Oh Captcha, you are a conversation killing, eye straining, twisted device of the devil! Do I feel strongly about this? Yep.
I love to comment on blogs. For me, blogging is all about the connection with the book community. It’s hard to make those connections when the commenting process is hampered by the indecipherable mumbo-jumbo that is Captcha. The eye injuries, the time sucking…no thanks!
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| Phoebe disapproves. Strongly. |
Thankfully, I’m not alone. Allison from The Book Wheel feels the same way. After much discussion in the Twitterverse, we have decided to create the CAPTCHA CHALLENGE! The challenge is three-fold.
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Check your own blog for Captcha.
- We have found that many people have it and don’t even realize it. To see if you have it enabled on your site, log out of your blog account and leave yourself a test comment (you can always delete it later).
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Disable Captcha
- Allison’s favorite alternative to Captcha is the social login (WordPress)- it gets rid of anonymous comments, lets people link their Twitter handles, and gets rid of the dreaded word and number combo.
- Jennifer uses Blogger. While the commenting system isn’t the best she’s found that by disabling anonymous comments the spam disappears. (You can also set up comment moderation if you’d like to take it up a notch.)
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Spread the word!
- Grab our logo for your own post and/or grab the button! You can link up on Allison’s blog HERE!
The Relentless Reader 
I had captcha for years without realising it, only when someone actually pointed it out to me did I get rid of it.
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And if you still prefer to enable Captcha… respect those readers who prefer to avoid it. Give me an indication BEFORE I type out my comment that you use Captcha. If I still really want to comment on your post, I will. But to put thought and effort into a comment, click \”publish,\” and then discover I have more hoops to jump through… it feels like I've been intentionally misled.(Just my two cents.)
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I love you.
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This is the greatest thing to ever happen to the blogosphere. I hate captsha. It makes me not comment on some blogs. Now time to go check to see if i have accidentally put it on my blog….
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I LOVE this. I get so so annoyed when I type out a clever comment only to be captcha'd. I have to squint at the dark things and get frustrated with the second or third wrong entry and my comment goes up in the internet smoke. So very sad. I LOVE YOU GUYS for doing this. DOWN WITH CAPTCHA!
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Hahahaha! I HATE captcha! It's sooo annoying and it makes people not want to comment on people's blogs!
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EVERYONE hates Captcha. Great idea: love it!
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Awesome. Already have it off but do need to block anonymous comments. The spam, the spam!
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It is possible to use custom commenting systems on Blogger but please do it right. And also bear in mind not everyone wants to oauth 100 times a day or unwittingly sign up to be spammed by emails (Disqus, I'm looking at you). I'm not sure any commenting system is perfect, especially if you want to allow as many genuine people to comment as possible.Spammers will usually strike on older posts, so I do recommend adding moderation over x days (I have mine on 45).
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I once found a Captcha that was a picture of a blue window, like one on a house. No letters, no numbers. Just a blue window. What tha???
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Ugh I can't stand captcha. What a pain. But spammers are worse.
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I have unfollowed blogs because of this. But the one I hate the most is when, after typing a comment I have to log on or sign up to something to post it!
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Bahahahaha I LOVE THIS!! I had captcha for like 6 months without realizing it. And I was all over the blogosphere spewing \”Captcha sucks!\” etc etc while I had it…ooooh the embarrassment. lol.
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I've been loving Disqus because 1) no captcha!!! and 2) I like being notified of REPLIES to comments I leave for others who use it. It makes blog commenting feel more community-like, and I've seen a huge increase in discussion thanks to it.But ugh yes, captcha is SO ANNOYING, especially when you're reading from a small screen like a smartphone.
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I'm so glad that here are so many haters 🙂
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This is what I like about Disqus, too. It's actually what I liked about Disqus before I used it on my own blog…I loved being notified when people responded, because I didn't always go back to every single post I had commented on. I recently changed my Disqus settings so guests can comment without needing to login (because I know some people have complained about the system), so I'm curious if I'll be seeing an increase in spam. We'll see!
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I've had mine set where guests can comment w/o logging in for a while now, so far so good on the spam front (knock on wood!).
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Oh this is awesome! Captcha irritates the hell out of me, and you're right – most people don't realize that they have it. It would be awesome to be in a Captcha-free world.
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THIS IS SO GENIUS. I was planning on doing a post on Saturday begging bloggers to turn off word verification before B.o.B., so I'm totally linking to this.
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Great idea! I turned mine off!!I'm a new follower =)Kathyhttp://mynookbooksnmore.blogspot.com/Twitter @NookbksNmore
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I think that's common! It's the default setting on Blogger, eek!
