Monday, February 20, 2012

Smelling a Rat

I'm sure you've all noticed Blogger's charming new word verification scheme: two words (one of them often illegible) to be typed into a box to "prove you're not a robot" and thus leave a comment.

Sometimes the illegible word is partly readable; sometimes it's visual gibberish - in which case I am forced to make a wild surmise and simply type in my best guess. Yet somehow, Blogger always accepts what I type, and never challenges me to try again.

I'd begun to wonder if it even mattered what I typed in. My suspicions have now been confirmed. Whilst leaving a comment over on Angela's blog tonight, one of the required verification words was... wait for it... in Greek. I kid you not. I don't mean merely a Greek word, I mean a word written in the Greek alphabet. (The only letter I even recognized was the Omega, which looks like a capital O with an open bottom and a little foot [serif?] sticking out on each side.)

How in the world was I supposed to type Greek letters on a Roman keyboard? (And why didn't I capture a screen shot so you could see what I was up against?)

So I typed in something that very vaguely resembled the Greek word, followed by the other more legible word, and Blogger accepted it.

Hmm.

Perhaps getting one out of two is all they require.

Seems a bit fishy to me.

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16 comments:

  1. Sore spot for me right now! I just spent an hour on a slow dial-up connection trying to find a way to turn it off because I'm getting complaints people can't read the stupid symbols (just as you've so eloquently described), and it appears you can't turn it off anymore. Grrrrrrrr!

    You also are on the lucky end of Captcha approval! I've been denied so many times today, I have to reboot my computer and clear my cache to get Blogger to treat me like a real blogger and not a repeat spam offender!!!

    Hi, welcome back, missed you, sorry to rant...

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  2. Hi again, I'm back! You don't have it on your blog, so you probably don't care, but I finally found the switch. You have to go into the old blogger interface, into the comment tools. I've turned that piece of ... non-essential... um... garbage off. :)

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    1. Thanks for the info, Deb. Also for the linguistic self-restraint. :)

      (Don't forget: you can always use the top row of the keyboard while holding down the "shift" key to add zing to your comments whilst keeping them within the bounds of bloggerly decorum.)

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  3. Same here. Off, off, off.

    Renee :)

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  4. Those pesky WVs have been annoying the pants off almost everyone I know. I find them very intrusive and hope that everyone will stop them. But as for Greek letters!

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  5. First of all, what in the world were they doing, putting a Greek-in-Greek word, up for us to type?????

    Dang-it Blogger!!!

    "If you read a lot, nothing is as great as you've imagined.
    Venice is -- Venice is better."


    ~Fran Lebowitz

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  6. It was been a challenge, some days anything I type in works and some days nothing I type in works.

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  7. So far it accepts anything I have typed. However, I do find it like looking at one of those pictures where you see the old lady or the young lady. :) Perhaps I'll try to turn it off and hope the robots don't find me again. Glad you are back, Sue!

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  8. I am grateful for your comment on my blog - and feel obliged to point out that the Greek has nothing to do with me!
    I know a few words - like agape and charis [love, grace] bt I think this new blogger system is barmy

    blessings x

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  9. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  10. Sorry Sue, here I go again.


    Unfortunately I have to disappoint you by adding that I have had my gibberish stab-a-guess at the illegible word turned down on more than one occasion. It really, really drives me mad how difficult it is becoming to simply post a reasonably intelligent comment on someone's more intelligent blog. Present company included here, of course!

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  11. It has been driving me nuts too. So pleased to see a way to turn it off up at the top of your comments - off to try on my blog, spent ages looking this afternoon but couldn't work it out. Juliex

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  12. I've thought that maybe they only accept one comment, but unfortunately not. Sometimes I've gone through 3 lots before it will accept a comment. Such a nusiance I don;t know why they changed it.

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  13. I haven't seen too many moans about this, and I was surprised as I was beginning to think it was all aimed at me (not really, but I thought I was the only one stupid enough to be holding the iPad up to my nose to decipher)

    I have, thanks to snow catcher removed mine now (I think) so let the spam begin!

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  14. It's a fishy rat! I haven't switched to the new Blogger interface, so I had hoped that my blog comments weren't requiring the two-very-hard-to-read words. I just signed off to see what happens when I go to my blog as a guest, and dad-blast-it! (how's that for a swear?) It's everywhere. Maybe I'll try turning it off to see if spam will say away without it.

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  15. I turned mine off too. Sadly, I wasn't always able to get it to trake what I typed.

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