Most of you reading this have probably noticed that Blogger has recently changed its word verification method. Until this change, if word verification was switched on, people wishing to leave a comment on a blog post had to copy a nonsense word into a box before publishing their comment. This is to prevent automatic spam and deter human spammers, which is definitely A Good Thing.
Now word verification presents us with two oddly distorted words to copy, so oddly distorted that many people, including me, have great difficulty deciphering them. Thankfully Blogger has removed the contrast bit behind one of the words, making them slightly easier to read, but I still often find myself having to click at least 2 or 3 times before I get a couple of words I can read well enough to type.
Interestingly, the new system has a very laudable aim besides that of preventing spam. The words presented to us come from books and newspapers which are being scanned to digitise them and thus make them available online. Many of these are old and have non-standard typefaces and the digitisation process has problems verifying whether individual words have been correctly scanned. By using these scanned images for word verification in blogs, the reCAPTCHA system makes use of millions of blogs to help verify these dubious spellings and move the project forward.
Unfortunately, for many people the sheer difficulty of deciphering the words is beginning to deter them from commenting on blogs, thus adversely affecting one of the most popular aspects of blogging. The Blogger Help forum is full of posts complaining about the new system and asking how to turn it off. This is where my word of warning comes in.
For those still using the old Blogger dashboard to write their posts, turning off word verification is easy. However the new dashboard does NOT offer the option of turning off word verification and to do so involves going back to the old one temporarily. Before very long, whether we like it or not, Google will be switching us all over permanently to the new dashboard, and unless they add the option to control word verification, it will no longer be possible to turn word verification on and off.
This means that if you want to be able to switch off word verification in order to make it easier for people to comment, you shouldn’t leave it too long to do so, or you may lose the option.
If, like me, you still use the old dashboard (and in my case I will only use the new one when finally forced to do so) all you have to do is to click on the Settings tab, choose Comments and scroll down to Show word verification for comments. Click on No, save your settings and word verification will disappear.
You will almost certainly start to get a bit of spam after this, but Blogger’s spam filter is very good and since I turned off word verification a few weeks ago, no spam has made it onto my blog.
If you have changed to the new dashboard, but haven’t made it your default, you can get back to the old dashboard by clicking on the cogwheel in the top right-hand corner and choosing Old Blogger interface. If you have made it your default you will have to untick Make Blogger draft my default before you can choose to go back to the old dashboard and follow the instructions for switching off.
Part of me feels bad about grumbling about the new word verification system, especially with its positive side-effect, but like a lot of bloggers I’m not getting any younger and neither is my eyesight, and life is just too short to waste it squinting at unreadable words. Sorry, reCaptcha. L
Perpetua - once more I express my thankfulness that for my own blog, I don't use Google blogspot. But I have come across the problem you describe on other blogs I visit regularly & try to leave a comment.
ReplyDeleteHowever, as you say, there is a difficult balance to maintain between making it easy to leave a genuine comment & preventing the spammers from fouling things up. As you will know because you are one of my most faithful commenters, I have a simple four character captcha code on my WordPress blog. Increasingly it seems that the spammers know their way around it. This morning, I got up to find 31 comments awaiting my approval, all of which were spam!
Quite agree.
ReplyDeleteCosta Rican public service sites use the same system...with the contrast - and it is very difficult for me to decipher it.
I have removed the verification as I think it is a deterrent to comment...I have had more spam, but not in unmanageable quantities
Perhaps because I've only been blogging a bit more than a year, I don't get spam. I think in the last year I've had 2 spam comments. Maybe it is because I use moderation and spammers don't bother with it as much? Don't know.
ReplyDeleteAt first, I had a big problem with recognizing the words but after 4 or 5 tries, I have no problem. Sometimes I have no idea what the word is but I just type it as I see it and somehow it always works. I haven't missed one yet, that is since the first few attempts.
Also with regard to the new format, I've had no problems with it either. It is pretty much the same as the old but things are in different places. Since pretty much everyone I read is smarter than I am, this means others should not have a problem with it either. Right?
Thank you for the back story on word verification, Perpetua. A conundrum if ever there was one it seems. Like you, I have trouble reading the two words and often have to take a second or third try, which becomes frustrating. I hope the spams don't get too troublesome. I'm sure that it will eventually be worked out, only to make way for a new set of problems.
ReplyDeleteRemember when Spam was only a canned meat product? Sigh.
It's a question of balance as you say, Ricky, and we all have to decide for ourselves. As it happens, yours is the only WordPress blog I visit that has a captcha code. All the others moderate all first-time commenters and after that are completely open for comments, which I like very much.
