The CAPTCHA Continues As A Challenge

This month, we are again seeing evidence of recent security changes by Microsoft. We see signs of continued frustration, in the process of publishing comments - and publishing posts, as part of the Import process.

In the process of diagnosing an apparent comment publishing problem, I ventured into the comment publishing experience, yet again.

I temporarily tweaked commenting permissions for this blog, to allow anonymous comments and to require the CAPTCHA.

With CAPTCHA required, I published a test comment to my earlier post in this blog.

I did my best - which was not good enough.



CAPTCHA solving continues, as a challenge.

I entered a test comment, and made appropriate selections.

I got a challenge.

"Select all the food."

I did my best.

Apparently, my best was not enough.

"Select all images with a store front."

I tried again. Not all images here were completely obvious, either.

My second try was successful.



Hmm.

Select all the food.

Zoom in on the fourth image, above - and tell me which pictures, that I did not select, are food? To whom? Will zooming always improve chances of success?

CAPTCHA solving, as spam interdiction, will always lead to frustration.

There will be cultural issues - and resolution problems - with CAPTCHAs. This version of the CAPTCHA beats the one from several years ago - but still will cause frustration.

And need I again point out - will require proper filter tuning, on each computer used. Note that ongoing changes by Microsoft are currently affecting publishing comments - and publishing posts during the Import process.

And our experience may very, depending upon many different details, varying by blog, by computer, and by person. My sympathies to all who must deal with spam - and with spam interdiction.

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The CAPTCHA continues to be an unavoidable element in comment publishing and other episodes of #Blogger life. And like life, some episodes are more pleasant than others.

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Blogger Custom Domains, And Publishing Spam Control

Some blog owners want to know why custom domain published blogs are subject to daily activity spam control limits. We see the occasional query, in Blogger Help Forum: Learn More About Blogger.

Does the 50 posts / day limit apply to all blogs that use the Blogger platform - or only for these hosted on BlogSpot?

With Blogger, all blogs are subject to a daily publishing activity limit - pages and posts, combined.

Some blog owners question the need to control post limits, for custom domain published blogs.

There are a lot of WordPress blogs, posting more or less just the short feeds of others blogs. That seems to be impossible if you use Blogger.

Using WordPress as an example does make Blogger seem overly strict. However, Blogger custom domain publishing is not the same as WordPress private domain publishing.

All Blogger blogs are hosted on Google servers.

With Blogger, all blogs - including those published to custom domains - are hosted on Blogger / Google servers. Blogger limits publishing activity - and scans for malware, porn, and spam - based on server content.

One of the problems with Blogger blogs that were hosted using FTP publishing - which was similar to WordPress private blogs - involved problems with content control. It simply was not possible to prevent hacking, porn, and spam on remote, non Blogger servers - whether or not Blogger blogs were involved.

WordPress blogs published to private domains are hosted on private servers.

With WordPress, blogs published to private domains are hosted on private servers. WordPress avoids limits and abuse scanning, on private domain published blogs, not only because they don't want to - they can't control or scan private servers.

WordPress private blogs use the Wordpress engine, for publishing static websites onto privately owned and controlled remote servers. This is how Blogger FTP Publishing worked, long ago.

All Blogger blogs are subject to daily posting limits.

Thanks to imaginative domain publishing techniques, it's not possible, with 100% certainty, to identify what Blogger blogs might use non BlogSpot URLs. Blogger blogs published to custom domains simply have an alternate, non BlogSpot URL.

The much hated CAPTCHA.



All Blogger blogs - including this one - are subject to daily page / post publishing limits.

When the limit is exceeded, we have the much hated CAPTCHA. This encourages each of us to spend time publishing informative, interesting, and unique content.

Publish quality - not just quantity.

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All #Blogger blogs - not just those published to BlogSpot - are subject to daily publishing limits. Some blog owners would like custom domain published blogs to be exempt from abuse control - including the daily publishing activity limit.

It's not likely, however, that Blogger will relax daily activity limits - custom domain or not.

https://productforums.google.com/forum/#!category-topic/blogger/hW5xai9FqH0

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Commenting Requires Login, To Suppress Spam

Some blog owners don't understand the need to identify themselves, when commenting on our blogs.

We see an occasional question, in Blogger Help Forum: Get Help with an Issue, about comment authentication.

Why, if I've selected "Anyone - including Anonymous Users" under comment settings, for "Who can Comment?", do my visitors complain of having to login?

This blog owner, like many others, does not understand the Blogger spam mitigation policy, in Blogger Comments.

Blogger lets us select who we wish to allow to comment, on our blogs.

When we do not moderate, they require authentication, to cut down on the spam. Moderated comments, with CAPTCHA ("Show word verification") not required by the owner, appear to go straight to moderation.

Comment authentication makes genuine comments more normal.

By requiring authentication, Blogger makes it more likely that a comment, awaiting moderation, will be genuine - instead of more spam. This encourages us to moderate comments more frequently - and helps us publish moderated comments, more promptly.

And more frequent moderation discourages spam - and makes it more likely that we will see actual comments, later.

Blog owners choose how to allow comments.

As a blog owner, it's your choice how / whether to allow comments.

• Anyone - includes Anonymous Users.
• Everybody with a Google, or an OpenID, account.
• Everybody with a Google account.
• Blog members only.
• Comments disabled.

Blog readers choose how to publish comments.

Depending upon the choices that you provide, your readers choose how they may authenticate.

