Saturday, September 27, 2008

kill word verification: rid the world of useless typing


I have created a button, that hopefully becomes a movement. A movement for what? Well I am going to call it "Kill Word Verification: rid the world of useless typing". Below I have an explanation of what I am talking about, but just in case you don't know what word verification is it is those jabber words that you have to fill out (as a security measure) on blogs. Words like this: jimmex, meiwnl, jkehgd, wrttyl, leosbte, wligvfd, tehdjkgne,meihuguen, piihdkks, eisgeki....AHHHHHHHHH!

Should I really use the word hate to describe my feelings about word verification on blog comments? YES! no doubt at all. Word verification is not fun, it is not useful, and it decreases the amount of comments you receive on your blog!!

I have disabled the word verification on my blog, and have had it that way since I started my book blog in march, and on my personal blog I have had it that way for over two years. You know how many times I have gotten spam comments?? less than 10 (and that is for both blogs).

How to rid yourself of word verification?? There are two ways :)

First: get rid of word verification on your own blog, here is how:
1. click dashboard at the top right corner (in between your email address and the sign out links)
2.click on the "settings" link on your desired blog
3. This will take you to the basic settings tab, click on the "comments"tab (upper left)
4.)scroll down to the bottom of the page, it is a few questions from bottom and it says :
Show word verification for comments? click: NO
5.) Click on the "save settings" button at the bottom of the page to confirm and you are SET!


Second: let your readers know that they have the power to change their blogs as well:
Do you want to kill word verification too??? add this button to your blog, write a post for your readers....let's spread the news....we no longer have to submit to the powers that engulf us in useless typing!!!!!

You know what they say, "hate the sin, not the sinner!" hahahaha....seriously now though...consider helping all your commenters out and kill the word verification!!!!

take the button :

Be sure to leave me a comment if you agree, or disagree....no hate mail though :)

27 comments:

Sandra said...

I'm glad you btought this up. Happily for me my son was here when I was creating my blog and he told me how to do it.

Anonymous said...

I agree! I don't use it and I've only gotten two or three spam posts in the last couple of years.
Half the time I have to type in the words twice, because while the spammers can't read word verification, evidently neither can I.

Michele said...

I'm with you on this one. I grabbed the button and linked it over to this post for edification. I hate typing in those things and can never, ever get it right the first try. Arggggggh.

Anonymous said...

Well, I hate word verification too, but when I haven't had it I've sporadically been flooded with spam.

Anonymous said...

i so agree

Serena said...

I had about 3 spam messages since I took off the Word verification, but overall I think eliminating it has been worth while.

Yasmin said...

Kill it...lol.

Anonymous said...

i've always hated word verification.. but i thought my comments page would be TOTALLY spammed if i didnt have it.. i am glad to know that that's not the case.. i hope everyone joins this bandwagon coz i definitely hate to word verify everytime i have to leave a comment..
btw, i just removed word verification from my blog!:)

Confuzzled Shannon said...

I love that! lol I think I have mine off but I will double check now.

beastmomma said...

I agree with you! Fight the power!

maggie moran said...

Did you know by using word verification you are helping to digitize books? Maybe not in blogger, but in all the actual words that look written you are...

Darlene said...

I killed it-lol.

bethany (dreadlock girl) said...

thanks to all of you that so far have killed your word verification!!!!!! this is awesome, we are taking one HUGE step for mankind! (hahaha)

Anonymous said...

I am with you in this. I truly hate it!

Now I take the button and spread the word!

Hurray for this movement!

Anonymous said...

I posted about this movement on both my blogs:

Rooted and Reading Room

Trish @ Love, Laughter, Insanity said...

I hate it too. BUT everytime I take it off I get spammed...never fails. I've tried a few times to go without it, but honestly I just don't have the time to deal with deleting comments.

I'll try it for you Bethany, but if I get spammed its going to have to go back on...sorry. :(

Literature Crazy said...

You're probably right... I don't get spam comments, I should just remove the word verification from my blogs.

I'll post about this over at "What Was I Reading?"

Thanks!

Dewey said...

I never used to have word verification in my blog, and this resulted in a lot of spam EMBEDDED in seemingly valid comments getting through into my blog. And because of that, Google dropped me. This cut my daily unique visits in half, and kept people from finding my blog via google searches.

bethany (dreadlock girl) said...

Oh yay!!! Tons and TONS of you!!!! What is the worst that could happen?? Well, that you would have to turn it back on right???

YAY for jumping on the bandwagon :) It makes all of our lives easier for sure!

Anonymous said...

i put this banner on the side-bar :)

Darcy @ m3b said...

One of your readers sent me here. I just blogged about this last Friday.

I am with ya', girlfriend:

http://www.lifewithmy3boybarians.com/2008/09/how-to-make-sure-people-dont-leave-you.html

-Darcy from LWM3B

Anonymous said...

I'm in! Great job! Putting this on every post. :)

bethany (dreadlock girl) said...

I am so happy tons of you have joined so far!! Yay!! :) THANK YOU!!!!

Jeanne said...

I agree, even at this late date. I came to this from J. Kaye's Book Blog and decided that you have a great idea, so I'm spreading it, too.

Summer said...

Woot! I just posted a comment about the infamous WV, and out of curiosity ran a blog search on the topic. Your button is now proudly dislpayed at the end of the post.

trish said...

I don't like the word verification either. Actually, I think some kind of filter is good, but I'm partial to the "What does two plus two equal?" and then you type the answer. But maybe that's because I, like softdrink, can't read those dang word verifications either. :D

Anonymous said...

I'm not sure I see the problem with word verification.

I don't personally use it because, like many of you, I do not get spam comments. However, I know many people who use it to protect themselves.

If you're a professional designer, then your site/blog may be the only way your clients have to judge you. If you DO get spammed (even if it "never" happens, it could) you need to be protected. How hard is it to type in a word?

In my humble opinion, if you can't spend 5 seconds to do that, you don't really have anything important enough to share. It's about respecting the wishes of the blogger, that's all I think.