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I've been away all week so apologies for the catchup.
1. Do NOT require people to register to comment. It's a barrier to
discussion (in other words, it's usually too much hassle for most people).
2. Captcha images (the wobbly words) are ok, but you can also try a simple
question/response challenge (question: what colour is a red bus? the reader
types the answer into a text box to confirm they are a real person and not a
spambot. (ohh and the answer is red)).
3. FAO of Chris Borokowski - personal blog is at www.onemanblogs.co.uk
(www.gordonmclean.co.uk is my homepage, remember them?!). It will have a
face soon...
4. Host wise I use asmallorange.com. Have heard good things about Dreamhost
and 34sp (in UK).
5. I use Akismet on both my WordPress powered blogs and it rarely lets spam
through, it does occasionally trap legitimate comments, but that's part of
the weekly maintenance I guess.
I'm now off to check my stats to see how many of you have visited. Yes, it's
the curse of the blogger - stat-watching!
Gordon McLean
-----Original Message-----
From: techwr-l-bounces+gordon -dot- mclean=grahamtechnology -dot- com -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
[mailto:techwr-l-bounces+gordon -dot- mclean=grahamtechnology -dot- com -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- c
om] On Behalf Of Claire Conant
Sent: 08 February 2008 17:31
To: McLauchlan, Kevin; Tom Johnson; techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
Subject: Re: practicalities of blogging
I know Blogger has people do that security word feature. It's set up in the
options, I believe. However, I promise you, with the hosted Wordpress I have
not had spam issues. I think in the more than a year I've been blogging I've
had to deal with - literally - three spam comments that made it past the
Akismet spam blocker. It's a non-issue for me.
Being required to enter that weird word code doesn't bother me. Now,
however, Blogger has a feature that once you've commented and entered your
Wordpress, Typepad, or other blog information, it remembers you and you
don't have to keep doing it. You just enter your URL. At least for the
dozens of blogs I visit, that's how it works.
For the visually impaired, I have no recommendations.
--------------------------------------------------
From: "McLauchlan, Kevin" <Kevin -dot- McLauchlan -at- safenet-inc -dot- com>
> What about that security feature that forces a commenter to read a
> distorted image of a word, then type in the exact word, as an
> anti-spamming provision?
> Is that available as a standard WordPress feature? Or is it a feature
> that must be supplied by the hosting service? Or is it just a plug-in
> freebie? Or not available?
> Other?
>
> I know I recently saw it on a blog (didn't pay attention if it was a
> WordPress blog) and thought it a smart idea, copied from other
> security/authentication situations I'd previously encountered.
>
> And while I'm on that sub-topic, are any of you dear readers offended
> by being forced to indulge measures like that, or do you accept it as
> a minor inconvenience, well worth the trouble to keep the spammers down?
>
> Also, what alternative should be provided for the visually impaired?
>
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