Saturday, February 18, 2012

Piggy Buddy and Verification



Hey, everyone, I'm finally here.  Blogger kept loading a little x-box with no photo but it finally loaded the real me. I have lots to say today, so I'm going to get right to the news. 

We've had some questions about where we got the blue section bowl Buddy our ravenous pig ... um, our too-rapid-swallow-whole eater has his nose in.  We got the bowl from a review we did in 2008 on DogPauseBowls.  We had questions and posted on How the DogPauseBowls Work shortly after that.  They are made by a company called -- big surprise! -- DogPause.  Buddy doesn't recommend it for the obvious reason that it slows down his eating but Jan likes it for the same reason.



We are sorry that Jaime of Thoughts for Paws has lost another beloved pet to cancer.  This time it was her sister's Basset Hound Henry the Peanut. We send purrs, woofs and pawhugs to the family.


Bitey & Beau
We were aware that River the Beagle's brother Beau died January 17 but we didn't know Beau's birth brother Bitey died on February 2, just two weeks later. We had so hoped this would be a happier year for River's family after their losses in 2011.  We send purrs, woofs and pawhugs to his family also.


We have written on this subject before but this time we are so frustrated we were seriously tempted to delete all blogger blogs with word verification from our bookmarked list and Google Reader.  Why?  Because blogger word verification  is unnecessary and time wasting!  Blogger has had a good spam filter for a long time now and many are not taking advantage of the filter. 

It seems like a week ago already but we think it was Thursday blogger suddenly changed their word verification process and many bloggers (including us) are already fed up with trying to leave a comment on any blog using it.  It is putting up one word and one totally unintelligible non-word with a dark background that a computer program can't decipher but neither can we.  And that crap it has about if we get it wrong, not to worry, we can just keep trying and getting rejected?  Forget it!  No one has time or patience to play innumerable stupid word games. 

And don't be fooled by thinking if visitors don't want to play word games, they can just use the audio.  Have you tried the audio?  We did, in total desperation.  And the background noise is so loud we couldn't make out the mumble of the numbers we were supposed to be typing.

We don't want to tell anyone what to do, but we strongly suggest if you'd like visitors to read your blog posts AND leave a comment that you turn off word verification. 

Anonymous comments are generally but not always spam comments.  We have friends who don't blog so we hated to turn off Anonymous comments but we did so Friday and switched to Registered Users (includes Open ID) to see how that works. If it causes you any problems, please let us know..  Our goal is to make your visit easy and fun.

We already had comment moderation turned on for older posts only.  That is where our spam was being left.  Blogger was tossing it into the spam file but it does waste our time deleting it and blogger's time saving it for us to delete. We (ir)regularly check our spam list to be sure blogger has not accidentally relegated any friends' comments there and then delete.

Blogger does do a good job of filtering.  If you ever do get a spam comment, don't just delete it from the post.  Go to the comment list to find it, check the box in front of it and tell blogger it's spam by clicking the spam button.  It isn't hard to train the filter to tell the difference.

If you don't know how to turn off word verification, ask us or another blogger.  We'd be happy to help if we can.   You can not see word verification on your own blog when signed in, so perhaps you've had word verification turned on so long you no longer realize you have it on.  Check your settings.  If you don't know how to find them, ask someone.  We're all here to help each other.

Of course, if you don't want to turn off word verification, we'll still visit you and so will many others, but we won't be able to leave comments.

PS - We just read  Little Cat Feet's post Word Purgatory and just love the way they described the new wv audio.  Stop by and read it.  It's short.  :)

Oh, and PPS - Frankie Furter has found the good in this new trial and error wv frustration.  And he's right.  Outta EVERY.. BAD THINGY...  You get the idea 

36 comments:

  1. Good Morning! I also noticed when I was commenting on other blogs that the word verification was hard to read--On one blog it took me at least 3 tries to get it right. So I've disabled it on my blog too. I had been getting loads of spam comments which was why I did it in the first place. Hopefully I'm off the radar, and I won't get bombarded again.

    Enjoy your weekend!!

