(Firstly, apologies if my review of Love at Second Sight, see below, appears twice in Google Reader etc. – I published it early by mistake, then deleted and republished!)
I’ve found the discussion on yesterday’s post so, so interesting and helpful – thank you so much for joining in, if you did. I hope it was clear that my post was talking to myself, as much as anyone, and that I was trying to address a more general point about the blogosphere, rather than just my blog. I’m glad so many of us are going to make the same commenting resolution for 2013! (Although this particular little post can probably be ignored, commentingwise ;) )
Just an update – I recently reinstated the word verification (having had it off for ages) because I was sick of getting dozens of spam comments everyday. Blogger works out that they’re spam, and they don’t appear here, but they fill up my inbox. However, after feedback yesterday, I’ve removed the word verification – as that does seem to make quite a difference to people’s experience of commenting.
Happy Thursday! I’ll be spending much of my day on a train – but it’ll be worth it, cos I’m going hoooome for Chriiiiistmas! I’ll reply to all of your comments (another thing which seems to make a difference, and which is a heck of a lot more fun for me than deleting spam emails!) as soon as I can.
I bet you can turn off it sending spam comments to your inbox. My WordPress blogs save them up for me in a special place on the interface so I can still check if one has got marked as spam that isn't …
Maybe I should check that, Liz, thank you…
A lot of these spam messages are attached to older posts and it was suggested to me that if introdiced comment moderation on posts over a fortnight old that would help. I did that and although they still come, there are lot less.
I do have moderation on posts older than seven days, which helps catch any that get through the blog filter from appearing on the blog, but I still have to delete them from my inbox…
I understand why you had the word verification thing Simon as spam can be a pain. Luckily WordPress has a thing as mentioned above which identifies them and lets you check them before deleting or approving. They've been spot on so far in picking up what is spam and what isn't!
Blogger is pretty good, but there are one or two people who routinely end up in spam, for some reason… sorry, Diana Birchall, you are one of them!
Unfortunately since Akismet went paid I've been dealing with a ton of spam, it is a pain and I can understand you wanting to limit it. Deleting manually means giving all your attention so you don't accidentally delete a real comment. Hope your journey goes well and train is on time!
I hadn't heard of Akismet – I might investigate; I might even be willing to pay for it…
Happy Christmas Simon. Have a lovely break & see you in the New Year.
thanks Alison!
I did the same thing – put on the word verification, and had people writing me that they couldn't comment, so I took it off. I do moderate so the spam doesn't automatically show up on the blog. I open the spam folder a few times a day, and probably delete 50 or more every day. Some of them are so weird.
The word verification was ok until recently – it's just got completely illegible now.
Happy Christmas Simon and best wishes to your family – I hope you all have a wonderful time.
thanks so much, Christine!