We all love comments on our blog, but there are some issues...
- word verification is ridiculous now...can't read the word, takes several times, people give up
- subscribing to email comments
- what comment form box do we use at the end of our posts
- who is allowed to leave a comment
- if you allow anonymous you need the word verification, because you will get spammed to death with 50 emails a day trying to sell you Viagra and nude celebrity photos LOL !! Not kidding on that either. I got them EVERY day. I just turned off Anonymous users because of it. My choice was No Word Verification with No Anonymous Users or Yes to Word Verification and Yes to Anonymous. We all hate the verification now, so that's my only choice.
- the dreaded "NO REPLY". I think this is my goal in life to rid the blogging world of No Replies!! What is "no reply" you ask? Here's a quick explanation. You have a blogger account, which you think has an email address attached to it. You read all your favorite blogs and leave comments every where, hoping someone will respond back to your comment. That blog author receives your comment in her inbox of her email and wants to respond, but your address is "No Reply"...no email address. How do you fix this. CLICK HERE for a quick tutorial on the simple fix. Even if you THINK your address is there, PLEASE check any way!!
Here is my fix for all the issues on my blog...we'll see how this goes once you read this post.
Before I start, I just want to send a suggestion to Blogger. Just have a spot in the comment section where people can type in their name and email address to leave a comment. Done!! Seems simple, but there must be a reason for it all
I want everyone to have a chance to comment. I know most people lurk and browse around, but if you do want to leave a comment, it shouldn't be a hassle. If you don't have a blogger account, most people leave a comment under Anonymous. The problem with that is, to block spam (garbage email from bad websites uses Anonymous to send things) we have to put Word Verification on. That is off for me now, so no anonymous.
Here is how to change those features.
Go to your dashboard and click SETTINGS...
Click on COMMENTS...
Now click the dot next to REGISTERED USERS (the red circled item below in the picture). This allows all Google, Live Journal, Typepad, Word Press AIM and Open ID.
I have a further explanation below of what OPEN ID is. This could help my Anonymous friends.
Now to turn off Word Verification just scroll down and check NO.
Another option is where to have your Comment Box show up in your post. I've changed mine after having a conversation with Debbie from Jerusalem Notes: Fiberwork by Debbie. Click Here to visit her great blog.
Debbie likes to "subscribe to comments". That means if she likes the conversations that are happening on a particular post, she can subscribe to that particular post of comments. She is then sent all the comments from that post. That way she doesn't have to keep going back to the post to see what everyone after her is saying.
Blogger had that feature on all types of comment boxes, but it seems it's only on the "Embedded Below the Post" one. See it circles below?
When your comment box is embedded below the post, there is an area to click on, on the bottom right that says..."subscribe by email"
Ok, last topic is OPEN ID instead of being ANONYMOUS!!
If you CLICK HERE, you can go to the Open ID website and read about it. Here is a quote from the site
"OpenID allows you to use an existing account to sign in to multiple websites, without needing to create new passwords."
Here are some of the websites that you may already have an account with that you can use to comment on a blog under the OpenID section.
Click here to see how to log in with an Open ID...
Ok, I know this was a lot of info, but it had to go into one post, because it all goes together.
Hope this will help some of you out there!
Have a great day,
~Karen~
I get sick and tired of having to try and read these "unreadable" verification words!! The other day I had 3 go's and still it was wrong, so I gave up :( There is an unnecessary amount of rubbish on Blogger, at the end of the day people just want to read a post and comment - that's it! xx
ReplyDeleteI so agree. I try and comment on every project that links up, but I think I'm going to amend my policy to only leaving comments to to sites that don't require word verification.
ReplyDeleteI love you, Karen!! So very well written, as usual, including the referral to my blog. :) Thanks for that! Now, we just have to hope that EVERYONE listens to you and follows your advice! My next blog post is going to have a link to this.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad it isn't just me who hates the word verification. I was beginning to think I was stupid. lol Now I know I'm not. Yay! Apparently I had it activated on my blog without realizing it. It is now off thanks to you!!
ReplyDeleteThank you for that explanation. I just went and changed to the "open ID" since I have been having a few spam issues, and did not want to turn the word verification back on.
ReplyDeleteI accidentally subscribed to a post's comments once (a wordpress blog--not sure how I even did it). I ended up with like 100 emails in my inbox, and it took days for my stopping it to "take effect". Never again!
