Turning Off CAPTCHA

If you’ve been commenting on Blogger hosted blogs recently, you may have been cursing the unreadable word verification codes, also known as CAPTCHA. You can make life so much easier for your potential commentators by turning it off. No, you will not be flooded by spam. Google’s spam filter does a great job, if you are targeted. I have had my word verification turned off since my second month of blogging and I get a few comments in the spam folder but not many and they don’t show up on the blog.

The problem is, the new Blogger dashboard (the white and orange one) doesn’t include the option to turn them off. If you go to the little gear wheel on the top right of your dashboard you can revert to the old dashboard (blue and orange colour scheme). There will be an option in the Settings > Comments section to turn off word verification. Once done, switch back to the new dashboard and Bob’s your uncle (he is, actually, mine).

Whilst you’re at it, you might want to submit feedback on the new look dashboard that the setting is missing. If enough people complain maybe they’ll do something about it! There should be a send feedback button on the bottom right.

CAPTCHAs have their place but not for blogs. They should be used to stop bots hitting websites where information could be gained by repeated form submissions (insurance quotes for instance). If you really feel the need to have them, consider a third party comment plugin that has a picture “puzzle” to prove you’re human.