It seems like Google has taken a small step towards stemming the tide of splog on blogger. They have implemented a captcha system for suspicious blogs. The captcha will only be used if their spam detectors identifies the blog as spammy.
I’m glad to see some concrete action being taken. Obviously much more needs to be done.
Found via: fighting splog
on October 19th, 2005 at 9:47 am
The idea is good but in the list of my blogs I’ve 3 that Google identifies like spammy!
Comunicati-Stampa.com is the most important Italian blog (and one of the most important Italian site) for Italian press releases. It has 200 users that everyday publish their and their customers PR. It’s indicized by Google Italian News.
Is it a spammy blog?
More important: I don’t know the reason but also entering the correct word I’m not able to publish on it!!!!!
on October 19th, 2005 at 10:20 am
It would all be fine if their software was identifying spammy blogs correctly. However, both myself and several other people have had their blogs labeled as such and are unable to post anything. It asks you to fill in a verification code and then says “We’re sorry, but we were unable to complete your request”, despite the code being correct. I wish they would test their software a bit more thoroughly before unleashing it.
on October 19th, 2005 at 11:09 am
It looks like they are aware of the problem and are working on a fix. The Blogger Buzz entry has been updated with the following:
It’s a shame that they rushed out a fix that wasn’t ready for prime time. I guess that’s what happens with a reactionary fix. Hopefully, an “anti-splog” mentality will start to take hold at blogger and these things will be done as part of planned releases.
on October 20th, 2005 at 12:20 am
I have not been able to post for two days. All I get is:
006 Please contact Blogger Support.blog/46/41/4/lacowboy/index.html
Doe anyone have any idea what this means? Is it a website?
And there is no one at blogger support who will return e-mails..
on October 20th, 2005 at 1:00 am
[…] I got this following comment from Brady Westwater to my post about Blogger adding captcha. I wanted to elevate this to a full post to see if anyone could help him out. on October 20th, 2005 at 12:20 am I have not been able to post for two days. All I get is: […]
on October 24th, 2005 at 7:26 am
Are you saying my blog is spam? If you are then saddle up. cause I am ready to fight.
This was not implemented for “spammy blogs” it was implemented FOR ALL BLOGS, and it sucks.
It does not work, and won’t be long till it fails completely. The only people put out by this are legitmate bloggers (about to be ex) like me.
I was fine till the “fixed” the system. Now I can’t blog with blogjet or w.blogger. I have to use the crappy web-face.
on October 24th, 2005 at 11:49 am
Mark,
I don’t think anyone is saying you blog is spam. For some reason blogger just decided that your blog might be spam. They just want you to prove that you are an actual person before posting. You shouldn’t need to do this forever either, Blogger is working on the system so that once a blog is verified, it will go back to captcha-less mode.
See more explanations in the Blogger Buzz post Spam Barriers (Redux)
on October 25th, 2005 at 9:19 am
My political blog has apparently been identified as spam, and they have started making me try to guess at what these “captcha’s” are.
My eyesight is not perfect and I can only read them about half the time. And when I do manage to make out the code, it gets rejected another half of the time.
I have written to them about this and only get a canned response with a insincere “apology.”
The refuse to address the visually-impaired discrimination issue.
Perhaps it is time to start complaining to agencies charged with enforcing the ADA.
on October 25th, 2005 at 11:34 am
Accessibility is certainly a problem with using captchas. The Wikipedia captcha article has a little bit about this.
on October 25th, 2005 at 1:08 pm
I have had trouble with some of blogger’s CAPTCHAs myself and other than needing glasses have no problem with vision. They certainly aren’t all clear. But that is on purpose to attempt to defeat OCR programs from reading them. They assume humans should be able to do a better job reading the distorted letters than a computer. Most of the time that is correct, but not always. I think making the image bigger might be of some help.