Comment Notification Email, And Spam Classification

Comment moderation, and comment notification, have long been optional features of Blogger Commenting.

The sequence of comment moderation email, and comment notification email, was simple.

• If comment moderation was selected, moderation email was sent to all blog administrators. Any one administrator could then select to Publish, or to Reject, a given comment.
• If comment moderation was not selected, each comment was simply Published, immediately.
• If comment notification was selected, notification email was sent to all recipient email addresses, when any comment was published.
• All blog administrators could Delete any comment, after it was published, at their discretion.

When the new comment moderation system was provided, in 2010, comment moderation changed. As the comment filters became trained, some comments were automatically rejected - and sent to the Spam queue - and that is where the current problem starts.

With the new comment moderation system, spuriously filtered comments never generated notification email - and this was a problem.

Comments sent directly to the Spam queue could be moderated, and Published, at the discretion of the blog administrators. Comments which were not Published remained in the Spam queue - and never generated notification email.

As the filters in the new comment moderation system became trained, false positives became a problem. Comments, spuriously filtered as Spam, generated no notification email.

Blog owners, accustomed to moderating comments after they were published, and receiving no notification email from comments which went straight to the Spam queue, complained of lost comments.

Listening to complaints from the blog owners, Blogger Engineering changed the sequence of the comment moderation and notification emails.

• If comment notification is selected, email is sent to all recipient email addresses, as soon as a comment is submitted for publication.
• If comment moderation is selected, moderation email is sent to all blog administrators.
• All blog administrators can Delete, or mark as Spam, any comment, before or after Published, at their discretion.

With comment notification email being sent immediately, this leaves recipients of the email occasionally confused. Comments immediately judged as Spam by the filters, or later by a blog administrator, will still generate email.

Recipients of comment notification email, not seeing a given comment published, who are blog administrators, can check the Spam queue - and in some cases, choose to Publish a comment which is spuriously filtered as Spam. This helps to train the filters - and later, see less spuriously filtered comments.

Recipients of comment notification email, not seeing a given comment published, and who are not blog administrators, will have to notify a blog administrator, who can check the Spam queue. In some cases, again, the administrator can choose to Publish a comment that is spuriously filtered as Spam.

As a blog owner, you need to properly select the moderation and notification options, to satisfy your personal needs. And, help to train the filters.

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CAPTCHA Verification Is Broken, For Some Blogs, In Various Applications

We're seeing a number of problem reports, in Blogger Help Forum: Something Is Broken, about various problems which involve CAPTCHA verification processes.

The symptoms are fairly diverse.

• Some blog owners report problems with commenting, on their blogs.
• Some report problems with high posting volumes.
• Some report problems getting abuse review requested, for their blogs falsely accused of hosting abusive content.

The reporting volumes, and perceived urgency, for each case, will vary.

The known problems involve various bX codes, issued in place of the CAPTCHA form.

• An unverified code is being seen, by people trying to post comments, on blogs using CAPTCHA screening.
• Blog owners are reporting various bX codes, when trying to post high volume blogs.
• Other blog owners are reporting "bX-niui1k", when trying to request spam review, from the dashboard "Deleted blogs" list.
• It's possible that there are other CAPTCHA applications, also seeing bX codes.

The audience observing the bX codes will differ - because the relationship of the people needing to use the CAPTCHA, and the volume of CAPTCHA use by the affected people, will differ.

People observing a bX code, when trying to post a comment, will be guests on blogs which use CAPTCHA screening - since blog members and owners are not subject to comment screening. CAPTCHA screening is optional for comment moderation, in general - and it's possible that many blog owners are not using CAPTCHA screening on their blogs.

It's also possible that only blogs which use the full page and popup comment forms are vulnerable, to this problem. The report volumes involving bX codes involved with comment moderation are low - and this will make affinity analysis difficult.

People observing a bX code, when trying to post at high volume, will be blog owners who post frequently. The reports of this problem are low to medium volume - possibly because many blog owners avoid posting excessively. This may be because we have observed that repeatedly solving a CAPTCHA will be inconvenient.

