Writers who blog seem to have a unique fear of spam. I know everyone hates spam posts and trolling, but the level of protection some writers go to to protect themselves from angry denizens of the internet or robots is strange to me.
Used under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic License Copyright Flickr user mccloud
Our blogs and websites are our virtual homes, where we want to meet people and get to know them. We love comments, and we love the interaction. Even so, how many writers use every comment protection available in their chosen blogging platform?
On Blogger, Google’s blogging platform, for example, you can use computer generated Captchas, you can require moderation, you can force the user to be logged in to a related service, or any combination of the above! Many blogs I read do use multiple steps, and every step you put between leaving wanting to leave a comment, and the task of doing so removes people willing to talk to you!
Now, my opinion states, the truth is, there are a lot of people who abuse the power of the internet. Expect bots. Expect tangential comments. Expect people who don’t like you. They exist! So some of these features are good.
Captchas
Captchas, or word verification tests, are built to stop bots from posting spam comments. I do like these if you don’t have screening software, and they’ve got a real use. They’re also becoming more and more common on the internet, so often seen as how things are by users. You’ll notice, I don’t have word verification in use here thanks to the software wordpress.com has installed. If you’re in a topic with a very high number of moneymaking keywords that bots are known to abuse, I absolutely say take advantage of Captchas.
Log In
Logging in or requiring an email is another feature available on most blogging platforms. This is becoming a norm across the internet, especially with Twitter and Facebook making APIs allowing readers to log in through their servers. Having to offer your email or username discourages certain types of internet trolls and helps encourage more in depth comments. On this blog, I only require an email to post a comment. I like community building, so I suggest this as a key feature all the time!
Comment Moderation
Comment moderation is the ultimate tool for controlling what gets said on your blog. Everything has to run in front of your eyes before making it to the website. This is less common on blogs, and even less common on other social websites. Unless you have a history of internet trolls saying things that are untoward to anyone involved with your blog, I absolutely suggest not using this. It makes it seem like you have something to hide, or you don’t trust your readers.
With that suggestion in place, if you only use moderation for the first post a person makes on your blog, this is something tolerable, and even understandable.
Closing Comments
Some blogs close comments after a certain time period. This is a nice feature for high traffic blogs, but generally I feel it’s an unnecessary piece of protection for smaller blogs.
Copyright Flickr user alborzshawn, Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic (CC BY 2.0)
We love our blogs. We love commenting. But we need to make sure we’re not making it difficult for our real readers while trying to discourage abuse. Roll out a real welcome mat, not something like the above.
A Digital Magician 
Patrick, thanks for this post. You’ve given me some good advice, good stuff to ponder.
Glad to help. It’s frustrating, there’s been a number of times I intended to leave comments on blogs and their security system required such arcane maneuvering that I finally gave up. We don’t need that happening!
Agree. Far too many blogs make it difficult to comment. I feel immediate goodwill towards a blog that makes it easy.
So do I! Thank you for your comment.
I’ve been wondering about this myself, it takes so long to make a comment, I was starting to think re-tweeting was more the way to go. That is great for spreading the word but not for friendly interaction.
You bring up some good points, I might turn one of those off.
There may come a time when you need a number of protections for your blog. Since you’re on wordpress, Akismet has done fairly well for me (Only missing one spam post for me so far) so the need for layers of protection aren’t there for me. Hopefully you have a similar experience.
Blogger hates me – it always takes several clicks to get to the stage where it asks me to do the captcha thing. My site is wordpress self-hosted and asks me to moderate a first comment. After that, they’re in. It catches the spam, which I trash straight off, and doesn’t seem to discourage anyone else. Happy days 🙂
I’ll admit to being aggravated on occasion with first post moderation, but I can understand it as a device for keeping your blog clean. Really, any of these are good if they have the desired effect, but you have to know the desired effect to know if you’re getting it!
Glad to know you’re liking your system!
Thanks for the first tweet! Exciting! I didn’t think spam was a big problem so I wasn’t worrying about protection – yet!
In my experience, it generally isn’t a big problem, but it can become one when traffic grows. Look at the comment sections of some of the larger sites on the web, The New York Times has a terrible spam problem, for example. Just remember that balance is a key aspect, you’re wanting to keep bots and no content waste posts out, and real readers in.
I like the way WordPress handles comments: The first time you comment requires moderation but after being approved once you can comment freely. This allows the writer to block spam while opening the door to “valued guests”.
This method has been effective, while I haven’t been blogging for long it didn’t take long to find moldy spam in the comment fridge. Apparently, it has a low shelf life.
Great Post Pat, thanks 🙂
I actually shut that option off before I set my content on this blog. I don’t like the moderation, especially for new blogs.
Thankfully, I’ve only had two spam posts, and one was caught by Akismet. In general, it’s pretty easy to just self moderate, at least for now!
Checked my Akismet this morning and I’ve collected 35 since starting the blog six weeks ago. It didn’t stop anything that I would have allowed through so for now I think I’m going to stick with what I have. Glad you aren’t seeing what I am, unless you’re looking for enhancement pills…
No, thank you. Yes, I’m very glad I’ve not had your spammer activity.
Pingback: Manon Eileen - a Writer's Blog » Come on Sunday Girl - Manon Eileen - a Writer's Blog
Good post! It is tempting add these protections, but too many is too much. I am discouraged from commenting with too many steps to go through.
As am I! Thank you for commenting!
This is one reason I definitely prefer WordPress-based blogs over blogs located on Blogger. Either I’m stupid or Blogger hates me because I find it problematic to post a comment on Blogger sites.
I don’t mind requiring moderation the first time someone comments (just to make sure they’re not a troll or a spammer), but once they’ve been approved once, I can’t see the point in having to approve every single comment that same person makes.
It definitely is a judgement call. The important thing is to minimize frustration.
Couldn’t agree more. I’m also having trouble commenting on blogger sites. We don’t have all day to mess about with it. I can’t comment on some sites from my netbook either 😦 Did this work? Lol
You’ve definitely made a comment on my site. As for blogger, some of it is that blogger’s ‘default’ is Captcha’s plus profiles, with optional moderation. It’s a pain in the butt curating it all (I’m a convert from blogger!) and Akismet (The anti-spam software on wordpress) is brilliant.