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Why do some bloggers discourage comments?

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indianhomemaker
from Gurgaon |

I find WORD VERIFICATION very annoying.

At times I have clicked 'submit' and moved to another tab and found later (by chance)

the comment was not submitted - I had to go through word verification first.

(Why not warn a reader in advance? - Saves their time.)

At times it is difficult to make out what's written.

Take for example, captial I (i) & small l (L)

Take a look, tell me which is which, 

1.) I

2.) l

Imagine how difficult this becomes in word verification! It's a waste of time and discourages

from commenting on blogs which  have enabled Word Verification.

Why not use comment moderation instead? 

I think the blogger could show this much courtsey to the reader

- take the trouble to delete spam (if any)

instead of making the reader go through Word Verification.

I feel Word Verification is like saying, "Please don't bother commenting." :(

Edited
Reason: spelling error

Replies 1 to 14 of 14

Sakhi Shah
from Vadodara |

It could be that bloggers do this because once someone spams your blog your google rank and all go down. Though I personally find it very irritating too, I can understand why people have it. 

indianhomemaker
from Gurgaon |

I think better readership, more hits and more comments are a good compensation :)

Sakhi Shah
from Vadodara |

I agree. Word verification needs to end.

Mohan
from Bangalore |

I second your thoughts. All those bloggers who use such captcha please consider removing, even if you need it badly to avoid spam messages, use something that requires simple math captchas.

indianhomemaker
from Gurgaon |

Mohan one can delete spam messages :)

Mohan
from Bangalore |

but believe me it is such a pain... i have seen what spamming is all about on my blog and at work :D

indianhomemaker
from Gurgaon |

:) Disqus sounds like a convenient option, many blogger blogs use Disqus.

Mohan
from Bangalore |

oh.. that is another pain tool, i rejected it because of integration issues with existing comments and you can't customize the look and feel of comments like the way you want. You can check how I have done it as per my wish on my blog.

Himanshu
from Delhi |

Absolutely right!!!

Word verification makes it tough!!

indianhomemaker
from Gurgaon |

Himanshu sometimes I have written a long comment, checked the spelling and then lost the comment while commeting on blogger blogs - and then Word Verification makes it even tougher!

Addy
from Mumbai |

Against word verification! I totally agree with indianhomemaker there!

What I find funny is that your alias "indianhomemaker" is like a captcha in itself! Tongue out

indianhomemaker
from Gurgaon |

LOL   Laughing Yes Addy!!! ... it is generally shortened to IHM or ihm :)

Maria
from Singapore |

IHM, you are so roght, many times I have actually not put a comment cos I am so bugged with the evil word verification box. Good point der! :)

indianhomemaker
from Gurgaon |

Maria I  too have, many times,  read a post and even though I liked it - avoided commentint because of word verification.

A restless mind with a sensitive heart
from New Delhi |

Hi Indian Home Maker,  you have brought out a very valid point, rather an irritating point.

But let me tell u that sometimes word verification is also enabled due to ignorance, at times unknowingly. 

Just think about this that the blog owner would never know ppl are facing problem commenting because of his comments setting. because its only the user who is facing it.  So instead of going away frustrated from a blog, I prefer to leave a word about it to the owner of the blog. out of three ppl i hinted, two didnot even know it was there.

But I am absolutely with you, it should be avoided, if you want to know what ppl think about ur blog and ur posts.

restless

indianhomemaker
from Gurgaon |

Yes it is possible that the blogger hasn't realised it! 

Surprised

Magali Vaz
from Mumbai |

Honestly I think they're not discouraging comments they're just discouraging spam. I used to get a lot of it. But thankfully spammers do not like Disqus!

Magali Vaz
from Mumbai |

Me knoes Laughing

And me loves it.

And spammers do not love it.

And me loves that more.

(This is where I take time off from being a grammar **** & go totally crazy) Sealed

Magali Vaz
from Mumbai |

OMG I forgot that the word n-a-z-i is blocked on the forum!

indianhomemaker
from Gurgaon |

Ha ha Laughing I also find commenting on Disqus fun, because you can rate comments and also see how many comments you have left before on that blog Smile

Bhagwad Jal Park
from Chennai |

What's worse, is if they require you to register first. And to take matters to the next level, they sometimes need you to register after post your comment!

I can't tell you how frustrating it is. These "blogger" and "blogspot" domains really need to get rid of this. Wordpress has the awesome "Akismet" plugin which removes all spam. In all this time, just two or three comments have gotten through my installation.

LEB
from anywhere,anytime,anyday |

Happened too many times and I have just not wanted to comment. WP as you said really rocks and so far (in the last one year) it has been three comments for me which slipped through.

indianhomemaker
from Gurgaon |

One of the places where registration is required is Surekha.com where I never comment, even though there have been some great posts. I feel bad for the bloggers there - they are missing out on an interactive experience. Or maybe they don't want a duscussion.

LEB
from anywhere,anytime,anyday |

So true !! I sometimes comment and leave the website and come back later to find that my comments are not there. By then I would have lost my chain of thoughts. The blogger is the victim then. I think since the blogger has the advantage of deleting any comments he/she does not like, verification should be completely taken out.

indianhomemaker
from Gurgaon |

The way I see it, the blogger has to choose between their own comfort (less worry about spam) or the reader's comfort (easy commenting).

Shail Mohan
from Trivandrum |

This word verification is a real pain. Comment moderation is all you need. I am with you on this IHM.

mad.madrasi
from Chennai |

hi,

i'm noob here (joined days back) and my 1st post.  I agree with IHM that this letter 'captcha' is not for blogging - blogging shouldn't have any 'captcha'.  Feel particularly incensed becuz today in trying to setup a skydrive a/c for a friend was stumped when given a captcha character which looked like an inverted 'S'!  Actually puzzled on it for a minute (surely) or so, before realising that it was the small 'a' in some sort of frenzy! Laughing

even worse is the way the indian (or foreign at that) media sites are organised - one needs to register with an email id.  I think this policy is going to make everyone have a 'throwaway' id - like '[email protected]' or 'nanmandu.gmail.com'

Yup, ur right IHM

blogs should *not* have captcha - anykind

newsmedia sites should have captcha - maths kind

only 'forums' should ask for email ids & registration

Hope you and us jointly at indibloggers can get this done - can it be made an official W3C policy or even a principle or directive?

mad.madrasi
from Chennai |

where the hell is this 'track this ....' button or link?

mad.madrasi
from Chennai |

I found it the 2nd time - didn't appear the first time - honest Innocent  As you can see I searched for more than a minute n half for that