The people who report this problem are fairly insistent that this problem needs to be solved. Since the bX code is observed repeatedly (once for each high volume post attempted), by the blog owners affected, this case will involve the most controversy. Several blog owners have reported seeing differing bX codes.

People observing a bX code, when trying to submit an abusive blog review request from the "Deleted blogs" dashboard list, will be blog owners whose blogs were deleted or locked, spuriously, for abusive content (aka "spam hosting"). These people will post in the forums, and can be helped fairly easily, by our promptly offering a manual review, submitted to Blogger Support.

This case represents the most frequently reported symptom - but since the people affected can be helped with minimum fuss - and since this case is only observed once for each blog involved, this case will involve less controversy. This case has been reported, as noted, consistently producing the "bX-niui1k" code.

It's possible that CAPTCHAs are used in other unidentified applications - and we may yet have other cases to discuss, if the base problem is not resolved fairly promptly. Blogger Support is currently aware that there is a problem - and hopefully, where the problem lies.

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Google+ Comments Lack Controls For Moderation And Notification

As more people choose Google+ Comments for their blogs, we're seeing concern from confused blog owners, mentioning lack of control.

There is no option for comment moderation in my blog's settings. My Comments Settings only includes the option to change Location.

and

I don't get notified about any comments published against my blog. There is no Setting for Comment Notification Email, either.

These owners are discovering one of the design simplicities in Google+ Comments.

With Google+ Comments, anybody can post - and share - a reference to any content, on the Internet, that they can view. If your blog is public, any post from your blog can be shared in Google+.

If someone shares a post from your blog, and you are in a Circle where the post is shared, you may see the shared post in your Google+ stream. You have no control over content in your stream - even if the content references your blog - which you do not share.

You have no control over content about your blog, which you, yourself, do not share.

If somebody comments on a post shared from your blog, and you are in a Circle where the post is shared, you may see the comment in your stream. Again, you have no control over a comment made against a post in your stream - even if the comment references your blog.

In no case will you have the opportunity to moderate either a post, or a comment against a post, if someone else shares a reference to a post from your blog. Nor will you get a notification, if someone shares a reference to a post from your blog. Your blog is just one object of interest, from the millions of shares published by people in Google+.

If you, yourself, share content from your blog, you will own that share - you can control the content in the share - and you can control any comments placed against that share.

If someone reshares what you share, that reshare becomes the property of the person resharing. If you are in a Circle where your share is reshared, you may see the reshared post in your stream. Again, you will have no control over the reshare - or any comments placed against the reshare.

If you are not in a Circle where your share is reshared, you won't even see the reshare. Even if your blog is referenced in a reshare, your blog is just one object of interest, in the millions of shares published by people in Google+.

Notifications work the same way. If you share content from your blog, you will get Notification when someone comments against your share - or when someone reshares what you share. If someone else shares - or reshares - content from your blog, which you did not originate, you won't get a notification.

With Google+ Comments, a post in your blog is treated like any time anybody shares a post from your blog. You own a post in your blog, just as you own a post which you share from your blog. You can control comments, when made directly against a post from your blog, as with a post shared from your blog.

If your blog uses Google+ Comments, you can moderate the comments by viewing comments on a post by post basis, and deleting what you don't like. You will get no ability to moderate comments before they are published - even if the comments are against your blog. Nor will you get notified when someone publishes a comment against a post in your blog.

Your blog has no comment moderation wizard, no settings for comment moderation, and no settings for comment notification, because you have no ability to moderate comments - nor do you get notifications.

Google+ is pretty much like real life. You can hear what people say about you, when you're in a real life conversation. You can't control what people say about you, behind your back - and you're generally better off not even knowing what people are saying about you, behind your back.

Concentrate on listening to what people tell you, or reading what they share with you. Ignore what you can't control, or hear. Get on with your life. Or, revert the blog, back to Blogger native comments.

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Comment Moderation In Blogger Blogs, Using Google+ Comments

With more Blogger blogs being updated to use Google+ Comments, we're seeing a few questions in Blogger Help Forum: How Do I?, about comment moderation.

