Friday, February 13, 2009

The Polls Are Now Open

Please vote in my exciting polls over there. ==>

In addition to the polls at the right side of your screen, I'd love to hear your comments on how you feel about the word verification and comment moderation features.

But, before you start haranguing me for being stuck-up or defensive or paranoid or whatever, first consider my reasons for using both:

When I started this blog, I received quite a few spam comments. I got more spam than real comments. (Then again, I only had two readers, so maybe that's not surprising). Even with the word verification, I still get an occasional spam comment, but only occasionally. I also don't mind the word verification on other blogs; sometimes they are rather amusing or cryptically on point and I get a chuckle. But I understand some folks really hate it. Here is your chance to tell me how you feel about it.

I've enabled comment moderation only for posts more than a few days old. I do not use it to selectively publish comments; in fact, I've never failed to publish one unless it was clearly spam, or a duplicate (when someone accidentally hit the "submit" button twice). I just use the moderation feature so I will be notified that the comments are there. I love your comments. I hang on your every word. I don't want to miss any of them. But I don't check my email very often -- maybe once every week or two, depending on how busy I am. And although I generally scroll down through the most recent two or three posts to see if there are new comments, I don't want to have to scroll down through all of the old posts every day just to see if I've got new comments. Thus, the comment moderation is an easy way for me to know that I've got a new comment on an older post.

Now that you've considered my reasons, I still want to know if I am annoying you all with one or both of these features, and thereby reducing the number of comments I get. If that is the case, I will remove one or both of them. After all, I hang on your every word. I am a comment junkie. I crave your approval, disapproval, and/or apathy -- so long as it is expressed in comment form.... so I'll do what it takes to encourage more comments, even if it means checking my email more often and/or deleting spam more often. But if you find them only mildly annoying and it won't make a difference to the number of comments I get, I will likely leave these features as they are now.

So, use the polls at the right to register your opinion!

And use the "post a comment" button at the bottom of each post to tell me how much you love me (or not...)!

9 comments:

SkylersDad said...

I don't like moderation or word verification. But that's just me, I almost never get spam, so it isn't an issue on my blog. I just wish the word verification was something a bit less than 8 damn characters! What's wrong with 3 to prove you are human?

Peggy said...

I don't like word verification but I still post a comment regardless...sometimes my screen will stick on the publish your comment part and I get frustrated . Sometimes when that happens I leave without commenting .
I had the word verification on my comment page before but removed it. Have not gotten any spam yet..fingers crossed!

Jenners said...

Well, I always prefer blogs that don't have word verification or comment moderation but I'll comment anyway. I've never gotten spam on my blog yet ... if I did, I might add the word verification back in. Wonder why you got so many????

And I never check my gmail account directly. However, there is a setting you can use to have all comments sent directly to an e-mail address that you do check. And you can have your gmail account get forwarded to your regular e-mail too. And then I set up rules that file the blog e-mails in a separate folder so I can view them easier.

Hope this is helpful. : )

Bella@That damn expat said...

Well, you know my views but I voted anyway. What can I say, I'm a voter!

With you, and the rest of my favorite blogs I comment even if I have to do the word verif four times (it happens!) but if it happens on a newer blog sometimes I just say 'screw it' and leave.

Karin said...

I just got here - my first visit - and already you have me engaged. My comments really matter? Wow - maybe I'll be back. I voted!

Alice said...

Whatever you feel confortable with is ok with me!!!

dmarks said...

Moderation does not bother me. What I really hate are the captcha words when they can't be read at all.

Speaking of which, are you running the blog in socialist mode? The captcha right now that I have to type in is "commi". In red letters, no less.

Whiskeymarie said...

I'm not a fan of the word verification, and I know it's annoying for most people, but the last time I tried to get rid of it I got a zillion spam comments in one day. So, I'm pretty much stuck with it.

Comment moderation- I understand why some people need it, it's just hard to keep up with a thread or not know if you're saying exactly the same thing as someone else. I always feel stupid when that happens. But it's not a deal-breaker for me.

Fancy Schmancy said...

I put it on after my first spam comment. I must admit I'm not really sure HOW to delete comments. I took it off today after reading Bella's etiquette post, and we'll see what happens. I have no problem doing it on other peoples' blogs, though.