About Those Comment Verifications...

Apparently the recent change that Blogger has made to the comment verifications on some blogs... is driving a lot of people totally CRAZY! LoL I've struggled with it a few times myself (taking multiple tries to get the "right" words), so thought I'd better check and see if I was one of those blogs... I couldn't find anything about it in my settings, so I did the next best thing (I thought) and did a test comment on my blog, and was NOT asked for verification. I thought I was in the clear. Wrong.

Luckily, someone who did fight the "prove you're not a robot" fight, asked very kindly in her comment if I'd consider turning off my verifications... huh? I thought they were off! Sure enough, when I checked again (while logged OUT of blogger) there they were, those fuzzy gray words you can barely make out. Grrr... evidently you only see the verification words on your own blog when you're logged out of Blogger. I looked again in my settings (I use the new blogger interface)... nothing about comment verifications, whatsoever.

So I Googled it -- and it seems to be a problem a lot of people are having. But I did find an answer and thought I'd pass along the secret for anyone who's having the same problem I was. From everything I read, it seems you can't turn them off through the new interface. Here are the steps to take if you're using the new interface and want to turn them off:

- Log into your Blogger account
- Click on Blogger options (which doesn't SAY Blogger options, but just looks like a little cogwheel) at the top right, beneath your name.
- Click on "Old Blogger Interface"
- You'll recognize the old Blogger dashboard now. Click on "Settings" in the list below your blog's name.
- Click on the "Comments" tab.
- Scroll down to "Show word verification for comments" and click "no."
- Scroll to the bottom of the page and click "Save Settings."
- At the very top of the page, click the link that says, "Try the updated Blogger interface."
- And you should be back where you started, minus verifications.

I can't say firsthand whether this will bring on more spam comments, but from the several posts I've seen on the subject, it doesn't seem to be a problem. If it is, you can always switch it back. I just don't want this to cause anyone to NOT comment on my blog, so I'm happy to switch it off (now that I finally figured out how)! Let's face it, we all love comments. Sometimes a kind blog comment can be the brightest spot in your day!

By the way, if you try to leave a comment on this post, and you're asked to prove you're not a robot -- PLEASE let me know! Then I'll just have a good scream and start Googling again.

But I'm pretty sure it's fixed. :o)