Please!, Please!, - Turn off Word Verification!!

There is an anti word verification campaign on the go at the moment and I am right behind it especially for us blog hoppers who love visiting as much blogs as possible. Word Verification is such a hindrance and perhaps some people (like myself) didn't realise it was turned on!

Give it a go and see how you get on - Mine has been turned off for months now and I haven't even got comment moderation either (Duh!) until I get loads of spam I'm gonna leave it for now! Here are some ladies comments backing the campaign:

First of all Julie campaigned in April, this is what she had to say on the subject:

Is this necessary?

Why do you enable word verifiction?
I can't read these. I can't. Call me challenged, stupid, an ass, whatever you want...but I'll be honest. I can't read them. I'm done straining my eyes.
Are you afraid of spam? Spam comments? Help your readers. I'm sure everyone would rather you enable moderated comments before word verification. A little spam never hurt anyone, anyway..you can delete it just as easily as the robot sends it to you.

Chris has been continually campaigning and here is what she has to say:

ARGUMENTS AGAINST WORD VERIFICATION

Everyone will have their own view, but in my case, I regard the removal of word verification as a basic courtesy to my visitors who are kind enough to take the time to leave comments. Being aware of their comments through comment moderation, but not hindering them with word verification is the very least I can do to reciprocate their courtesy to me.The problem with word verification is that it takes too long. The characters are very often hard to decipher, and it’s frustrating when you get them wrong and have to re-enter the little suckers!So this campaign is on behalf of busy bloggers. Please spare a thought for the poor bloggers who work so hard at getting round as many blogs as possible to leave sprinkles of blessing and good vibes wherever they go. The terrible proliferation of this awful plague of word verification is a blight on their efforts to make the Land of Blog a cheerier place.
I think most people don't realise that they have word verification on their blogs by default, or how easy it is to switch it off, and perhaps not realising how annoying it is for other bloggers. Either that, or they’re under the misapprehension that they will be bombarded with spam messages. This is not the case. I’ve had mine switched off now for three of the four months that I’ve been blogging, and have had two spam comments. The responses I’ve had from other bloggers to my earlier posts on this topic back this up. (You can see the comments in response to my previous post on this subject, HERE.)For safety’s sake, have comment moderation on for sure, but please consider canceling word verification on your blog. Maybe for a trial period, and see how you get on.Unless there are thousands of comments being left, comment moderation shouldn’t be too much of an issue for the blog owner, and other bloggers will also be more inclined to leave comments if they can see that you don’t use word verification.However, each to their own, and if you disagree with me, that’s cool. We can agree to differ and not visit each other’s blogs! lol ;o)
OK.. rant over. If you have read all the way to the end, thank you for putting up with it, and ~ obviously ~ do what you wish on your blogs, but I had to say something. I love to get around and leave comments, but word verification spoils the experience.
Of course, when I get my new job, all this will be academic to me, as I will then have a life, and I won't have time for much blog-hopping!! Not that blog-hoppers need to get a life.. Errr... think I'll stop digging now, before I get into REAL trouble!! lol ;o)