How do I moderate comments, with Google+ Comments enabled on my blog?

This is a question for which there is no easy answer - and this is one of the least appreciated feature limitations of Google+ Comments.

Native Blogger commenting allowed the option to moderate comments before or after they were published.

Google+ Comments, for Blogger blogs, provides no ability to moderate before publishing. All comments must be moderated after they are published. Moderation now simply consists of the ability to declare a comment as abusive - and this ability is shared equally by all users of Google+, who are in the right Circle to read and mark any comment.

With native Blogger Commenting, you (the blog administrator / owner) could moderate comments (before or after publishing), using either email, or the dashboard Comments section. With Google+ Comments, you have no such ability - and the dashboard won't even have a Comments section, listing comments made against the blog. You can view comments made - when you are able to view them - on a post by post basis, under each post.

As the blog owner, you do not have control over all comments, published against your blog. If you allow comments using Google+, anybody who is in one of your Circles can publish a comment against your blog. If you Share a blog post to the Public - or if someone else Shares a post from your blog to the Public - and a third person comments, you may not even see the comment made, against your blog.

You cannot see comments published by people who are not in your Circles, unless the comments are posted Publicly - even if the comments are published against your blog.

For these reasons, this blog remains with Blogger Commenting.

We have a Problem Rollup discussion where we are soliciting feedback from each blog owner, who sees this new feature - Google+ Comments - to be unacceptable as designed. If you are able to provide your opinion, in the rollup discussion, please keep your remarks brief and polite - and stay on topic.

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Problems Being Observed, In Blogs Now Using Google+ Comments

A few blog owners, eagerly opting to use the latest Blogger enhancement, Google+ Comments, are seeing some changes which they did not anticipate.

Even after checking all of the settings, some blogs, with Google+ Comments enabled, may not show the comment form - or may show the form, but comments may not be visible. Besides the visibility of the form, there are other changes which some blog owners don't appreciate.

In many cases, Google+ Comments, like other new features, require an updated post template. This will be seen in blogs with customised post templates, most frequently - although newer, less customised blogs also may need a post template reset.

After getting Google+ Comments working in general, some blog owners find other unexpected changes.

• Almost the entire "Comments" section, in the dashboard Settings - "Posts and comments" wizard, will disappear - though "Comment Location" will remain - and will default to "Embedded". None of these settings are relevant in Google+ Comments. On some blogs, there may be no "Comments" dashboard menu entry at all.
• There are no controls for moderation, or for notification, of comments.
• There is no ability to moderate comments, from the dashboard. Moderation is done under each post, one post at a time.
• As a blog owner, you have no special ability to moderate comments, made against your blog.
• There may be some comments, which you may not be able to moderate - but will publish against your blog.
• If you Block somebody from Following you, that person may still be able to post a Comment on your blog. When you look at the comments, you will only see

  This post is hidden because you have blocked the author.

• People without Google+ accounts won't be able to make - or view - comments (since comments are Circle dependent).
• Visibility of the comment form, as with all embedded comments, is sensitive to cookie / script filters, on the client computers.
• Comments posted outside Google Comments may not be immediately visible, though the comments remain in existence. Resetting various sections of the template may resolve this, when observed.
• If you change the blog address - with either a simple BlogSpot address change, a non BlogSpot address republishing (aka "custom domain"), or export / import - existing Google+ Comments may not remain visible, with the blog. This may be a similar problem, with URLs subject to Country Code Aliasing.
• With a blog using Google+ Comments, the Comments newsfeed will not be published. Any "Recent Comments" gadgets will be useless.
• The "Export blog" wizard, which used to export both comments and posts, will only export posts.
• The comment count, as displayed in the blog main page display, may show "0 comments" - even with comments actually present, and visible when clicking on "0 comments".
• You may or may not get email notification of comments, when comments are not shared specifically with you - even if you own the blog. Other people, who do not own the blog, may get notifications when you do not.

Fortunately, in most cases any prematurely made decisions are reversible. Go to the dashboard Google+ menu entry, and unselect "Use Google+ Comments on this blog". The blog will simply return to native Blogger based Comments. Any comments made under Google+ will not be visible to you, from the blog - but everything else should return to normal.