ReplyDeleteI will look at turning off anonymous and word verification too. My blog is so tiny I don't get any anonymous commenters anyway. Or maybe it is already off--I used to get more viagra ads than real comments!
Okay, I just went and changed everything lets hope it works. Thank you
ReplyDeleteI always feel bad when someone comments and is 'no reply'. I like to respond to anyone who takes the time to leave me a comment ... and I always worry they think me rude for not responding.
ReplyDeleteThe new word verification is such a pain the bum! Who can read those words, simply crazy impossible!
ReplyDeleteI do wish 'they' would settle on one uniform way to follow blogs and leave comments, with all the different hoops to jump through I think blogging is losing its appeal.
I've just had to go no anonymous because of the spam, the new word verification is a nightmare
ReplyDeleteI think Google made the word verification so hard to read just so that everyone would turn WV off!
ReplyDeleteThis is a very helpful post. If we want our blogs to be more user friendly, we really need to stay up-to-date on what's going to make it that way. Thanks for this. As usual, you did a great job explaining it all.
ReplyDeleteThank you so much for the helpful post! I do not like word verification at all!
ReplyDeleteouroldhomestead.blogspot.com
Very good info! I agree about those verification codes. What a pain. I have another topic for you to talk about in a future post if you are interested: How to block pinning of your photos to Pinterest. I have read that they wrote an HTML code to do so, and that you add to your blog header. What does that mean exactly? Do you know how to do this?
ReplyDeleteI HATE SPAM!!! I hate it, hate it, hate it. I have been known to close down and open email accounts just to stop receiving it. So I will ALWAYS have word verification on my blog. If people are too lazy or find it too difficult to use, then I don't mind not getting their comments. I write to share what I do and if someone wants to reply without opening an account on Google/blogger, I want that to be available to them. We spend hours taking photos, writing posts, replying to comments, and yet we should open ourselves to 50+ spam emails a day just because someone doesn't want to take five seconds to type in two words (or hit the play button to hear them read)? You're right that it's a judgment call that we each have to make but this is part of Blogger's FREE(!!!) service and an unfortunate side effect of the internet, and I do not share what I do in order to get more hated spam.
ReplyDeleteThere comes a point that each of us has to decide how far we are going to go for readers. To me, it's like leaving my front door wide open because a friend might visit who doesn't like to knock, and I have to deal with the bugs, the pets running away, the wind/rain/cold/heat. Sorry, but I don't want to deal with the side effects of all that either. Maybe people who have thousands of followers, who blog/quilt full-time and don't use the blog email account for anything else, etc., might have easier circumstances, but typing two freaking words is not too much to ask to keep the blogger's email account free of constant spam.
Thanks for all the info. I hate the word vertification also but find the "no reply" blogger just as frustrating. Hugs for putting it all out here for everyone to read and consider.
ReplyDeleteCarol
This must be on a lot of our minds these days because I just did a post about it yesterday! Can't stand the word verification and the no reply is frustrating too. I like responding by email. :) Maybe if enough bloggers post about it, the others will change theirs too!
ReplyDeleteAs usual, "you said it sister!" Great tips. I am getting better at those fuzzy two word verifications though. It's like exercise for my eyes...I hope.
ReplyDeleteI hate those Word Verification toooooooo!!!!! But i got a way not to get frustrated over them. The first word you have to spell right but the second word if you miss spell it .... it will take it. I had another blogger tell me this and i tried it about 3 times and sure enough it works. I still hate the word verifications but atleast i am not frustrated with it as much as i first was. Try it and see. Miss spell the second word on purpose.
ReplyDeleteYour girls must hate you.....you know stuff about everything!! hehe
ReplyDeleteCraft, sewing, food, computers......is there anything you can't do??
Thankyou again for walking us through and holding our hands as we go, I know I sure appreciate it!!
Thanks for the info. You always have such great tips and information to share. I've learned a lot and then some...thanks again. I did get a Virus not to long ago from just going to another Bloggers site from the comment section of the Blog I was on. Boy, did I ever hear a mouthful from dh. I don't like lecturing like that...but probably deserved it that time...lol.
ReplyDeleteIt was a person from another Country. Won't do that again.