    ReplyDelete
  2. I think what annoys me most is how Blogger so knows it can do pretty much whatever it wants, whenever, however, without rhyme or reason. :-(

    Awww hello Rusty!

    p.s. purrs and prayers to angel Henry's and to angels Bitey and Beau's families. Very sad! :-(

    Take care
    x
    x

    ReplyDelete
  3. Amen! re the word verificarion!!! What a nightmare. I hope everyone gets the message, as leaving comments on those blogs that have it are almost impossible.

    I haven't had one spam comment find its way onto the blog, they always go into spam box and like you I go in from time time and delete.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Mum hates that new word verification - we (whispers) have never had any W.V. on our blog and have never had a problem - but don't tell anyone!
    Luv Hannah and Lucy xx xx

    ReplyDelete
  5. Bowsers, we agree that word verification is tough.

    Essex & Sherman

    ReplyDelete
  6. I was very sad to hear about sweet Henry too. I'm with you on the word verification thingy, my Dad's eyes just can't read one of those words, hardly ever.

    ReplyDelete
  7. We agree with you about WV. We have not used it since soon after we started blogging, and Blogger catches all our spam comments for us. We check with Dashboard about once a week and do a quick check that there are no legitimate comments there, and delete all. If we visit a blog with the new WV, if it is wrong first time, we don't try again so don't leave a comment.
    We had the same problem with pictures not loading yesterday and checked on the Blogger help forum. Several people were having the same problem, so we were relieved to know it wasn't our computer at fault.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Amen to that! Today we ARE seeing a number of blogs turning off the WV option. Most annoying.

    So sorry to hear about Henry. And yes, tough times for River's family.

    Woos - Phantom, Thunder, Ciara, and Lightning

    ReplyDelete
  9. Ditto on that d*mn word verification. We're hardly commenting anyway, it's a huge pain in the *ss to have to reload half a dozen times and still not be able to make out the entire verification. We stopped allowing anonymous comments quite a long time ago and that's taken care of most of our spam. And we do have moderation on for older posts also. Seems to work just fine this way.

    ReplyDelete
  10. I have been so frustrated that I have started leaving comments for the blogger about this. After all, they may not have encountered it. How many of us put a comment on our own blogs I may lose friends and I will be sad.

    ReplyDelete
  11. There is so much to complain about when it comes to Blogger that it makes me glad my blog is on a self-hosted Wordpress format.

    ReplyDelete
  12. We are so glad we are not using blogger! We can just automate spam filters on our own! And yes, the new catcha is HORRIBLE--and so is the audio--we often try that even on the old blogger blogs.

    ReplyDelete
  13. I am so glad that you said it all so VERY clearly. THIS is supposed to be FUN.. not NOT NOT WORK!! I am now down to giving it ONE try and ONLY ONE.. then I just click off and move ON.
    I got rid of WV AGES ago and have had no problems with Spam getting put up... BUTT I do check the list of Spam.. OFTEN and I DO find a few of my furends' comments there... so I just Mark them as NOT spam and Poof they get published.
    I realize that Saturday and Sunday are Slow Blog Days... butt I have already noticed about 12 blogs that DID have WV and NOW have DUMPED it.. just since this started on Thursday.
    I HOPE AND PRAY that EVERYbuddy decides to take a Dump on it.

    ReplyDelete
  14. Me hates the new word verification! It is awful! Me has never had word verification - even when me had a blogger blog, and mes never had problems with spam, even when me had turned on the Comment must be approved by blog owner
    Thanks for the big newsy post. Me loves them.
    Kisses
    Nellie

    ReplyDelete
  15. So sorry to hear about Henry and also the Rivers family..so sad.
    Word verification is driving us nuts here!
    Have a good weekend
    Big Nose Pokes
    The Thugletsx

    ReplyDelete
  16. I took off word verification almost a year ago and opened up both Sweet Praline's and Sweet Purrfections blogs to anonymous. I've had very little problems and tend to keep it this way. I must admit that I'm getting frustrated leaving comments with word verification, too.

    ReplyDelete
  17. we turned off the word verification---ABSURD
    Benny & Lily
    PEE S so sorry about Henry

    ReplyDelete
  18. It took us 2 days ta figure out how ta turn off the WV! The NEW blogger interface wont let you do that (far as we can tell). We finally found out how to revert to the OLD interface (the gear icon in the upper right). We turned off the WV there an went back to the NEW interface.