ReplyDeleteI get very little spam so far, though I imagine that the big popular blogs would be heavily targeted. I'm willing to deal with the bit I get, in order to make life easier for people to comment.
Oh, the thought of having to wrestle with captcha codes plus contrast on public service sites is not a happy one, Fly. At least Blogger has taken away that extra refinement of torture, which made it almost impossible for me to read them.
ReplyDeleteLike you I would rather have comments with some spam, than no spam and fewer comments, but I'm sure others will feel differently. In fact I took off word verification weeks ago because some followers were having difficulty leaving comments under the old system and I don't regret it.
Rubye, that's an interesting thought about comment moderation deterring spammers. Like you, I've only be blogging for a year and I've had at most 6 or 8 spam messages in the time since I took word verification off, and I don't moderate. I can live with that.
ReplyDeleteI wish I could say the same as you about typing in the new words, but I can't. Even without the nasty contrast feature I find them hard, possibly because I have worsening cataracts, especially in my right eye.
I think it's the eyesight problem which makes me dislike the new dashboard so much. Too much dazzling white space, with print that's too pale and very poor contrast, make it so much harder to use than the old one. Finding my way round isn't a problem, though I'm not fond of too many drop down menus. ;-)
Penny, knowing what I know now about the differences between WordPress and Blogger, and particularly given the problems Blogger has had in the year I've been blogging, a lot of me wishes I'd started my blog on WordPress. In fact I may still make the move, if Blogger comes up with any more big bugs or changes.
ReplyDeleteTouch wood, spam hasn't been a problem so far for me, but I'd rather have some to deal with than have my readers having to squint and constantly retry in order to comment.
Thanks for this post Perpetua. Like you I use the old dashboard and have just followed your instructions about word verification.
ReplyDeleteWill see if it draws a few more comments.
You're welcome, Ray. I hope it works well for you and I for one will be grateful not to have to do the squinty thing with the word verification whenever I comment on your blog. :-)
ReplyDeleteDear Perpetua,
ReplyDeleteYou're the third blogger I've read today who is noting how difficult reading the word verification on Blogger has now become. (Friko and Rita also mentioned this.)
Like you, my eyes simply don't see what they used to.
And Meniere's is no help. So I'm glad that you've posted this blog. Thank you.
Peace.
Thanks so much for the tip, Perpetua! I'll go do that modification right away! (I use the old Dashboard, too!)
ReplyDeleteLike you I have turned WF off and have had no problems with spam. In fact I've had almost no spam at all-- 3 or 4 times and Blogger's spam catcher has come up trumps every time but once! I'm hoping the powers that be around here will give back the on/off switch. I, too, have kept the old Dashboard -- I find it much more user friendly than the new one -- wonder how much longer we have before the axe falls...
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure it's just an eyesight problem. I find the words quite easy to see now they have removed the background contrast bit but the association isn't there as it slows me down a bit - it doesn't take much to do this !! On the old system they were often almost plausible words that slipped off the tongue quite easily so I could type them quicker.
ReplyDeleteI agree it is a pain and I have been known to give up if I failed the word verification three times. Also I hate this "prove you're not a robot" business - it's so silly.
Good morning, Dee. Yes, there's a real rash of similar posts out there at the moment. It's not surprising really, as the new system is distinctly harder than the old one. I'm also guessing that with more and more people reading blogs on smartphones and tablets, it must be almost impossible to decipher the new words on these much smaller screens.
ReplyDeleteYou're very welcome, Kathy. Someone like you, who uses comment moderation, really has no need of word verification, since no comments can get onto your blog unless you let them. I'm certainly grateful to anyone willing to switch it off. :-)
ReplyDeleteI noticed you'd removed it, Broad, and was glad. It seems silly that the option hasn't been incorporated into the new dashboard and perhaps Blogger may change its mind under pressure. The lack of choice in the future is why I felt it was worth warning people now, while they can still do something about it.
ReplyDeleteAs far as the change to the new dashboard is concerned, all I've seen is words like 'shortly' and 'before long', which aren't very helpful. I'm certainly not looking forward to it. :-(
I'm sure you're right, Jean, which makes it even harder for those of us with poor eyesight. One of the things which annoys me most is that if you get one of the words wrong. you then have to type two more words on your next try, so that the whole procedure takes twice as long. There are plenty of posts in the Help forum complaining about how the number of comments being left is diminishing sharply since the new WV procedure came in.
ReplyDeleteI agree about the silly robot message. Thankfully it only appears in the embedded comments format and not on Full-page or Pop-up.
Thanks Perpetua. It has taken me 3 visits to your post to be able to work out what to do, having no idea that there even was an old dashboard, having only started blogging under the new dashboard regime ! However... after a few attempts, I found it. Thanks again.