• "Anyone" allows a reader to comment anonymously - or identified.
• If they wish to comment anonymously, they login, using a CAPTCHA.
• If they wish to comment using a profile, they login, using an account.
• Login is generally only required, with the first comment.

"Anyone" allows a reader to comment anonymously - or identified.

"Anyone" allows anyone to comment anonymously (if they wish). To cut down on spam, anyone commenting has to login.

If they wish to comment anonymously, they login, using a CAPTCHA.

Solving a CAPTCHA lets them remain anonymous - but still identify themselves as a person, not a bot. Any comments, awaiting moderation, or published, are more likely to be genuine - not spam.

If they wish to comment using a profile, they login, using an account.

They can login, as permitted, using a Google or OpenID account. Anyone able to login with a Google or OpenID account can still publish a comment anonymously, if they wish.

Login is generally only required, with the first comment.

If someone has to login repeatedly, to comment, they have a problem with identification, and filters. With cookies and scripts properly permitted, login (with the first comment) will be remembered (with any later comments).

The Blogger / Google login status, and the ability to post comments, is sensitive to both cookie and script filters. Your readers may need to enable (stop filtering) "third party cookies", in their browser and on their computer - if they wish to comment, most easily.

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Both a #Blogger blog owner - and blog readers - get choices how to authenticate when commenting. Depending upon the choices made by the owner, the readers get more, or less, choices.

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If You Use CAPTCHA Screening On Your Blog, Try Publishing A Comment, As A Guest

Not all Blogger blog owners, using CAPTCHA screening to reduce abusive comments on their blogs, know first hand what the typical CAPTCHA puzzle can be like.

We're seeing a few concerned blog owners, in Blogger Help Forum: Something Is Broken, asking why they're seeing fewer comments on their blogs.

I'm hearing from people that they can't post comments on my blog. I tested, and comments are working just fine. What is the problem, here?

Not all blog owners bother to test the CAPTCHA, on their blogs - or even know why they don't see one, when commenting.

Not all blog owners, enabling Word verification in their blog commenting settings, bother to read the tool tip behind the "?".

Show word verification
This will require people leaving comments on your blog to complete a word verification step, which will help reduce comment spam. Learn more.
Blog authors will not see word verification for comments.

The simple advice

Blog authors will not see word verification for comments.

does not sink in, to everybody.

This leaves many blog owners unaware of how frustrating it may be, for their guests to comment, on their blogs.

If you're a blog owner, musing whether to add word verification to your blog, in an effort to cut down on the spamming and trolling going on in many blog comment threads, maybe you should try posting on your blog, as a guest. With "Show word verification" set to "Yes", logout from Blogger - or clear cache, cookies, and sessions (yes, all 3!) - then restart the browser, and try leaving a comment on your blog.

What you discover may not please you. Then ask yourself how many of your readers will have the patience, to solve a CAPTCHA, every time they wish to publish a comment?

As a blog owner, you have 3 settings which are used, in proper combination, to provide a safe environment for your readers to leave comments.

1. Authentication.
2. CAPTCHA Screening.
3. Moderation.

Consider using one or both of the other two options, if possible.

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Blogger Blogs And Commenting Permissions

Not all Blogger blog owners know that the ability to comment is a privilege which they control.

Like the ability to publish and read posts, it is also a responsibility which they need to control, carefully.

Any blog owner who wishes to publish a blog, and not be subject to frequent deletion of the blog, as a suspected malware or spam host, needs to understand the responsibilities, and the risks.

There are levels of ability to post comments to a blog, which you select.

Consider possible risks, if you allow comments.

You use the dashboard "Who can comment?" wizard, on the Settings - "Posts and comments" page. Please, protect yourself, if you allow comments.

"Comments" are now a section of the "Settings › Posts, comments and sharing" dashboard page.

• Anyone - includes Anonymous Users.
• Everybody with a Google, or an OpenID, account.
• Everybody with a Google account.
• Blog members only.
• Comments disabled.

Choose this setting with care. If you allow comments by "Anyone", prepare to deal with the spam.

Proper choice of comment authentication discourages spam - and encourages frequent and prompt moderation.

Note these controls are only available for Blogger Comments.

Google+ Comments are open to everybody - and only available in public blogs. There is no setting to restrict commenting to Circle members.

With Blogger Comments, the blog owner controls commenting, moderates, and removes spam. With Google+ Comments, anybody can comment, moderation is by the community, and the person publishing the comment owns and control visibility of the comment.

"Anonymous" includes the "Name / URL" option.

Note that anonymous users can post either anonymously, or using "Name / URL" tags, at their discretion, with "Anyone" selected. "Name / URL" does not provide authentication. "Anyone" means anyone, period.

You may also select CAPTCHA verification for everybody - except members.

Besides "Who can comment?", you may also control comment publishing using CAPTCHA (aka "word verification") screening, and using comment moderation. These settings, like "Who can comment?", are part of the Settings - "Posts and comments" wizard.

Note the these settings are not relevant, if Google+ Commenting is used on the blog.

Choose all settings, as a group, carefully.

Every blog owner, hoping for any visibility in the Blogosphere, needs to choose these settings carefully - or risk being buried by spam.

• Who can comment?
• Comment Moderation.
• Comment Notification Email.
• Show word verification

Comment Moderation, and Comment Notification Email, together, provide 2 settings which can bury your email Inbox, depending upon activity of commenting on your blog. Choose these settings wisely.

If you allow spam comments without control, you may later find yourself asking for help, in Blogger Help Forum: Something Is Broken

Help me! My blog was deleted by Blogger!

Protect your blog, and your blog's future, by allowing comments, responsibly.

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