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No, really, I insist on it

Dear WordPad/TypePad/Whatevah,

You and your little "Are you human? Just one more step! Type in these tiny letters in bizarro font swimming under nearly 89% opacity freaky pattern and we'll hold a board meeting to decide whether your comment passes muster and can be posted!" routine?

It stinks, like rotten egg cat box level stink.

For the record, shockingly few of us have been through some bizarre accident in which a nuclear waste truck dumps its load on our car, rendering us capable of superpowers such as ability to see through solid surfaces or capacity to distinguish an 'rn' superimposed on one another from an 'm.'

I know this is surprising news. But it's true.

I don't blame your users. They are understandably wary of spam. Frankly, I'm tired of the, "From Geek to Sheik, Super Large for 36 inches and longer" stories that arrive in groups of 40 in my email.

So it's you. You need to change.

I'll try twice to post a comment, maybe 3 times if it's a long one that required me to check a spelling in the dictionary. But then I'll abandon my efforts. You make it too hard. You're coming between me and my favorite bloggers like a mother-in-law from a Lifetime movie.

Ease off the Medieval fonts and slacken off the strange and opaque patterns, eh. Show us some love. Don't make me go all Capulet on you.

Sincerely,
Julie, The Ravin' Picture Maven

P.S. To my lovely readers...I'm off to pick up Patience. From kindergarten, lo these many hours later. I'm still standing, for what it's worth, and I'm sure she is too. I'm getting by with the help of my friends. :)

Copyright 2007 Julie Pippert
Also blogging at:
Ravin' Maven REVIEWS: Get a real opinion about BOOKS, MUSIC and MORE
Ravin' Maven RECOMMENDS: A real opinion about HELPFUL and TIME-SAVING products
About-HOUSTON-TX.com: HOT scoop about H-Town!

Comments

Harumph! Well said. I never understood why the image had to be so cryptic either. Don't they just need to show an image of a word in order to stop the bots? And if so, why can't the image be legible?

Somebody stop the madness!
Unknown said…
I cant STAND those. For those of us who are dyslexic, they are truly hell. And they dont work anyway, humans can spam too.

Oh and I clicked your ads. Happy MCM.
painted maypole said…
we are kindergarten mommies together! hope her first day was less maddening than orientation!
S said…
Yes, they are a total pain. I just saw one that could have been "vvv" or "vw." Totally unclear, and I guessed wrong.

Damn.
S said…
Yes, they are a total pain. I just saw one that could have been "vvv" or "vw." Totally unclear, and I guessed wrong.

Damn.
thailandchani said…
I can't stand those. Truly. I just can't. If I can't make it out in one effort, I don't leave a comment. Nothing against those who have them but they're really a pain in the neck!

My site has been up for 11 months. I've been spammed twice! You know.. I deleted it. It wasn't the end of the world after all.



Peace,

~Chani
http://thailandgal.blogspot.com
Anonymous said…
Ah, WordPress is joyous. I can plug in Akismet (a spam-eating application), turn it on, and sit back, watching all the (really, really nasty) spam that hits my one particular post (about gl0bal warm1ng), and delete it all in one fell swoop without anyone seeing it at all. And not forcing my users to do the captcha thing.

For the record, I'm up to about 1700 spams caught.

Kate
Kyla said…
I know. I hate those things. I'm awful at them.

So glad you and Patience survived day one.
Magpie said…
Yeah, I hate those word things too. Especially in my office, where for some reason they are even harder to read than at home.

I hope K was okay today.
Snoskred said…
I've turned mine off for now. I turned it on after a spam bot seemed to find my blog and post 200 comments in about 10 minutes. Turning it on stopped the bot. ;)

We blogger users are fairly lucky when it comes to spam. I know wordpress users who are getting 800+ spam comments a day.

Akismet could be deleting legitimate comments too - something to keep in mind. All it takes is one blogger to flag a person as being a spammer and they are flagged as spam across any site using Akismet. So some people do that out of spite. :( They don't like someone who comments on their blog, they mark it as spam - and then that persons comments go straight to the spam bin.

Mine apparently do that. The only way I can fix it is to set up a wordpress blog and take myself out of the spam bin several times.

Snoskred
http://www.snoskred.org/
Anonymous said…
I know how you feel! I too abandon comments if I have to try more than twice with the font thingy. I find it difficult to distinguish "q" from "g" the most, then probably "m" and "n".

I have maths spam protection on my blog. Sure, some people might find maths difficult, but 2+8=? has got to be easier than some of those wacky image things!
Nothing is worse than losing a good comment to the verification nazis! UGH!


Hope kindergarten keeps going well!
Aliki2006 said…
I got rid of it, then brought it back, then got rid of it, then brought it back. I still hate it.
Christine said…
those things make me crazy!
Lawyer Mama said…
DEAR LORD, YES! WHY must they make it so damn hard?

That's exactly why I got rid of comment verification. Of course, if I start getting spammed, it'll be back lickety split.
NotSoSage said…
Sing it, sister.

And yay for you and Patience. You both rock.
A-freaking-men. It's getting so bad that I have to turn my laptop upside down just to figure out what it says. Maybe I should get out my old 3-D glasses.
Anonymous said…
Amen from this corner, too. Though, like lawyer mama, I've gone back and forth. I think after clicking post here I'll go take it off again. Thanks for the reminder of what a pain they really are.
Unknown said…
You know that I turned off my word verification for you, don't you? All those months ago. Seriously.

I get an occasional spammer but not often enough to worry about it.

Darlene at daisies@pluckthepetal.com has a word verification feature that is pretty cool. She gets to choose a word when she posts and it isn't all garbled with static and stuff. I don't know what program she uses, but it is one I don't mind at all.
Anonymous said…
Oh, see I always thought they were doing some clandestine psychological profiling of me, trying to figure out how I interpreted the inkblots or whatever...
Kyla said…
Psst. Something waiting for you at my place.
Julie....I nominated you for an award...check it out!
Anonymous said…
I hate those also. I seem to have a problem with transposing letters and numbers.

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