Dee B
I had to turn off the word verification, too. Drove me nuts and I have found that some of my comments on other people's blogs are disappearing. Maybe I'm just closing before double-checking I got the shot-in-the-dark verification right....
ReplyDeleteGood tips. It was 6 months before I learned that I had been a no-reply blogger.
FANTASTIC! I am having a blog catch up and the word verification is a bind, and I have it on my blog. I wnat to get rid of it. I'll do the no to anonymous. But I am getting a lot of comments from what seem to be linked websites about writing essays/term papers etc. They are not anonymous but I now they are a certain sort of spam. They do actually make relevant comments but I know they can't be sincere.
ReplyDeleteBlogger has updated and changed things over the years. When I first started my blog in 2008 I got tons of SPAM in my comments. So I went to moderating my commments and posting later if they weren't Spam that is. Of course I rarely got comments then (except for the spam). Maybe people like to see their comments post right away? Since you sent me so many new followers Karen (thank you), I listened to them and they don't like word verification (neither do I) when they want to post a comment, so I took it off. I see that Blogger has a spam detection now and you need to check to see if any comments end up in there. A couple did end up in there that wasn't spam, so I posted them. So far I haven't received spam in the comments. I think that Blogger has really got better spam detection than they had several years ago.
ReplyDeleteThanks Karen once again you tell us sew many things we need to know. Your email to me last week let me know I was a 'no reply' commenter. I just didn't realize. This is a lot to digest but worth reading over again. You are awesome.
ReplyDeleteWordpress users have a hard time usng open ID - we write a comment and the word verification pops up and no matter how many times we type it correctly it says it is incorrect and we give up. The only way I can comment on a blogspot blog is to use the name/URL option if they have word verification.
ReplyDeleteOne point about the no reply issue - can't you just leave a comment on your blog in response below the person who commented? It seems the no reply is only an issue if you want to use your email to reply - or have I misunderstood?
Something weird just happened so thought I'd mention it - I just commented and when I hit 'publish' I was told my open ID credentials couldn't be verified so I hit preview then publish and it was fine.
DeleteRegarding 'no reply' - does that happen automatically as a wordpress user? Or is it just for blogger users?
Very informative post. And I am addicted to your blog. Just thought you wanted to know that. :)
ReplyDeleteYes thanks! Word Verification is completely ridiculous now!
ReplyDelete:)
ReplyDeleteIt's funny, I never had word verification since I found it annoying even when I could read it, but now that blogger has started the new verification, I'm getting spam, never had any before.
ReplyDeleteOne of the things I hate is when people use Word Verification AND Moderation. That's my real pet peeve. Why would anyone need both? Use one or the other if you must, but not both. So annoying. I hate Word Verification the most. Moderation makes much more sense.
ReplyDeleteBut since I hate Blogger commenting all together I don't even use it on my own blog. I installed DISQUS instead. Very easy to do, and it is by far a superior commenting system. You can log in as a guest with just name and email, use OpenID, or Twitter, Facebook, Google, or Yahoo. You can set it to use Moderation (or not). You can subscribe to comments via email too. And I can count on one hand the number of spam comments I've gotten since I started using it early last year, so that is essentially a non-issue for me. If you hate Blogger commenting as much as I do, I encourage you to check into DISQUS.
And just a P.S. if you'd like to see DISQUS in action, you can see it on my TatteredSisters.com blog. Just click on any post title and the comment area is at the bottom. :) I'm a visual person and like to see things in action, so that may be helpful for those of you like me.
ReplyDeleteI HATE DISQUS. You get stuck in it on sites that use it. They pretend to give you multiple account options, but you are stuck in the "DISQUS world" when you comment and you can't link back to your own site. It's just a way for DISQUS to get all of the traffic. For me that is as pointless as posting on "yahoo answers" or "answers.com" or "pinterest" or any other site that sucks up your content without allowing you at least a minor marketing cred. It's slavery by ignorance. Your content is valuable and sites like DISQUS know how to exploit that.
ReplyDeleteAlso, if you are a blogger and use Disqus on your site THEY store the comments on their site. They also EDIT them. Yes, they EDIT the comments. They have "accidentally" removed all of the comments from a bloggers site many times. Never to get them back. I deleted my account (but I have read that they won't really delete it no matter how many times you try). I also will not post on sites that use Disqus.
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing
ReplyDelete