Word Verification -- Annoyance or Savior

In the past week or more, Blogger's spam protection measures have detected several spam comments.  These start out with a generic praise, written by "Anonymous" users, and always conclude with a link to a non-doll related web site.   The most recent one, received today (minus the web site link) is shown below:

I really love your site.. Excellent colors & theme. Did
you build this amazing site yourself? Please reply back as I’m looking to create my own personal blog
and would like to learn where you got this from or what the theme is called.
Kudos!

Really?  I mean... really?  Am I supposed to fall for this?

Short of moderating all comments before they are published, word verification, which had been turned off, is now back on and my blogs no longer accept Anonymous comments.   Comments to post older than 14 days have always been and remain moderated. 

Valid comments regarding posts I publish are very important and encouraging.  So sad it has to come to this, and I hesitate to ban valid "Anonymous" commenters, but future comments on this blog will only be accepted from registered users.

dbg

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Spam Isn't Always Spam

"In 2007, the seven billionth can of Spam was sold. On average, 3.8 cans are consumed every second in the United States." (Wikipedia.com) Really?

Since 1998, I have received TNTC (too numerous to count) actual spam emails and now blog comments identified as unsolicited, unwanted, or suspicious by the Blogger system.  Some comments were correctly identified as spam while others were not.  Frustrating is the fact that comments I have posted to blogs I follow are being incorrectly detected as spam, which is what this post is really about.

I now realize that Blogger has been zapping some of my comments to other blogs for quite a while.  I may have missed out on another blogger's giveaway as a result of this.  I believe Blogger removed my comment to this particular blog post after I saw it published and made a mental note that I was commenter #5. My comment was probably stored under the blogger's spam tab.  The winner was announced as someone else and rightfully so since my comment did not remain in the #5 position.  I shrugged this off as a fluke and decided the doll was not meant for me.

Blogger's spam detection system is obviously flawed. 

Vanessa of Fashion Dolls at Van's Doll Treasures informed me that some of my comments to her blog are showing up as spam.  Then Jorge of Clicking Dolls was notified by email of a comment I made to one of his posts that was not visible on his blog.  Like Vanessa, Jorge found my comment under the Comments/Spam tab of his blog's dashboard after I asked him to look there.

To check your blog for legitimate comments incorrectly detected as spam, using the old/original Blogger interface, go to the Blogger dashboard, click Comments, then click Spam.  Hopefully you will not find any legitimate comments, but it would not surprise me if  you do.

A periodic check of the spam tab might be in order for a while until Blogger corrects its flawed spam detection system. 

dbg

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