    ReplyDelete
  19. we notice that too....ours have never been on and we don't get spam - in fact the spam finder was so good it caught a couple of real comments. :)

    ReplyDelete
  20. the new word verification is Evil !!! Me and mom don't like it too.

    and I'm sending purrs for your friend's family and many hugs to them.

    xoxo

    ReplyDelete
  21. Thank you for mentioning our beautiful boys Bitey & Beau. They left a big hole in our hearts.

    We had to struggle mightily to find a way to get rid of the word verification. Esp. if you've put the new 'draft blogger' as your default. You just need to find your blog through www.blogger.com/home

    Our WV is off now.

    love & wags,
    River

    ReplyDelete
  22. We hate that new word verification! And we did listen to the audio after Little Cat Feet mentioned it! That was even worse! We couldn't understand what was being said!!

    ReplyDelete
  23. We don't like word verification either. Mom didn't realize that good posts could get stuck in spam and just checked and found a whole bunch of friend's comments there.

    The Florida Furkids

    ReplyDelete
  24. Mowzers, we sooo sorry to hear about all River's family's gone through with their losses :(

    And, uh...word verification? We don't see it in any of the sub-pages under settings. What gives?

    ReplyDelete
  25. The mom ranted about the new verification too on Friday along with directions for turning it off & asking kitties to write to google to complain. We're happy to report that almost all blogs we've visited feel the same and have turned off their wv.

    ReplyDelete
  26. We blogged about the word verification, too. It's insane....so we've turned it off and have taken up Frankie's (Furter) idea of ony trying twice.

    If we were more technical terriers we'd go to Wordpress.

    XXXOOO Daisy, Bella & Roxy

    We did leave messages on Blogger help--that's an oxymoron.

    ReplyDelete
  27. THAT is one of the best commentary's ever on this new Google system!!!

    ReplyDelete
  28. We are going to try wif out WV, the mom turned it on because lots of spammy comments were coming through - mainly asian porn sites (what is wrong wif dem??) and now a few others trying to put a link for other websites on our bloggy. We may have to resort to comment verification if that continues =( Lets hope not, the mom doesnt spend far enuf time bloggin as she should wif us!!

    Molly
    Shadow
    Trooder
    Mooch
    Foster Mustachio

    ReplyDelete
  29. What a super duper post. "The Boys" and don't use blogger or the try to figure out the word verification thingey but we do appreciate your comments about it. It is frustrating when you can't tell what the word is.

    Love the shot of the doggy with the blue bowl.

    ReplyDelete
  30. We blogged about the WV too just this past Friday. WE hate it too, and have pretty much decided if a blog employs and we want to leave a comment we will try ONCE. If it doesn't take ... oh well. We have never used verification and after a few years we finally started getting some spam. So we fixed the comments so no anonymous comments and triggered approval after 3 days. Like you said most spam comes in very early comments. why they are going back to 2006 I don't know, but each time these spammers try I go in to that post and close the comments. That has really taken care of spam on older posts.
    purrs
    >^,,^<
    ♥Abby♥Boo♥Ping♥Jinx♥Grace♥

    ReplyDelete
  31. We want to say what Kim at the Golden Pines said! Trying it now and hopefully we'll be ok.

    ReplyDelete
  32. We're so sad that River's family has had so much sadness. We are sending them lots of purrs and prayers.

    The new Blogger word verification is ludicrous! We have turned ours off, too.

    ReplyDelete
  33. I turned off the WV months ago, it is a pain in the rear as far as I'm concerned!

    ReplyDelete
  34. We get very little spam, and it is usually on an old post. Since it comes in the mail, we can go directly to it and delete.
    Very interesting post and we were so sorry to read about Beau and Bitey. So very sad..
    Hope you have a nice Monday,
    ~ The Bunch and Bob and Patrick

    ReplyDelete
  35. Thanks for the heads-up about the word verification. I didn't even realize it was still ON my blog! Sorry!

    Buttons

    ReplyDelete

Thanks for coming by for a visit. We love to hear from you.