I made a couple of changes on Blogger today. First I "embedded" the comment section to make it easy to reply to comments. I did this as a result of reading an older post by my blogging friend Rick. I asked Rick for advice on backing up my Blog under the new Dashboard interface and he sent me to his old post on the subject. In the same post he described going to the embedded comment format, something I had been thinking about as well. Thanks for the inspiration Rick.
While I was in the new Dashboard I noticed a method to publish the Blog in Google+. I have been using Google+ to express some of my political thoughts (rants) and links so I already had an account. It was a simple matter to publish the Blog there so I did.
Calypso, another blogging friend, also questioned my disallowing anonymous comments. While he is correct in that Bloggers spam filter catches 99.9% of the spam comments, it has also deleted some legitimate anonymous comments. Maybe I am throwing out the baby with the bathwater here because losing even one commenter would negate anything I have gained. The only real downside, besides missing the very odd comment, is having to delete all the emails that arrive with each of the spam comments. Maybe I can configure Gmail to send them directly to the trash bin. I will have to think about it.
OK: I am back to accepting anonymous comments. Viagra salesmen, do your best but you will be filtered out (99.9% of the time). I have also created a filter in Gmail to nuke the notices. Lets see if it works.
Keeping expenses down
8 hours ago
Wordpress uses Akismet to filter spam, and as of today we've been 'protected' from over 1000 spam comments. Several times when I've logged in there's been a comment highlighted in the spam queue, but I've probably never seen over 950 different spam messages. I've never heard from anyone that a comment has gone missing, although I can't be certain of that. Maybe there's some sort of filter available for blogger which might do the same thing.
ReplyDeleteRod W
Well, like I say, I have no real reason other than the email notification annoyance. Perhaps I should go back to accepting anonymous comments.
DeleteWe've allowed anonymous comments and we have had two spam type comments in the last two months.
ReplyDeleteYou are lucky Jan. I have had 35 in the last 18 hours. Blogger's spam filter caught them all.
DeleteGlad to see you've installed embedded comments, Croft. It's a nice feature and sure adds a lot to comment conversations.
ReplyDeleteI allow anonymous comments on my blog and blogger does catch 99.9% of them. As I get copies of comments sent to my gmail account, I also get some of those emails too - but very, very few even get through email. I just delete them as I see them.
Hi Croft,
ReplyDeleteI went through the process, but only for you! You are my favorite blogger, love your politics, love your travels, love that you're a Canadian!
Off to Cuba in November for 19 days, looking forward to seeing how much my Spanish has improved over the past 6 months. Bringing lots of things for our Cuban family and friends. As usual we have secured 2 older mountain bikes that we have commited to people in Cuba. Love to have them for exercise, sight seeing and transportation into town and feel good leaving them for people who truly need them.
Well thank you Kelly! I was hoping you would find a way to tag along. That is a great thing you and Rocket are doing for your Cuban friends. I know it is appreciated. Have fun in the sun and have a Mojito for me! Extra ron por favor.
DeleteI'd love to figure a way to spend the months of October and November in Cuba next year....on the cheap. I'll be on a mission this year. Rocket and I still love to ski so going in the winter won't work! The Cuban's, as you know, are wonderful to hang around with. Also, since many of them speak some English they are a big help with our Spanish!
DeleteWe have a friend, a single woman, who spends two or three months in Havana every year. She rents a room from a family in a house near the Centro Historico and has the option of eating her meals with them if she wants. It can be done on the cheap.
DeleteCroft
ReplyDeleteI decided to give it a try also. Thanks for the incentive and ditto Whistler Kelly's comments about your blog.
Bill in Nebr.
Thanks Bill, I know the conniptions you had to go through but I am happy you got it working!
Delete