CAPTCHA

My blog gets a reasonable amount of traffic, especially for someone who blogs much less frequently than before. I started out authorizing each comment as they were submitted, just in case I received one that was offensive in nature. In all this time, I have received only one inappropriate comment that was directed at someone I had mentioned in a post. The comment was rude and not relevant to my post and was therefore deleted. Most of the comments on my site are from other Mérida bloggers or an occasional guest responding to the post. My posts don't always generate a lot of comments, even though I can see that  there are quite a number of  "lookers." I can't say "readers" because I don't know if everyone actually reads the posts.  Once I decided that I needed to get my ego out of the process,  I relaxed and simply became pleased that I've managed to keep it going since January 3, 2011.

Anyway,  at some point I just decided to open the comments to anyone without having to verify the comment. It just made sense that comments could be posted as they come in without my having to be physically present at a computer. There was the other option of requiring word verification  (CAPTCHA), but I always found those to be a bit tedious. Some are relatively easy, but lately I've found some sites that seem to have initiated a level of security that I find baffling. I'm curious. Is there a way to set the level of difficulty on word verification? Like adding numbers and a line of letters in Gothic script with caps and lower case and curlicues that all run together and are next to impossible to decipher? Just wondering. I even have two new lenses in my eyes that are getting me close to 20/20 vision for the first time in 24 years. I tried the Captcha "sound" option that resulted in a warbled robotic tone that I couldn't understand and that made me want to smash my keypad.

Here's what I've decided. If I encounter a site with a CAPTCHA security, I'll give it the old college try. If I miss the first go, I might try a second time if I really want to leave a comment. If I miss on the second try, I'm likely to stop at that point.  No offense to those who use this type of security measure, but it's more likely to prevent me from commenting than a bot.

This from Wikipedia:

Due to the sound distortion present in audio CAPTCHAs and visual distortion present in visual CAPTCHAs, offering one as an alternative to the other does not help people with impairments in both areas. While deafblind is a small group, having some degree of impairment in both areas is actually common, and very common amongst older people.

Well, there you have it folks.  I'm now relegated to the "older people" category. Good thing I'm still young at heart...

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