Best! Feeling!
In contrast, this is how I felt, many many MANY times, immediately after typing out a thoughtful comment and hitting "submit":
Word (or comment) verification is one of the most frustrating things I deal with when blogging. I feel a little burst of joy every time I hit submit and see those glorious words "your comment has been submitted", instead of seeing that dreaded comment verification box.
This is an optional feature, and it is one that I choose not to use on my blogs, because I firmly believe that it costs bloggers comments. (Also because having to constantly "prove I'm not a robot" makes me feel stabby, and I prefer not to make my readers feel that way!) I personally look at it like this: I blog, in part, because I welcome interaction with my readers. I love getting comments, and I appreciate when people take the time to leave them. The last thing I would ever want to do is make my readers feel like they have to jump through hoops just for the privilege of leaving me a comment.
In a perfect world, this is what a comment verification box should look like:
When I see this kind of thing, I sigh quietly, but I jump dutifully through the required hoop and leave my comment. It's annoying, I'm slightly peeved, but I move on with my life.
However.
I cannot tell you how infrequently I encounter that comment verification box. That box is like a tall glass of ice cold lemonade at the end of a twenty mile hike through the desert compared to what I typically run afoul of.
Invariably, when I click "submit" on a blog that has comment verification enabled, what pops up looks a lot more like this:
This isn't outside the realm of possibility either:
And when I see comment verification boxes like these, this is how I feel:
I totally understand why people blogging for this course would leave comment verification enabled, and I hope everyone takes this in the tongue-in-cheek spirit that it was intended. I just wanted to throw it out there for anyone who has, through this course, discovered a love of blogging that they want to pursue beyond the course. If this is you...
...Save a blogger. Turn off comment verification. At least consider it. Your readers will weep with joy thank you.
/PSA.
Hi Kim,
ReplyDeleteFor a long time I turned off comment verification with my blogs, but then I got spammers, so it was a toss up--what do I prefer: comment verification or spammers? Recently, I have opted for the comment verification. When on others' blogs, I keep hitting the gizmo that allows you to circle through until you can find a code that is easy to read and type. Enough cycling through, and I do find one. When I am lucky, the first code is decipherable, or even the second.
Edublogger used in many schools has a simple code verification system. The code choices switch among a few options.
Yes, your post is humorous, but also true. Many times I have been left out of writing what I thought was a thoughtful comment to have it evaporate into cyberspace. When I am now on blogs where I think that might happen, I quickly copy and paste my comment into Word, so I can recover it if needed. (Doing that now.)
For some reason, I have the most trouble posting on WordPress blogs. This might be because I have a few WordPress blogs, and the comment box asks to select if you want to post as a WordPress user and then asks for the password. I find that kind of annoying, and recently I have gotten around it by using the option to post as a Twitter user.
Still, these annoying code verifications are on many sites, not just blogs, and to get from one screen to the next, yes, we need to jump through the hoops.
Also, many blogs ask how you want to post. For instance, on Blogger, you have the option to post with your Google identity if you already have a Blogger account. There are numerous options that appear when clicking on Comment as. However, this can be confusing for those not familiar with the options offered on Blogger or other sites, such as WordPress.
I guess these options will get easier to use in time with more people demanding changes and expressing their frustrations. What do others think?
Judy,
ReplyDeleteYou bring up a good point that I didn't mention - I *DO* comment as "myself" using my Google account, and yet I'm still made to do the comment verification. Isn't commenting via my (logged in)Google account already proving that I'm not a robot? It seems redundant to me to also need to type the code.
I have typed so many (in my mind) great comments in the past only to watch them disappear into cyberspace after I've entered several incorrect codes. It's incredibly frustrating. Certainly, I could copy/paste comments into Word or Notepad before clicking submit, but then leaving a comment takes me twice as long as it should, which at the end of the day means leaving half as many comments as I might otherwise. It's a problem without an easy answer, I guess.
Your experience with Wordpress reminds me: I blog (personally) with Typepad, and "Comment as Typepad User" is nearly always an option. Yet, for some reason I have NEVER managed to successfully do that. For some reason my login info is never recognized. Instead I now comment as my Google identity, which seems backwards to me since Google is associated with Blogger which isn't the platform I use. Or, I just comment as Open ID because it's just easier sometimes. (Though that annoys me because it looks so anonymous and then your avatar doesn't show up.)
It's funny because what made me decide to write this post today was the PLETHORA of absolutely horrible codes that I encountered while leaving comments today. I wrote the post and published it, and every code since then today has been clear as day!
I'm curious to see if anyone else has any thoughts on this issue.
Amen to that Kim. Sometimes when I leave comments on blogs it takes me more time to get through the comment verification process than typing out the actual comments. I understand the importance of avoiding spammers and how they can mess up one's blog, but there has to be a better way to deal with this. Keep up the brutal honestly on your blog!
ReplyDeleteI didn't even realize I had the option to turn it off, though it makes sense. I have (for now) disabled it - partly because it also makes me stabby (a phrase my best friend uses, and I giggle like a 5 year old each time), and partly because I always look forward to your responses and don't want you stabby on my blog!!
ReplyDeleteKim, you bring up a great point, and I believe Judy states a creditable rebuttal as well. Where do we draw the line? Do we strive for convenience for our followers or security from viruses and scammers? I'm torn.
ReplyDeleteBy the way, I just had a sigh of relief when I didn't have to put in the code for that comment! Haha!
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ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed reading your blog post. I am in your corner with this topic! I really find the comment verification process frustrating. You read a blog of interest, type a response and then have to figure out what letters to type. Sometimes I have had to type verification three times, at that point I wanted to forget about the response I was trying to post. I guess we have to decide as Jamee stated "Do we strive for convenience or security?" I am torn on how I would respond. I have lost posts and now practice what Judy mentioned, “type in Word then cut and paste it into the blog”. To shine some humor on this topic, Judy posted a video on the class blog of a comic poking fun at this very topic. Have you seen it? If not check it out it will provide you with some good laughs! If you can’t find it let me know, I wrote a blog post about it.
ReplyDeleteThis was the best blog posting experience, no codes to enter. Thanks!!
ReplyDelete