Word Verification, etc...

Wow, that Word Verification has really gotten super difficult to read. I am thinking about removing it from my blogs. Several of you have said that you feel the same way. As far as turning off Comment Moderation, well, no can do because several of my blogs have been targeted by the same spammer. With Comment Moderation, their "comments" never got published on my blogs. Plus, since I have Email Notification turned on, their spam never reached my email inbox. Thank goodness for that. Had I been offline asleep, their spam would have been published and would have reached my email if Comment Moderation were turned off. (Yes, if you have Comment Moderation turned off and Email Notification turned on, all will go to your inbox, spam and non-spam, viruses and all that bad stuff along with the good stuff).

Some have told me that I am a no reply email. I do this not to be unfriendly, but for the same reason as above: spam and hackers. While you blogger friends are certainly not spammers and hackers, making an email address public also makes it easily available to spammers and hackers. This is a risk that is too risky. Creating a special email account for this also does no good, as that email address would be checked on with my computer, which still would leave my computer open to viruses and the such. This is why, on most of my blogs, I have a sidebar Email Me image that goes to a free email form. I can be contacted through these free forms, and yes they do have word verification but it is easy to read. These forms do not reveal my email address, and I can choose from my email to not open emails that look suspicious. Only if I reply does the sender get my email address. This system works very well for me, and I check the email account that they go to on a daily basis. This is the link for the free email forms: Email Me Form.com

The reason I do not have Comments embedded below my posts is simply because when there are several comments, that makes the blog page very long. People usually do not like to have to scroll until their wrist is nearly strained. I am still debating on whether to change that back from my current pop-up window.

Back to the Word Verification. 'Still thinking of turning that off. The Comment Moderation will still help stop spamming and hacking. I agree with you all that having to try 3 or 4 times to read those characters and getting told you entered the wrong ones is a major pain. What are your thoughts on these things?