practicalities of blogging

[Jan Cohen]

The device you're referring to is called a CAPTCHA, and is used to differentiate between human and machine-generated responses as a spam prevention measure.  Though I've yet to come across an audio version of a CAPTCHA, provisioning for its use supposedly minimizes accessibility issues associated with the vision impaired.  

You can read more about CAPTCHA via http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Captcha .

jan c.

----- Original Message ----
From: Claire Conant <claireconant at comcast.net>
To: "McLauchlan, Kevin" <Kevin.McLauchlan at safenet-inc.com>; Tom Johnson <tom at idratherbewriting.com>; techwr-l at lists.techwr-l.com
Sent: Friday, February 8, 2008 12:30:45 PM
Subject: Re: practicalities of blogging


I 
know 
Blogger 
has 
people 
do 
that 
security 
word 
feature. 
It's 
set 
up 
in 
the 
options, 
I 
believe. 
However, 
I 
promise 
you, 
with 
the 
hosted 
Wordpress 
I 
have 
not 
had 
spam 
issues. 
I 
think 
in 
the 
more 
than 
a 
year 
I've 
been 
blogging 
I've 
had 
to 
deal 
with 
- 
literally 
- 
three 
spam 
comments 
that 
made 
it 
past 
the 
Akismet 
spam 
blocker. 
It's 
a 
non-issue 
for 
me.

Being 
required 
to 
enter 
that 
weird 
word 
code 
doesn't 
bother 
me. 
Now, 
however, 
Blogger 
has 
a 
feature 
that 
once 
you've 
commented 
and 
entered 
your 
Wordpress, 
Typepad, 
or 
other 
blog 
information, 
it 
remembers 
you 
and 
you 
don't 
have 
to 
keep 
doing 
it. 
You 
just 
enter 
your 
URL. 
At 
least 
for 
the 
dozens 
of 
blogs 
I 
visit, 
that's 
how 
it 
works.

For 
the 
visually 
impaired, 
I 
have 
no 
recommendations.

--------------------------------------------------
From: 
"McLauchlan, 
Kevin" 
<Kevin.McLauchlan at safenet-inc.com>
> 
What 
about 
that 
security 
feature 
that 
forces 
a 
commenter 
to 
read 
a
> 
distorted 
image 
of 
a 
word, 
then 
type 
in 
the 
exact 
word, 
as 
an
> 
anti-spamming 
provision?
> 
Is 
that 
available 
as 
a 
standard 
WordPress 
feature? 
Or 
is 
it 
a 
feature
> 
that 
must 
be 
supplied 
by 
the 
hosting 
service? 
Or 
is 
it 
just 
a 
plug-in
> 
freebie? 
Or 
not 
available?
> 
Other?
>
> 
I 
know 
I 
recently 
saw 
it 
on 
a 
blog 
(didn't 
pay 
attention 
if 
it 
was 
a
> 
WordPress 
blog) 
and 
thought 
it 
a 
smart 
idea, 
copied 
from 
other
> 
security/authentication 
situations 
I'd 
previously 
encountered.
>
> 
And 
while 
I'm 
on 
that 
sub-topic, 
are 
any 
of 
you 
dear 
readers 
offended 
by
> 
being 
forced 
to 
indulge 
measures 
like 
that, 
or 
do 
you 
accept 
it 
as 
a
> 
minor 
inconvenience, 
well 
worth 
the 
trouble 
to 
keep 
the 
spammers 
down?
>
> 
Also, 
what 
alternative 
should 
be 
provided 
for 
the 
visually 
impaired?