you Lisa... just for you...lol

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  4. Since you asked nicely...I removed it. If I get a stalkerand maybe even attacked in the middle of the night...I will call you the next day!!! (Unless things go well.)

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  5. Amen to that! I cut mine out a long time ago. I don't typically find that I have any problems without it, so why make people go through the nonsense??

    Blogger's word verification usually works ok for me on other people's blogs and still it's a nuisance. But some of the other blog programs have the most annoying or non-functioning CV that won't allow me to leave a comment. I always try to find a way to let the person know but usually they think it's my problem. Maybe it is...but I can't help but wonder if they DID NOT have CV, if I'd actually be able to leave a comment.

    I'm glad you wrote about this and I may just link to this post when I get around to it or I've had it up to my neck with the inconvenience of CV.

    If there is one piece of advise I'd give to any new blogger it is to ditch the word verification. I had actually done this on my own and then later saw a post here that linked to Blue Gal's site where she said the same thing, which makes total sense.

    Anonymous posts or unwanted posts can easily be removed forever, if needed.

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  6. Yes, it is a pain. Especially after you've crafted that fine bit of temporal repartee and blogger eats it, never to be seen again, while advancing age imparts CRS.

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  7. I'm pretty sure mine is off, if not I will check. I hate word verification. Drives me to crave chocolate crack or something.

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  8. I just cut off that setting on my blog. I had no idea it was a problem for anyone. Thanks for alerting me to that.

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  9. I had no idea it could cause such headaches. I'll try shutting it off for a while and see what happens. Stop by and comment and see if it's easier.

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  10. I turned my on and after your suggestion to me in private I turned it off again. I had gotten a spam comment, not even related to the post. When I went back and looked at my old posts there was only one with a spam comment so I deleted it.

    If it helps others I am all for removing it from the blog. Those of us who check our blog daily really should be able to catch this quickly. If you see spam in my comments just shoot me an email and I promise to do the same for you!

    Pay it forward...PS the vid freaked the crap out of me. I already feel outdated. In computer terms I am the equivalent of a dinosaur I guess, I still remember the floppy discs that used to be like huge with the doughnut hole in it. I think it held the equivalent of one email in todays terms. Oy...I am so old.

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  11. nifty vid... I think I am going to have to post it as well.

    And... I think my word verification is off, will go check :P

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  12. Oh my, I just looked at the viral video after avoiding it the first trip in ghere today. I now have (1)a screaming brain breaking headache,(2)no further need for anything I read or saw, and (3) am wondering too, what it all means? Was this all just a rhetorical exercise?

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  13. Already had mine off. I figure you either have to have enemies or a lot of traffic for the spammers to be problematic.

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  14. That video makes me:
    1. Not feel so bad about losing my car keys
    2. Want to start a campfire and cook on it.

    Word verif. should be off - tell me if it's not.

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  15. OK, Lisa, for you, I'll take it off.

    However, if I wind up whacking a spammer or a troll, I expect you to help me dig the grave out in the woods.

    Deal?

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  16. Two things:
    1. LMAO - I thought this was a post about a "PMS Fundraiser"- (dis?)advantage of speed reading.
    2. I totally offed my word verification.

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  17. It's gone ... please come back ... (sniff) ... please ...


    BAC

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  18. Here thru Braja who supports, as I do, the elimination of the verification. If I get 3 spams in a row, I throw it back up, wait 2 weeks and remove it. Rinse repeat.
    I'm linking you tomorrow.

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  19. I never used it and only comment on bloggers who do have it when I really like them otherwise.

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  20. i'm glad you didn't focus this post on the video, which is very interesting and extremely well produced. but all those 'disembodied' statistics kind of add up to not a whole lot of relevant information and the whole thing seems meant to scare people ... but scare them about what? we're in an information age and we've known that for quite awhile and the average person also knows that the population of india and china is growning exponentially but how many of those 365 babies born every minute (or whatever) are going to be the scientists and creators of the future. if anything, they'll just be people buying cars that are going to increase exponetially the greenhouse gases of the planet.

    hmmmm ... yes, and my word verification is off!