I've now added a Problem Rollup discussion, in Blogger Help Forum: Feature Suggestions and Feedback, where your opinion is appreciated. Please be objective.

See my test blogs Google+ Comments, Dynamic Template Test and Google+ Comments, Simple Template Test if you wish.

Click here, for instructions to revert back to Blogger based comments. Note that you will lose ability to view all Google+ based comments - though the comments will still exist.

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Blogger And Google+ Continue To Move Ever Closer Together

Today, Blogger announced the most innovative step in integrating Blogger and Google+, since sharing of Blogger posts to Google+.

The December 2011 sharing option lets us publish our blog posts to Google+. Today, Blogger added the ability to do the same - and more - with our blog comments. Like basic Google+ post sharing, Google+ Comments will be shared, and be visible, on a Circle by Circle basis.

The ability to post a comment, against a Blogger blog post shared in Google+, and have the comment publish to the blog will make for interesting comment based conversations.

There will be challenges to this feature, however. One of the most annoying problems with Blogger comments, right now, involves the embedded comment form, and security limitations caused by cookie filtering on many readers computers.

This blog uses a full page comment form, because too many of my readers need to post comments, in spite of the cookie filtering on their computer. Blogger Google+ Commenting requires use of the embedded comment form.

Google+ Comments lets you bring the following conversations together in one place, right under your blog post:

• Comments made on your Blogger blog post
• Comments on the blog post that you’ve shared to Google+
• Shared content on Google+ that links to your blog post

Readers will need a Google+ page or profile to comment on your blog.

Anybody who publishes a blog, and has readers who do not understand the reason for allowing third party cookies, will not want to use an embedded comment form - and won't benefit from Google+ Commenting, either. Until either

• Blogger resolves their "third party cookies" problem, with the embedded comment form.
• All Blogger blog readers resolve their issues with filtering "third party cookies".

Google+ Comments will have a limited audience.

Many blog owners may find a problem, in the moderation process.

Once you enable Google+ Comments, you can moderate comments within the blog post itself.

Owners of large blogs may not enjoy having to check each post, one by one, to moderate comments.

I check my dashboard Comments menu, several times daily - and see all comments posted to the blog, in one convenient place. Having to look at each post, to moderate comments, won't be as convenient.

A third challenge will come from blog owners who want everybody to be able to comment, on their blogs. Requiring a Google+ account to comment won't be widely accepted by blog owners who have readers who comment either Anonymously, or using an OpenID.

One of the benefits of Google+ Commenting will be a reduction in comment based spam. The increasingly annoying "nice blog" spam - and the accompanying security risks from having it published on our blogs - should be eliminated, from blogs using Google+ Comments.

Google+ Comments is a feature that is needed, on some Blogger blogs - but it needs to remain optional, for some time.

If you're in one of my Circles, and wish to test this new feature, see if you can comment, on my recipes blog, Chuck's Kitchen.

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Consider, Carefully, The Decision To Use A Third Party Commenting System In Your Blog

Not all Blogger blog owners appreciate the features provided, in Blogger native commenting.

Some suggest that third party commenting systems, such as Disqus, provide a superior service. It's possible that, to some, third party commenting systems are more feature rich - but only Blogger native commenting provides one essential feature, in comment moderation.

Blogger commenting is one component, in the global Blogger / Google spam classification and mitigation strategy.

Blogger blog classification, Blogger commenting moderation, and various Google services, all contribute globally to spam detection, and to spam removal, in Google Internet space. Each service both provides input into - and accepts input from - other services.

Third party commenting products, while they may have some interesting design features that Blogger won't include, won't necessarily contribute to the Blogger blog spam classification effort, or to the community commenting moderation process. Nor will they accept input from Blogger blog spam classification, or from the community comment moderation process.

If you, as a blog owner, believe that Disqus - or other non Blogger commenting products - provides more useful service to your blog, you're entitled to use any service, that you can make work, in your blog. It is, after all, your blog - and this is one feature in our blogs which Blogger / Google leave to our discretion.

