Friday 17 February 2012

Prepare to repel boarders



I'm growing weary of the default setting:
think the worst, it will probably happen,
defend yourself against it at all times.

The burglar permanently stationed near my door,
waiting for the day when I do not 
set the alarm and double lock the door.
(Your insurance will be invalidated.)

The identity thief, keen to sift through my recycling bin
for the one document that may have included 
a vital piece of personal data,
not shredded.
(Your bank account will be emptied.)

The parking attendant gleefully pouncing on my car 
with a ticket for a one minute overstay in a free parking slot.
(Rush back or that will be £60 please.)

Yesterday my mind went blank 
when asked to present my pin number at the checkout.
(Three wrong attempts and your card will be cancelled.)

And now, the hideous hoops that bloggers must jump through
in order to leave a benign comment.

I didn't switch to the new Blogger interface,
so perhaps you are not faced with an illegible string
of skew whiff reversed out letters.
Word verification used to be quite fun,
but not anymore.
Apparently the robots have learnt to read,
and so humans must play catch up.

Well I am throwing caution to the winds.
I'm taking word verification off,
and I'll moderate the little monsters myself.


Matt Daily Telegraph 27/7/2011






16 comments:

  1. Great post! I'm tired of all the things I'm supposed to be worrying about!

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  2. Well said! I'm not enjoying this new word verification puzzle at all. I may well end up doing the same. The trouble is, on the other side, that bad things do happen. They've never happened to me but we all know people they have happened to. But a spammy comment (probably linking to an 'adult' site - that's most people's fear I guess) is probably a lot less horrible than the other 'fears' you list.

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  3. I was so frustrated when the new WV from Blogger came in, I have a sight defect that makes the two words very difficult to read so tried the spoken hint. Gosh, that was even more difficult, background noises and distorted voices...

    Thank you for taking it off your blog.

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  4. I think, in all my blogging time, there were only 2 comments that were not full of goodwill (not counting all the spammy ones blocked by Blogger itself), so I too bravely leave myself open to immoderation. The worst has so often not happened.

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  5. I don't know why they have changed it - I used to like the weird words it threw up - I had to take my WV off because it wasn't allowing my followers to comment.

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  6. Thank you, kind lady, thank you.

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  7. It has been quite a puzzle to figure those second words out! I don't easily give up on leaving a comment, but it is kind of you to make it even easier.

    Yes, fear is a big money maker, isn't it!

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  8. Well, I don't have WV (so I'm told by commenters) but I do get spammed, and one spam comment was actually a plea to be given a certain programme that can break most captchas! Talk about nerve.....

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  9. Like Toffee Apple, I attempted to listen to word verification and have never heard such a mish mash of gobbledy gook - how on earth you are supposed to work out WHICH are the words is beyond me!

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  10. Yay for you!!

    I have never used word verification and nothing has happened to my blog or my dog.

    This double indemnity is making it very difficult to leave a comment.

    I'll just rush over here and rattle on.

    There's nought to stop me:)

    xo Jane

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  11. Welcome one and all. How liberating!

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  12. Well, I've never had word verification and I've never had a nasty comment - and I think only one spam. That's in 6 years. Go for it!

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  13. I took the old word verification off knitsofacto a while back ... I can report a little more spam, but all filtered perfectly by Blogger. If you set for comment moderation on posts older than a week or two that will help ... most dubious spammy comments that get through are apparently almost always on older posts.

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  14. If you don't have overall verification that is ... sorry, I hadn't quite finished typing that last comment when the dog put a paw on the keyboard and hit send. I have discovered a disadvantage to removing WV ... your pets can post comments!

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  15. Negative thoughts can become a habit,
    Like a rudder they can direct us into black places. Also useful to know we have the power to use the same rudder to direct ourselves into good places.

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