ReplyDeleteYou’re very welcome, Janice. Thankfully Blogger in Draft was launched after I began blogging last February, so I’ve been able to avoid it so far. :-) I should have guessed that more recent bloggers would have been put onto the new interface from the beginning. Sorry it’s taken so much effort to make the change, but at least you’ve managed it!
ReplyDeleteIs there not an audio version of the word recognition? I've resorted to that when I couldn't make out words. Can't test that idea here, of course, since you turned it off!
ReplyDeleteThere is indeed, Christine, but when I’ve tried it, it’s been useless to me. There was a lot of background noise on the recording and I have hissing tinnitus, so the spoken words were completely incomprehensible. Sigh....
ReplyDeleteAh, yes! The precise things I wanted to say. Thanks so much for the visit, Perpetua.
ReplyDeleteYou're welcome, Rosaria. We bloggers have to help each other out. :-)
ReplyDeleteI'm also finding it very difficult to decipher the words. One was bad enough but now there are two to contend with.
ReplyDeleteI never did use word verification on my blog, or comment moderation for that matter, until I started getting unpleasant spam comments (that was before the spam filter when they always ended up on my blog). So now I stick with moderating, even though as you say the filter system works very well.
Oh I hate change...well you already know that!
Thank you for your help, Perpetua. I am now able to toggle between the old and new interfaces which is great. I can see the other side of word verification which obviously has its merits, on the other hand, it's good to be able to choose whether to switch it on or off.
ReplyDeleteDon’t most of us, Ayak, especially as we get older. :-) With the new system I find I often have to click through 3 or 4 changes of words until I can get two I can read properly.
ReplyDeleteAt the moment I’m managing without word verification or moderation, but if I had to I would use moderation like you rather than return to WV, even if I could once we're all using the new dashboard. Sigh…
I am laughing because you beat me to this post theme! I have a new post in draft that I haven't had time to complete this week and it says I think I must be turning into a robot because when asked to prove I'm not, I have been struggling! I'm so glad I'm not the only one - but it has amused me that you chose this as your subject as well! Ho hum, back to the drawing board - and now I'll have to decipher whatever it takes to post this comment.
ReplyDeleteI AM NOT A ROBOT! Hmmm
Axxxx
Oooh- I forgot - you're on the old blogger - like me! A little reprieve then. Ax
ReplyDeleteYou’re very welcome, Molly. You’re obviously braver than I, as I haven’t even tried the new interface yet. I’m just so comfortable with the old one. Yes, I too can see why word verification is used, but the new version is so user-unfriendly. Sadly we won’t have any choice about whether or not to use it in the future, unless Blogger makes it possible in the new dashboard.
ReplyDeleteOh, it’s THE theme of the week, Annie. :-) I’ve read at least 3 posts about it on other blogs. No reason at all not to publish your take on the subject – we all put things so differently. At least the flood of complaints got Blogger to remove the contrast blob, which helps a bit.
ReplyDeleteI took off word verification over a month ago, because my WordPress followers were having such problems with it that they couldn’t comment. I’d rather deal with a bit of spam than lose comments, so I hope the word verification will stay switched off for those who don’t want it, once we lose the old dashboard.
I'm so glad you shared your concerns, Perpetua, and I'm finding that I need to keep a special attention to any of my blogging friends who are not Wordpress! You occasionally just disappear from my blog roll! Now what is that? I'm simply finding that I need more than one system for monitoring both reading and responding! But I'm also sure as this medium grows and takes on new formats we will have to master new problem-solving techniques. Maybe that will increase our mental capacities! Ha! Debra
ReplyDeleteHi Debra, I wondered where you were, but never guessed that it would be a case of the disappearing blogs! :-) Google Reader is pretty good at bringing me all the new posts from my favourite blogs, but only when I’m sure I’m following them properly. Sigh…
ReplyDeleteI’ve been toying quite seriously (if that isn’t a contradiction in terms) with moving my blog to WordPress and have spent a lot of time getting to grips with the WP software. So it’s not that I can’t cope with new things, just that a lot of the time I’d rather stay with what I’m comfortable with. Who was it said “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”?
I have no idea whether I'm on the old or new blogger...but I do vaguely remember opting NOT to use word verification, for the very reasons you mention, Perpetua. I notice that recently Ryanair has stuck this horrid piece of extra gymnastics onto their booking system, and I struggle to read the words every time. I'm relieved to learn that it's definitely not just me!
ReplyDeleteCB, having started blogging so recently, you'll definitely be on the new one - all white and pale grey with orange blobs here and there. The old one has a tasteful beige background with blue trim. :-)
ReplyDeleteThe other bad news is that you do have word verification on your blog. I’ve just been across to comment on your latest post and it took me 3 goes to find words I could read. Sigh….