    ;)

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  21. Your example looks like it should be the name of a national park in Alaska.

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  22. Just for you and only because you asked nicely. I didn't realize I had it on because when I look at comments on my blog, that doesn't show up if I am signed into blogger.

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  23. hmmm, sometimes, like Nan said, the stupid letters seem to make up neat words. I think I did a post about this, a long time ago but I can't RBRMNG

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  24. A-Fucking-men sister!!!

    - Sherwood

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  25. Never had it on because I have no spam nor enemies. See, it pays to be nice, assholes.

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  26. I guess what Alvin Toffler called Future Shock is starting to shift into overdrive, but I can answer the question about Google.

    Before Google and its predecessors, people put out a lot of bullshit facts, figures and urban myths. With the Internet, there are more people trying it, but with Google, Wikipedia, Snopes and other similar sites, it is easier to check up and call them on it.

    As for word verification, I originally left it off, but after getting a bunch of spam comments, I put it up.

    I would not have turned it on then, If I could have figured out a way to delete those comments that didn't entail deleting the whole post and then re posting it.

    But lately I have heard more people mention this problem,

    You have convinced me. I will take word verification off, immediately. At least, for now.

    Anybody know a easy way to delete spam comments on Blogger?

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  27. I agree. It's a pain. And the spam problem is not at all as serious as it's cracked up to be. I receive maybe one or two every 3 months or so. And a surprising number of times the dang letters don't show up and you have to do it all over again anyhow. A royal pain! thanks for bringing it up.

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  28. As Lisa knows, 16 1/2 hours after turning it off, I got a spammer.

    Wee Mousie: Once you're logged in, there's a trash can icon on the bottom of each comment. Click on it and Blogger will guide you through the rest.

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  29. Hey came over from Suzy's to give you the A to the MEN on word verification. I hate that thing.

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  30. An amazing video, but they state a misnomer regarding Shakespeare and the number of words in the English language.

    The video states that there are more words today than there were in Shakespeare's time, which may be true - but I read that on average Americans only use (not counting proper nouns) about 450 words on any given day.

    It's kind of the like the Newspeak Dictionary in the book 1984, we speak in ever increasingly bland and simple terms.

    The modern usage of the English language can't begin to compare to the richness and complexity of the language used in one of Shakespeare's plays.

    Oh, and if you use Word Verification on your blog, the terrorists win!

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  31. I'm on wordpress and I'm not sure if I have word verification or not. but i do have a spam catcher - it get 1- to 30 spammers per day

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  32. Can we have a video of you cussing and raving with terrified family in the background? Kids falling off things is ok but I want more.....maybe you could get Chanty over.....

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  33. AMEN, AMEN, AMEN, I hate the word verification with every fiber of my being.

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  34. I went to turn mine off on Typepad, and it was already, supposedly, off. This surprised me because I had to verify my own comments - three times on just one comment - on my own blog yesterday. Typepad's setting is that, even though verification is off, it still may require random comments to be verified. I'll have to look and see if there's any way to turn it REALLY off.

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  35. That video may have been the most useless information I've ever seen in one place!

    And I absolutely despise the Word Varification words which are totally unreadable!!!!!!!!!

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  36. No more word verifs on my blogs, baby -- just for you!

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  37. No amen from me, but I do agree wholeheartedly.

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  38. I may take it off, especially since it appears that the word is failing to appear periodically (in that case, I hit Preview and then it appears), but I don't like spam, and I don't have the patience for trolls or idiots. And moderation is OK for old comments, but I figure sane people might actually be interested in seeing their comment that day.

    We never learned to curse in foreign languages other than various words for "shit."

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  39. Thanks Ded I'll look for those trash cans.

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  40. word verification is only a little bit cool if the word is funny, or obscene, or if it is actually a word that matches the topic of the post! And even then, it's just a little bit cool.

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And then you say....

(Comments submitted four or more days after a post is published won't appear immediately. They go into comment moderation to cut down on spam.)