Captcha Craptcha! How to remove captcha.

WELCOME!

Welcome everyone to the 
Captcha Craptcha Blogfest of 2012.

and a special welcome to James Van Der Beek
and my co-hosts James Duckett, Randy Lindsay, and Jolene Perry

I'm sure you are familiar with captcha even if you don't know it by that name (AND even if you have no idea who James Van Der Beek is or what he has to do with any of this.) Captcha is defined below* but basically it's those squiggly words and photos of numbers that you are asked to type in to 'verify you are not a robot.'

As a new blogger it didn't take me long to realize that this affected whether I would comment on someone's blog or not. It is a hoop that is sometimes too hard (come on, look at that blob above!), impossible (like on mobile phones or when your computer is just being weird), or, let's be honest, I'm feeling too darn lazy to take the extra time.

Then one day it hit me. DO I HAVE THIS ON MY BLOG? Guess what? I did!

But not any more.

And neither should you.

As promised I will help you to remove captcha* from from Blogger

(If you blog with another host I would love to hear about it in the comments.)

BLOGGER:

If you go into your SETTINGS at the bottom of the left side bar you will find that it has a subset of choices. The second choice there is POSTS AND COMMENTS. Choose that one and you should have something that looks like this:

I have scrolled down past POSTS and into COMMENTS.

To remove captcha just go down to SHOW WORD VERIFICATION and say, NO.

JUST SAY NO.

If you want extra security you can do a few things. Under WHO CAN COMMENT you can narrow it down to Registered Users, or only people with Google Accounts, or even only people who are in your GFC. But just know that the more you narrow it down the fewer comments you will get.

Another option is COMMENT MODERATION. If you want to verify all of the comments through your blog you can do that. It really isn't that hard to do and people generally don't mind waiting to see their comments. The only no-no with moderation is to captcha THEN moderate. It feels so redundant.

Then make sure to SAVE SETTINGS in the top right corner.

ONE LAST WORD:

I can't let this go unsaid. Though I love being a hyperbole-kinda person I must admit that there is some good going on with captcha. If you have some time watch this video which illustrates the good and the bad of captcha. (Plus, it's just plain inspirational)



*What the crud is Captcha?
-Wikipedia says: A CAPTCHA ( /ˈkæp.tʃə/) is a type of challenge-response test used in computing as an attempt to ensure that the response is generated by a human being...A common type of CAPTCHA requires the user to type letters and/or digits from a distorted image that appears on the screen. Such tests are commonly used to prevent unwanted internet bots from accessing websites.

Still not convinced?
HERE IS A WHOLE SITE DEDICATED TO HORRIBLE CAPTCHAS
HERE IS A FUNNY FOUR MINUTE VIDEO OF SCOTT STRATTEN HATING CAPTCHA
HERE IS AN INTERESTING ALTERNATIVE TO CAPTCHA (are you a human)

I'm not the only one hating on captcha today.

Pop around to my friends sites below and hear what they have to say about it.

and if you wanna join the fun feel free, the linky will be up all day!

Friend Friday: James Duckett

Guest Post: Since age 7, James Duckett has wanted to be a writer. After not finding his true callings as a perfume salesman, fence painter, accordion player, radio DJ, and popsicle maker he has decided to refocus on being the man his 7-year-old youth wanted him to be. James is going to be a published author. Join him on the journey at www.jamesduckett.com



Keep All of Your Writing
James Duckett



I’ve been told several times that writers should never just cut large sections of their book out, but should instead save them in a file to possibly use another time. Until recently, I thought this was a mediocre idea, at best! However, it costs me virtually nothing to follow this practice so I did it anyways.

A couple of weeks ago I needed an idea for a story. So I opened up my master file of abandoned writings and started to scroll through. And there it was! An idea that I had a year ago that never panned out. This time it jumped out and spoke to me saying, “What if this setting wasn’t an island, but an alternate universe?”

And that was exactly what I needed at the time. Since then, this story has blossomed in ways it never did before. But it never would have come to fruition if I hadn’t stored what I thought was of little to no worth.

So now I drink from the “keep everything” Kool-Aid bowl! You should too!