As with all third party accessories and services, however, you will get limited support, for any problems. If you break your blog, you'll have only yourself (or the provider of the third party service) to support your problems. You may even see the blog deleted or locked, because of suspected malware.

When you use a third party commenting system, there are two details to consider.

1. Integration of existing comments.
2. Post template modification.

When you install a third party commenting service, you'll have the service import existing comments into their database. And, you will have to install the necessary code into the post template - and deal with ongoing changes to the post template, in the future.

If, in the future, you want to return to use of Blogger commenting, you'll have both of the above details to consider, in reverse. Third party services, while they may provide importation of Blogger comments into their database, may not provide a reverse service. Nor are they likely to provide easy reversal of post template changes - particularly as the Blogger post template may have been changed after installation of the third party service.

If your blog uses Disqus, right now, you'll probably find it easiest to refresh the post template, to return to Blogger comments. If you have various custom tweaks in the post layout, you may not find this to be a pleasant solution.

If you are contemplating changing your blog, to use Disqus - or another alternate commenting system - you may do well to consider all of these issues, before changing.

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Deleted Comments Cannot Be Recovered

Blogger blog owners, who are accustomed to recovering deleted files on a personal computer, will find Blogger Comments to lack useful protection.

If you accidentally delete a file on your personal computer, no worry - just look in the Trash Can, find the file in question, and recover the file. Just do this before you empty the Trash Can.

Comments, published on our blogs, cannot be recovered once deleted.

I deleted a comment - but now realise that I acted in haste. How do I recover the comment that I deleted?

To this person, there is no useful answer.

Whether you moderate comments before or after they are published - and whether you moderate using the dashboard Comments wizard, or your email Inbox - once you click on "Delete" (and possibly hit "Yes"), the comments in question are gone. There is no Trash Can for deleted comments.

Some blog owners will retrieve the deleted content (possibly, from email), and manually re publish the content, when possible. Unfortunately, that will produce a comment with (possibly) the deleted text - but no link to the originator of the comment deleted. If the text content of the comment is the relevant detail to you, as the blog owner, you may do this - but the republished comment won't be the same.

Delete comments with care. Once you delete a comment, you won't get it back.

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Comment Moderation Provides Limited Movement Between Queues

Not every blog owner understands the limited ability to moderate comments - and to correct a moderation decision, previously made in mistake.

We see occasional evidence of confusion in Blogger Help Forum: Something Is Broken.

I deleted a comment by mistake. How do I get the deleted comment back?

and

I marked a comment as "Not Spam" - but now it's not in "Awaiting moderation"!

The ability to move comments, in the moderation queues, is limited - and it's asymmetrical.

There are 3 queues, which are visible from the dashboard Comments wizard.

1. Published.
2. Awaiting moderation.
3. Spam.

Besides the 3 queues, there is a fourth possible state - Oblivion, which is not visible, and from which comments cannot be moved. Some blog owners may confuse Oblivion with a desktop computer standard - "Trash Can". This confusion can cause problems.

1. The contents of "Trash Can" can be viewed. Comments in Oblivion cannot be viewed.
2. The contents of "Trash Can" can be recovered. Comments in Oblivion cannot be recovered.

A comment, starting out in the "Awaiting moderation" queue, can be moved in several ways.

1. Into "Published", using the "Publish" button.
2. Into Oblivion, using the "Delete" button.
3. Into "Spam", using the "Spam" button.

A comment, in the "Published" queue, can be moved in two ways.

1. Into Oblivion, using the "Delete" button.
2. Into "Spam", using the "Spam" button.

A comment, in the "Spam" queue, can be moved in two ways.

1. Into "Published", using the "Not spam" button.
2. Into Oblivion, using the "Delete" button.

It's apparently possible to move comments back and forth, between "Published" and "Spam". Presumably, either movement provides some training of the comment spam filters.

1. From "Published" to "Spam", using the "Spam" button.
2. From "Spam" to "Published", using the "Not spam" button.

There is no similar symmetry of movement, for the "Awaiting moderation" or Oblivion states.

