Why Do You Use Captcha?

I like to comment on my friends blogs. I also like to enter giveaways on blogs. But I hate entering CAPTCHA codes. Sometimes they are annoyingly hard to read. And when I can't get it right after 2 tries, I just give up and don't leave a comment.

This is the text I saw on a recent CAPTCHA:
As a final step before posting your comment, enter the letters and numbers you see in the image below. This prevents automated programs from posting comments.

It makes me wonder, how many automated programs are out there trying to comment on stories about potty training or the newest birthday giveaway. Do programmers really go out of their way to write software to SPAM us?

I've had CAPTCHA turned off on my own blog for at least a year. And I have also deleted the rel=nofollow code. And I only get a few SPAM comments a week.

I want to challenge other mom bloggers to change their CAPTCHA settings for 2 weeks to see what kind of difference it makes. If SPAM reaches an unacceptable level, put it back on. Otherwise, give us busy moms a break and keep the CAPTCHA option turned off.

Comments

  1. AmandaSun Aug 29, 08:07:00 AM EDT

    I actually have it turned on because having it off *does* cause a significant increase in spam for me. We're talking big amounts of random spam postings of the usual suspects. This way, I figure the marketers and so forth have to work for space in my blog a bit harder ;)

    ReplyDelete
  2. allthingsnewSun Aug 29, 09:27:00 AM EDT

    You could turn it off but review comments before posting. That way you can still protect your blog while making it easier for those who want to leave comments...

    ReplyDelete
  3. AnonymousSun Aug 29, 10:00:00 AM EDT

    following with gfc. found u on the helping linky @ ten talents. :) i have mine turned off and and ive been bloggging 5 months w/ absolutely no spam yet. i hate when other blogs use it but for some i understand why, but ive not left comments several times because of issues w/ the captcha or the page refreshes so u think your comment posted but its just refreshing to ask for the captcha. it's a pain and time consuming. :/

    ReplyDelete
  4. Frugal Science GalSun Aug 29, 10:40:00 AM EDT

    I agree that it takes so much time to enter them in. I have turned them off on my blog too but still have the comments set up so I review them before I put them on my blog.

    Frugal Science Gal
    http://frugalsciencegal.blogspot.com/

    ReplyDelete
  5. Sybil HallSun Aug 29, 10:24:00 PM EDT

    Hmmm...will have to consider it, can't make a decision at this point.

    ReplyDelete
  6. NickieSun Aug 29, 10:53:00 PM EDT

    I have to admit that I do get a little aggravated when I type up a comment and hit enter only to find that I'm being taken to a CAPTCHA. I don't have captcha on mine, I'm using an awesome Spam blocker plug in for WP... since using it only 2 spam comments have made it through and I just deleted them. Even worse than the captcha on comments, though, is captcha on GFC!

    ReplyDelete
  7. AnonymousSun Aug 29, 11:00:00 PM EDT

    I don't have a blog, but do like to leave comments and enter giveaways on other's blogs. I hate the captcha, but even worse is when you think you have left a comment, only to find out you still have to deal with captcha. If that happens while I am entering a giveaway I will only do the mandatory, and not waste anymore time with the extra's.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Lisa DSun Aug 29, 11:10:00 PM EDT

    I have to put my 2 cents in here....I hate, despise, loathe captcha codes! I have a lonely little blog with only about 200 followers and don't get many comments. I had captcha off for months. Last week I got a ton of spam comments, so I turned it back on. I don't know why I got the spam comments and even posted an apology to my readers about turning captcha on.
    Personally, I may find an awesome giveaway with low entries and as soon as I see the captcha come up I will skip over it just because of the captcha.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Luke HolzmannMon Aug 30, 08:19:00 AM EDT

    Yes, I do hate it when Capcha suddenly appears after you're posted your comment. 'I thought I was done,' I think to myself.

    I didn't have Capcha for a long time because--I agree--it is rather annoying. But when you start getting ten times as many spam comments as real ones, I felt it was a better use of time to have people take a few moments to type in a random string of letters. [shrug]

    Much like spam email, I don't think anyone is creating comment robots specifically designed for the topics we write about. Instead, they are just hoping that they get a enough clicks to make it worth it. ...and they must because they still do it despite the counter measures. So someone has to be making money doing this.

    ~Luke

    ReplyDelete
  10. LeighMon Aug 30, 10:33:00 AM EDT

    I don't use captcha and don't think I ever will, as I have wordpress sites, I use the WP-Spamfree plugin, it catches a few thousand comments a month. I also use the keyword list for spam comments that's built right in to WP with common spam phrases, yet I still have to manually delete about 10 comments a day.

    ReplyDelete
  11. UnknownMon Aug 30, 12:34:00 PM EDT

    I have taken your challenge & turned mine off.
    I like the idea of haing the approval process instead. Maybe I'll use that in the future. For now, we'll see how it goes..

    ReplyDelete
  12. Table for SixMon Aug 30, 03:13:00 PM EDT

    I'm not a fan on the CAPTCHA, I don't use it. I don't get much spam at all... but then again I'm not a huge big time blogger either.

    ReplyDelete
  13. Cris RMon Aug 30, 06:06:00 PM EDT

    I think the captcha thing was put on this earth to punish us. Surely they can come up with something a little easier to read. Insofar as the nofollow... I can understand why spam irritates the blog owners, but it is my experience that the spammers are gonna spam no matter what.

    I appreciate the little bit of juice I get if I leave a thoughtful comment. Thank you.

    ReplyDelete

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