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That's a great point! If there was some sort of disclaimer before I started commenting I'd really appreciate it 😀
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I love you more.
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Ha ha! Thanks for that ringing endorsement my dear! I'm glad to hear that you're going to check it out!
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You are extra welcome! DOWN WITH CAPTCHA! We need t-shirts.
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It makes my blood boil, lol. An overreaction perhaps? BUT I TEND TO DO THAT!!
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Right?? If I found one person who prefers it I will eat my shoe! 😉
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Yep, I block anonymous comments as well. I also have comment moderation if anyone comments on a post that is over 2 weeks old 😀 That has completely taken care of the spam issue for me 😀
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I've thought about trying to add Disqus..hmm, I might look into that. I don't want to spam people with every reply in the world though. Hmmm.I have comment moderation set up for any comments on posts that are 14 days old. After disabling anonymous comments I rarely have spam anymore. In fact, I can't remember the last time. 😀
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LOL!! Now what in the world were you supposed to do with THAT?? Type in the word \”window\”? Good grief!
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Spam does stink! I have to say that I NEVER get spam anymore. No anonymous comments = no spam for me!
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Oh yes, same here. I don't mind if it's a one shot deal and if I know I'll be back to comment on that person's blog again 😉
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See that's the sneaky fuckery that Captcha uses! YOU DON'T EVEN KNOW YOU HAVE IT! Ack!
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I really like the Disqus system on both of your blogs. I don't get EVERY reply on your posts but I do get the replies that you leave on my comments. I really like that. If there's more to say I can come back and do so. I don't have to remember to check back because I've said something AMAZING and that you'll probably reply to me (Ha ha!) On a lot of blogs I'll subscribe by email to replies but then I get EVERY single reply from now until the end of time, lol.
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Which, now that I'm thinking about it, must be what happens when you subscribe by email to replies here. Hmmm, that's annoying. I really might look into adding Disqus here.
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You and me both girl! We're on the right track 😀
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Thanks! Wouldn't that be a wonderful world? We'll make it happen! 😉
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If I normally hate Captcha I EXTRA SUPER HATE IT during a blogging event like that. Ack! Thanks for linking to our challenge! We'll eradicate this nuisance yet 😉
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Hooray Kathy!! I'm so glad you've joined the challenge and have turned off Captcha! You should see the big smile on my face! 😀 Welcome, welcome!
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I only have two blogger sites, and I don't have Captcha! I hate it so much!! I think it gets progressively worse with time. When they put the letters close together and lean some of them on each other…I swear I'm going blind.On my two sites, I have comment moderation. That takes care of the Spam…and there is no Captcha to deal with.
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I don't know about this, but let me check it out…
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Sure enough I had captcha enabled and didn't even know it. I kinda hated it when I saw it and here I had it, yeesh! I'm just glad people commented anyway! Thanks for this, I got rid of it.
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I'm so glad to hear that your blogs are both Captcha-free! Spread the word, we'll get rid of it yet 😉
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I'm pretty sure you're good Melinda 😉 In fact, I'm sure of it. Hooray!
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LOL! It happens! It's the default setting for Blogger (boo!) so a lot of people don't even know that they have it enabled. Thanks for getting rid of it Greg, you've just made the internet a better place 😉
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I also really love using Disqus. I like getting the notifications, but yeesh, sometimes they can fill up an inbox. Still more helpful than harmful though certainly. Amanda at On a Book Bender also has a great one that's just a small box that says something like, \”Click here if you're not a spammer\”. Easy, cute, and cuts out spam wha-bam.
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I despise Captcha! It always thinks I'm spam! It really dissuades me from commenting on many of the blogs I follow.
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I too despise captcha. Never used it, never will. I'm hosted at WordPress and I don't think it's even an option but I wouldn't use it anyway. All it does is drive away conversation. I may still read a blog that has it enabled but I don't always comment. And they often end up in my \”read once a week\” feed folder instead of the daily folder. I don't mean to offend anyone, but \”time\” is a reality and jumping through hoops is an exercise I don't feel like doing. Good luck getting the word out!
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I don't like Disqus. It doesn't contribute to building a community in my opinion. I've tried to trace commentors down, but all I could see was other stuff they had commented on – not their own blogs or their Twitter accounts. I usually don't comment if I have to use Disqus to do so.
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Oh damn! You are right! I've done the same, tried to find someone's blog only to run into a very generic profile with no links to be found. (Same with Gravatar, or whatever the heck that system is called)
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