1. A comment in "Awaiting moderation" can be moved into either of the other 3 states - Oblivion, "Published", or "Spam". Once moved, a comment cannot be moved back into "Awaiting moderation".
2. A comment can be moved into Oblivion, from any of the other 3 states - "Awaiting moderation", "Published", or "Spam". Once moved, a comment cannot be returned from Oblivion.

If you're moderating comments, you need to understand the asymmetry. Once you move a comment, and you recognise a mistake, you cannot always move it back to correct your mistake.

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If You Moderate Comments Using Email, Mark The Spam Properly

One evidence of confusion, in Blogger Help Forum: Something Is Broken, comes from blog owners who are moderating comments, to their blogs, using comment moderation email.

I am constantly assailed by spam comments, being published to my blog, delivered to my Inbox! Is there anything I can do, about the spam, except just keep deleting?

Comment moderation, using email, offers several choices for action - but only one action will have any actual effect upon the spam.

When you moderate comments using email, and you are using comment moderation email - not comment notification email, you'll have the same choices for comment moderation, as when you use the Blogger dashboard wizard.

• Publish
• Delete
• Mark as spam

You'll have an additional choice, too.

• Moderate comments for this blog.

The latter choice gives you - when you are properly logged in to Blogger - quick access to the dashboard Comments wizard, to moderate from there.

As with using the dashboard wizard, the choice here is crucial. You need to mark spam comments as Spam. If you delete, the comment goes away - and nothing is done to train the spam filters. Spam comments, deleted, will simply let the spammer continue to annoy you.

With email messages, there are two more actions which some people take - and neither will do anything, directly, about comment spam.

• Some people will delete the email message - and this simply removes the email message, and the emailed copy of the spam, from the Inbox.
• Other people will use the "Spam" email mark. This selection is used to train the email comment filters - but it will only indirectly train the comment spam filters.

Neither deleting the email message, nor marking the email message as spam, will do anything about comment spam.

If you're looking at the comment notification email message, you'll have no comment moderation choices. Here, your only choice will be to delete the email message - if you're concerned with Inbox capacity. You can't moderate, using comment notification email.

Marking an email message, containing a spam comment, as spam - whether you are viewing the comment moderation or comment notification email message - accomplishes nothing. When you mark an email message as spam, you're reporting the sender of the email message. With comment moderation or comment notification email, marking an email message as spam reports the Blogger comment forwarding wizard - and this does nothing about the originator of the spam comment.

Use email to moderate comments, if you like. It's a convenient way to quickly moderate comments - and for some, more convenient than the Blogger dashboard. But make the right choices, when moderating.

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Control The Email Settings, Relevant To Your Blog, Wisely

Some blog owners don't always think about the various email settings, which are part of their Blogger blogs, and the possible effects to their email - or somebody else's email.

There are several settings, where a blog owner may enter an email address.

• Email posts to
• Comment Moderation.
• Comment Notification Email.

These settings don't require acceptance by the recipient, making for some interesting possibilities for causing problems in other people's email, as well as one's own email.

There are several Blogger dashboard settings - related to post publication and to various commenting activities - with differing effect to one's own, or somebody else's, email.

• Settings - "Mobile and email" - "Email posts to" generates a minimally formatted text copy of each post, when published, to up to 10 email addresses.
• Settings - "Posts and comments" - "Comment Moderation" generates a minimally formatted copy of each incoming comment, before the comment is published - and allows moderation of the comment, while reading the email message - when the recipient has the proper authority.
• Settings - "Mobile and email" - "Comment Notification Email" generates a minimally formatted copy of each incoming comment, before the comment is published or rejected.

Since none of these settings require acceptance by the recipient, there are various possibilities for causing interesting email delivery.

Unlike various subscription services which use email, such as a FeedBurner Email Subscription service, an email address added to any of these three settings requires no formal acceptance. If a blog administrator should add an email address, whether their own (primary or additional personal email address), a willing friend or relative, or an unknown victim's address, there is no initial email sent to the recipient

You (or somebody else) has added this email address as a recipient of "Email posts to" / "Comment Moderation" / "Comment Notification Email". Do you approve of this additional traffic source to your email service?

or a similarly worded notification / approval. Given a clueless or malicious blog owner, it's possible that one (or all) of these settings could be used to harass an unwitting third party.

