Saturday, June 9, 2007

I Have a Comment . . .



When I was young and new to Blogland (three months or so ago), leaving comments on someone's blog was a sometimes frustrating skill I had not yet mastered. Still haven't completely as a matter of fact.

Sometimes I'd leave long, witty comments, extolling the wonders of someone's blog or asking insightful questions, and I'd never hear anything back. Now that's not to say I feel that everyone ought to answer my comments--far from it. In fact, that's why it took me so long to figure out what was wrong. On a couple occasions, I would go back to see what comments other bloggers had left, only to find mine wasn't even there. Had the blog author deleted it? Gee, now my feelings were a little bruised!

I finally realized the problem was me! I was somehow skipping over the step where you have to enter some indecipherable code in order to have your comment posted, presumably to keep robots from commenting on blogs. Yeah, like that's all robots have to do all day long. Hello! Do I LOOK like a robot?! Seriously, though, if there are any robots reading this who have a little time on their hands, hey! Come on over and clean my house, okay?

Typepad blogs are the worst! I don't know if you have the same problem, but that code box that comes up appears on my screen only when I scroll down. And half the time, I think I'm done, so I navigate away and on to the next blog, never realizing that I've missed a step and my profound thoughts are jettisoned off into Internet ether, never to be enjoyed by anyone but me. Bummer!

Then there's the problem of being able to read and reproduce the darn codes! I swear half the time I type the wrong letters and have to start over again with a new, equally undecipherable code. Blogger code is the worst for that problem since they stretch and pull the letters out of shape. And really--how does one tell the difference between a capital W and a lower case w? Drives me nuts! This blog commenting stuff is hard work!

And if you're reading this, scoffing at the notion that duplicating these darn codes is tough, just consider a recent news article. The other day, I read that someone somewhere has come up with the idea of using bloggers to reproduce and "translate" portions of indecipherable manuscripts. Now I'm not quite sure how that works since someone would have to know if what we're typing in is "right," so why they would need us to do the deciphering is beyond me, but if we suddenly have to start typing in code that begins with "it was a dark and stormy night," you'll know that the plan has been put into effect.

Anyway, I'm just saying--if your blog requires entry of a code to post a comment and you haven't seen one from me, you'll just have to use your imagination. Chances are I tried. I really did. But I probably finally gave up and went and fixed myself a drink.

16 comments:

Greenmare said...

it was a dark and stormy night.......
the glass is too big,
the cowboys are kinda cute,
the charm squares are WAY tempting,
the jelly rolls are allowed on any diet.......

Kim West said...

I agree with you - those comment boxes are annoying. I will expand more on my own blog - too long to write my opinion on your comment form - hehe.

Darlene said...

Ditto!

SuBee said...

Absolutely!!! I finally took mine off and I'll deal with whatever robots come a callin'. Some of us over 'a certain age' have enough of a time reading normal print, without deciphering gobbleygook. WTG!

Leah Spencer said...

I'm another gal who took her verification off too, I wanted people to actually post without discouragement!

I've gotten a whopping total of 3 spam comments. Whoo. :P

Ms. Jan said...

Very thought provoking. I hate the verification feature and I think I'll take my chances with the danged robots too. I'd rather have more comments!

Leigh said...

Love your post, so funny. I hate these things too and sometimes with typepad I get put off commenting cos the thing is so damn hard to read!

As for the cowboys, they're pretty cute but I bet they're gay!!,Lol.

atet said...

Oddly enough, while I agree that the verification is a pain -- I'm leaving mine on because I have had another blog that got targeted with spam messages. And while it's easy to say "I'll just remove the comment" -- for some reason Blogger would never let me actually do that. So, there it sits, someone's assinine message about great earnings potential I can't get rid of. Arrgh. It's just annoying -- and I truly despise spam!

As for the posts I've missed commenting on this week:

Love the challenge of the charms, the jelly rolls are awfully tempting, who cares whether they are 1/2 dressed or 1/2 naked -- I NEED some of that fabric, and with one or two changes my to-do list is very similar to yours!

Knot Garden said...

I have the same problem, usually have to type those codes in twice:(

QuiltingFitzy said...

I "love" the W vs. 2-V's. I can't read it!

Yes, Typepad is the worst.

Gonna go over and see if my verification is "UP" or "DOWN" and take it off to see what happens.

Thanks for your thought provoking post. I HATE it, so why wouldn't other's hate it on mine..duh!

Carole said...

Ditto! Been there done that! Written something from my heart only to have it vanish because I didn't read the robot thinging properly. Amazing how many people missed out on my heart felt comments! I cannot stand those things. And while you're on a rant, why is it that some people feel that they NEED to monitor comments "your comment will appear once approved by the moderator" Control freaks, what the heck? Sometimes I think I should be writing something obscene, just for the heck of it! lol It's so easy to delete a comment, so what gives? I've deleted two comment so far, no big deal and they weren't obscene, nor were they from robots, well I didn't think so! Thanks for posting about this!

Anonymous said...

Love, this blog, Kim, Anything I hate is those things. There is one blog of a good friend that I can't leave a comment on because of that verifacation thing. Yahoo used to use them also. At least yours all I have to do is be Anonymous

Kairle Oaks said...

And have you ever noticed that the "second chance" is always harder than the first. If you can't get the first one right, dang it, then how in the heck are you supposed to type Wx39Isq76Cpn (all stretched and misshapen)for crying out loud?!

Kairle Oaks said...

Okay...so I just went and checked and then REMOVED my word verification so don't give me any gas!

Anonymous said...

That is the very reason I do not leave any comments, got tired of trying. Love reading your blog and try to keep up with it.

Patti said...

Good grief! I knew I was once again behind with my reading, but I didn't realize just how far behind. You've posted 15 times since I last visited! Now I have a book to read to catch up with you! This post really made me chuckle. I find typepad codes especially bad - with the background shading they sometimes put with the ltters these aging eyes can't begin to figure out the letters! As far a blogger goes - I have the hardest time with the w and two vv's - vv - they look exactly the same and I always seem to guess the wrong one!