Ooh thank you for this post! I thought it was ME that was having problems with the word verification stuff. It was driving me nuts but I was too tired to explore further. Fascinating to know what Google are using it for. However *I* don't have time to do their stuff for them - harumph! And thanks for the instructions on how to turn it off - hopefully I have now succeeded in that. I dread software "upgrades" - and don't even get me started on the whole "digital TV" thing!!
ReplyDeleteOooo, my first threaded reply. :-) You're more than welcome, Sian. There are so many of us who are having real difficulties that boring though it may be to have posts on technical problems, I felt one was needed and I'm not the only one to have posted on the subject.
DeleteAnother advantage of this comment format is that you don't have the terrible pale grey and white look of the new Blogger style to contend with, which I find soooo hard to read. The old full-page comment form was that restful pale beige, but this white form is horrible!
Your post sums up exactly what I would have said if I had posted on this. Everything! And yes, I have switched off WF while I still can.
ReplyDeleteAlas, the new "words" are just gobbledygook, and we no longer get the charming old fashioned type faces. Mind you I found that they only worked if I wrote the long S's as F's in the verification box.
Hello Jenny and welcome to my blog. I'm glad you feel I spoke for you too with this post. There are a lot of disgruntled bloggers out there thanks to all the changes that are coming through with the new look. I'm guessing that since Google is now the owner of the reCAPTCHA project, they are making use of the millions of Blogger blogs to speed up the project, regardless of the feelings and opinions of the bloggers concerned.
DeleteSorry not to be around and commenting for a while. I've been embroiled in in a mixture of personal, work and writing stuff for a couple of weeks.
ReplyDeleteSo agree about the WV - I can barely read them. Mind you reminds me of when I'm not wearing glasses.
No problem, Mark. Nice to see you when you can pop in. There IS life outside blogging, particularly with job and family and your other writing all contending for your time.
DeleteThe upset caused by the WV is still rumbling on, along with that caused by other very recent Blogger changes such as not being able to follow comments in the updated full-page and pop-up comment formats. Hence my change yesterday to the embedded comments. We live in interesting times....
Hi Perpetua, thanks for the info. I didn't realise that word verification was such a general problem - thought it was just me! Mine's now turned off and comment moderation turned on. We'll see how it goes. :)
ReplyDeleteYou're welcome, Sue. I must admit self-interest in posting about this as I really do find the new word verification difficult and time-consuming. Incidentally I switched mine off nearly 2 months ago now and haven't found it necessary to do comment moderation as spam just hasn't been a problem.
DeleteFound you via the Google Help Forum and see you're already corresponding with my friend Mark on the subject :(
ReplyDeleteLike you I'm contemplating a move to WP as a result of all of this.
Comment moderation doesn't 'work' for me because the delay in me getting to genuine commenters prevents conversation amongst my readers whilst I'm not there.
I've removed WV, but then got 10-30 spam comments coming into my inbox. Stopping comment emails prevented genuine comments coming through but not the spam!
Stopping anonymous comments stops the spam, but I've since found this stops comments from WP readers because the OpenID option doesn't work for them and they've been using the name/url option instead. Stopping anonymous comments also stops this option :/
As you can probably tell, I've been tearing my hair out over this one!
Hi, VP. Yes, there's a lot of discussion going on all over the blogging world on this and the other recent Blogger issues and it's certainly pushing a number of bloggers closer to jumping ship to WP.
DeleteLike you I don't want to have to implement comment moderation because of its impact on the comment conversation, yet the dreadful new WV and the problems with OpenID are also having a negative effect on commenting. The OpenID problem was in fact the reason I took WV off my blog in the first place, because it was preventing a number of faithful readers commenting at all.
Add to this the loss of the ability to subscribe by email in the revamped full-page and pop-up comment formats and one might almost suspect Blogger of actively trying to discourage commenting.
I think that what is needed to sort out this whole commenting mess is for Blogger to introduce the WP ability to moderate all first-time comments and scrap the entire word verification system. Sadly this isn't something we can do ourselves, which is why WP is looking increasingly tempting.
Oh and that first :( should really be a :)
ReplyDeleteLOL! I guessed as much. :-)
DeleteFinally, finally after much time, I figured out how to delete the hated WV! Thank you. I'll see how much spam I get. But, the positive result is that I found your blog and became one of your followers!
ReplyDeleteHi loverofwords and welcome to my blog. I'm glad my post has helped you say goodbye to WV and do hope that, like me, you get very little spam with it gone. Blogger's spam filter is very efficient, which is reassuring.
DeleteIt's an amazing paragraph for all the web people; they will take advantage from it I am sure.
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