The "Email posts to" feature, also known as "BlogSend", generates a minimally formatted text copy of each post, when published, to up to 10 email addresses. This setting has been used, in the past, to provide distribution of newly published posts for private blogs, as well as a simple distribution for posts from public blogs.

Since it's limited to 10 entries, BlogSend does not provide a suitable service for any blog with a reader population of any appreciable size. For a blog owner with any technical experience, FeedBurner Email Distribution is a much better solution for post distribution - when the blog in question is publicly accessible.

For distribution of a private blog to more than 10 readers, one may use Google+.

The "Comment Moderation" and "Comment Notification Email" settings, used together, can generate interesting duplication of email to one's own (or somebody else's) email service. If these settings are made without thinking, some interesting confusion can result. Email addresses can be added to each of these settings without consideration of the relationship or level of authority enjoyed by the owner of the email address, relative to the blog in question.

Comment Moderation Email is presumed to generally be a function performed by blog administrators - but email resulting from this setting will be sent to anybody addressed. A blog administrator / member - or other non administrator of the blog or an unwitting stranger - will receive email suggesting several options,

Publish
Delete
Mark as spam

Moderate comments for this blog.

If the recipient is not an actual blog administrator, the links in the email provide confusion, and no result.

Comment Notification Email might be generally addressed to blog members - but is not necessarily limited. Since notification of comments is sent separately from moderation, recipients of a notification can become confused when they fail to find the comment, mentioned in the notification, present on the blog. A blog administrator, using either an email moderation message - or using the blog Comments wizard, may or may not decide to Publish - or to designate a comment as Spam - regardless of a notification message having been delivered to each designated recipient.

Comment notification email may look similar to comment moderation email, less the comment processing options - possibly causing more confusion. A blog owner, adding his own email address to both comment moderation and comment notification, may see the combination as unknown duplication. And blog owners may confuse the proper use of comment moderation and comment notification email.

A blog owner, transferring ownership of a given blog, may overlook updating of the email settings. A new blog owner, receiving a blog being transferred, may likewise overlook these settings, and may lack the associated email, until the omission is corrected.

Either the previous owner, or the new owner, may be confused temporarily - and may wonder why they are still getting email / not getting email, until they examine and correct the setting in question. Alternately, if someone's email address was added maliciously, by a blog owner intending to harass somebody, one can see interesting possibility for conflict.

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"Nice Blog" Spam Is Recently Becoming More Obscure, In Content And Style

In 2009, we discovered an odd style of spam comments which, from all appearances, served no purpose.

I recently came across your blog, and have been reading along. I thought I would leave my first comment. I don't know what to say except that I have enjoyed reading. Nice blog. I will keep visiting this blog very often.

When discovered, Google Search suggested that over 22,000,000 copies of these comments had been successfully installed, on various blogs and websites.

Last year, I suggested a possible reason for the spam - and later showed how Google+, and various Blogger security measures, were making the spam less useful.

Last month, we began to see suggestions, from some blog owners, that this "nice blog" spam was morphing, into more obscurely phrased and structured styles.

A lot of spam comments are being published on my blog. This problem started a few weeks ago - though previously, Google almost always put them in my Spam Folder.

Upon examination of examples of the spam comments, we see the same spam style as observed in 2009 - yet more imaginatively phrased.

Today, I spent a couple hours, and scanned through the comments queues on this blog. Both the Awaiting, and Spam, folders yielded some interesting specimens.

This topic is very educational and it took my interest. Hope it will always be alive! And provide productive information to many others.

and

Nice post. I learn something new and challenging on websites I stumble upon every day. It's always interesting to read articles from other writers and practice a little something from other sites.

These were the comment bodies of just two examples which I located - and these resemble others identified by various other blog owners.

The bodies of the comments examined, this week, will sometimes contain embedded links, while other examples will have external links - and some comments seem to contain no links at all, to any payload. The only thing consistent about the comments is their vague and apparently pointless nature.

