Saturday, November 10, 2012

Dead with Comments

Earlier this week I got an email from a stitching blog reader who would love to leave comments for all the blogs she follows but is unable to get through the "Prove You Are Not A Robot" authentication no matter how hard she tries. It seems to be something about her account. She asked me to let all blog writers know that thee are plenty of folks like her, who read and enjoy stitching blogs but aren't able to leave messages.

I don't know about other blog software but Blogger allows writers to turn on authentication of comments and I do that.  This means I have to OK each and every comment but it also means that automated spam is filtered out and the folks who send selling messages to every blog they can find are eliminated before they get to Blog.  I get an average of one spam message a week, but they normally come in clumps of 3-4 one day and then nothing for a week or two until they find Blog again and attempt to post messages.  The latest scam they use is a flattering message about how great your blog is with a link to their site.  All these are marked as spam and deleted before you ever see them.

The down side is that legit comments don't always get through.  That's why when I post a message I know will create a lot of comments I always post my email address so that folks who can't get through Comments can at least email me privately and I can post their message for them.  I would encourage other stitching bloggers to do the same.  You can even set up a free email account just for these messages which is what I have done.  I don't use my private email address, that is for my family to send messages to only.

I promised to mention this problem as it is very frustrating to loyal blog fans.  You have readers you don't know about because they are rendered mute.  I'm not advocating turning off the authentication, mind.  If you do that, you are going to be victimized by spammers and worse.  But I can't comment on most (but not all) WordPress blogs myself.  I know how frustrating that is!

In other news, I've added a photo of Sherry Bray's Day of the Dead lady (she taught Pocito who has the green background at Queen Anne Stitches in Santa Clarita, CA this summer)  to the CH Stitch Guides blog. Sherry is selling the guide for her version if you are interested.  To see Sherry's skeleton all dressed up and ready to rock, pleases click on the magic carpet photo on the right side of this page.  You will be magically whisked away to the other blog to admire Sherry's work.

Written by Jane/Chilly Hollow
Blogging at http://chillyhollownp.blogspot.com
and at http://chstitchguides.blogspot.com

4 comments:

Stephanie Wong said...

Queen Ann is in Santa Clarita, not Santa Clara.

The Chilly Hollow Needlepoint Adventure said...

Thanks for the clarification. I guess spell checker got me that time. I'll change it in the text.

Needle Nicely said...

Jane, I think the letters/numbers are getting progressively more difficult. I just had my eye exam and I'm "perfect" (well, we knew that already) and I'm having trouble, especially with the number portion. Fie on them!

Needle Nicely said...

And it just got me! I managed to enter the code, then realized I had used an incorrect word, changed it and by George the code was indecipherable! So maybe we should tell people to just keep trying, because some of them are legible.