I read an interesting blog article and decide to put forward a positive comment about the blog article. I don't name drop this blog or anything like that. But when I click to submit, it takes me straight to a blank page with a little square that says: "Bye bye Spambot". I was queerly offended by that. My comment is gone, naturally, unlike if it asked for another word verification or something similar to test that I was real. I click 'back' and naturally it takes me back to the home page - likely to reduce the powers of a Spambot to simply try again on that same article.
So I get a queerly snarky comment (which I would have thought funny if I hadn't been on the receiving end) that a Spambot couldn't read (but which a live person can), as well as lose my comment and the right page all in the bargain (which are the more annoying elements). It's enough to make me grumpy. More to the point, it's incredibly frustrating and means I won't be trying to comment again anytime soon since I don't know if the web-site would allow me if I tried again. Seems too difficult and I am, as I've admitted, curiously miffed by the whole thing.
I know I'm being silly but I thought I'd post my little issue as I know I have a few bloggers who read this and they might run into it as well. Odds are that web-site just glitched or is suffering from one error or another but it's annoying enough to provide a hurdle and in a world where there's a hundred blogs and web-sites competing for your attention, it's too easy to move on.
I may well go back to that site but it focused on general geekery and I prefer my web content more specialised so I may not. Who knows?
So what about you guys? Ever came across a blog that did something that left you queerly miffed? Or any issues that made you give up and move to the next blog?
Are you sure you're not a Spambot? How do you know?
ReplyDeleteIf I have too much trouble with 'captcha' I just move on-it's the internet, none of it's real.
It wasn't 'captcha' (that's what blogger uses, right?) as that often tries to keep your text and give you a second shot. But yes, I agree. Sometimes that one still fritzes out and makes me walk away from a comment. It's not enough to walk away from a blog.
DeleteIt's one of the reasons why I won't bother with the user verification system on blogger until I start getting targeted by spammers. It's nice to just be able to hit 'Submit'.
Blogger or Wordpress? I always have problems with the latter, but people have mentioned to me they'd had issues with the former.
ReplyDeleteNeither, I think. It was a big enough site that it might have been custom.
DeleteI'm a bit paranoid now and I tend to copy-paste comments somewhere before I submit them. For one it stops me hitting submit too early, but also this sort of thing. I've lost a few comments (and forum posts, and even at least one job application) because of server issues, or one of my security settings blocking some weird external site script that a site's relying on. I don't think I've lost any blog comments to spam filters, but I've lost everything on a couple of forms by Captcha brain failure.
ReplyDeleteIn theory my blog doesn't have anything like that, but it's tricky to tell for sure.
I copy-paste some of my larger play-by-post thread posts, sometimes, because of a fear of server issues and log in time outs.
DeleteI always do that on play-by-post threads no matter what the size, for the same reason.
DeleteI've had it happen a couple of times, on blogs that I like and post on more than once. One particular offender has a validation question - simple maths in fact - but places it under the comments form, so it's totally possible to fill everything in and hit send without even seeing anything that looks like a validation question...
ReplyDeleteYeah, that would trip me up all the time. I'm not great on 'attention to detail'.
DeleteNever had an experience like that, but on an unrelated note I'm coming by to thank you. You left a couple of comments on some articles I wrote on realitysalad.blogspot.com (specifically the Changeling: the Lost bit and Feminist Ethics in Hobby Gaming), and I wanted to let you know I appreciate your time and effort. I've just today started posting again, so I went a month without any kind of followup on any posts... anyway, thanks again, I like your content! I'll be following you!
ReplyDeleteCool! I like 'Followers' most of all because it gives me an easy way to follow folk back even if I'm on someone else's computer. Not every blogger that follows me allows Followers on their own (a shame) and I also happen to be following a lot of writers' blogs which fill up my blogroll and make it a pain to scroll through. Any idea how to delete old blogs you no longer read from your personal list?
DeleteAnywho, glad I gave you a perk up and it's fantastic to hear you're posting again. There are too few World of Darkness bloggers out there so keep it coming.
Not sure if you knew this, but the old Followers widget got pulled a while back and replaced with Google+ integration - which isn't something everyone's happy to do (I'm not, for one). It still works if you already have it, but Followers isn't on the widget list to add, so I'm guessing that's why people don't have it - certainly one reason I never had it, it was gone before I ever thought of using it.
DeleteAs it happens, I just found a workaround to add the old Followers widget regardless, so we'll see... personally I tend to just use a feed reader on my computer, or else the blogger reading list for a few faves.
I didn't know that, no. Yeah, the super "come out of your anonymity cave and link all of your accounts" doesn't impress me much. Do I really want my business accounts easily crossing over to blogger?
DeleteAnywho, I never could understand the reader feeds and much prefer just scrolling through my list of faves. I've started creating a folder of my faces for those without the Follow option.