The comments are both large in volume, and varied in content and structure. Both patience and persistence, from every blog owner moderating the spam, is required. The spam filters must be trained, to recognise the new content and structures - and this will require more effort, from everybody seeing the spam.

Since various reports about the spam have been seen recently, in Blogger Help Forum: Something Is Broken, we added a rollup discussion there, where we are requesting minimally organised details about the comments being observed.

• Are you moderating before, or after publishing?
• What's the average amount of time the spam comment sits in "Awaiting" or "Published", before being moved to "Spam"?
• How often do you check "Awaiting" and "Published", looking for more spam comments?
• How often do you check "Spam", looking for non spam comments?
• How many spam comments do you typically dispatch, in each batch?
• Looking objectively in your personal "Awaiting", "Published", and "Spam" folders, what number of this style of comments do you typically see in each, without your intervention?
• When did you first observe this threat, in your comment folders?

As always, please help here by answering as carefully and completely as possible - and please only post relevant replies. Do not turn the rollup discussion into a chat room.

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Blogger Blogs And Commenting Permissions

Not all Blogger blog owners know that the ability to comment, like the ability to publish and read posts, is a privilege which they control - and a responsibility which they need to control, carefully.

Any blog owner who wishes to publish a blog, and not be subject to frequent deletion of the blog, as a suspected malware or spam host, needs to understand the responsibilities, and the risks.

There are levels of ability to post comments to a blog, which you select from the dashboard Settings - "Posts and comments" wizard. Protect yourself, if you allow comments.

• Anyone - includes Anonymous Users.
• Everybody with a Google, or an OpenID, account.
• Everybody with a Google account.
• Blog members only.
• Comments disabled.

Choose this setting with great care.

If you allow comments by "Anyone", prepare to deal with the spam. Note that anonymous users can post either anonymously, or using "Name / URL" tags, at their discretion, with "Anyone" selected. "Name / URL" does not provide authentication. "Anyone" means anyone, period.

Besides "Who can comment?", you may also control comment publishing using CAPTCHA (aka "word verification") screening, and using comment moderation. These settings, like "Who can comment?", are part of the Settings - "Posts and comments" wizard.

Every blog owner, hoping for any visibility in the Blogosphere, needs to choose these settings carefully - or risk being buried by spam.

• Who can comment?
• Comment Moderation.
• Comment Notification Email.
• Show word verification

Comment Moderation, and Comment Notification Email, together, provide 2 settings which can bury your email Inbox, depending upon activity of commenting on your blog. Choose these settings wisely.

If you allow spam comments without control, you may later find yourself asking for help, in Blogger Help Forum: Something Is Broken

Help me! My blog was deleted by Blogger!

Protect your blog, and your blog's future, by allowing comments, responsibly.

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Blogger Won't Censor Comments, Or Accept Abusive Comment Reports

We have seen this question, periodically, in Blogger Help Forum: How Do I?

When will Blogger provide me with the option to block an abusive commenter, from my blog?

This is a request that simply cannot be fulfilled.

The issue of blocking individual commenters won't be solved by a new Blogger feature.

• It's technically impossible.
• It's contrary to Blogger policy.

Any abuser of Internet services (aka "hacker", "spammer", or "troll"), with any ability, knows how to create multiple Google accounts without effort. Blogger Engineering is unlikely to spend time developing a new feature ("Block this comment publisher") that will simply provide you with a false sense of security, have no effect in the long term, and require an unproductive use of their time.

If you realistically feel that a comment publisher represents a legal and physical threat to you, you should report the threat to your local police agency. Other than physical threats, Blogger regards comments as a "freedom of speech" issue. Comments published on your blog are jointly the property - and the responsibility - of the comment publisher, and you.

As the blog owner, you are allowed to choose which comments publish, or remain published, on your blog. You can moderate before, or after, comments are published.

If any comments offend you, moderate or delete them promptly. Concentrate on publishing your blog, and ignore the abuse. Eventually, the person abusing you will get bored, and move on.

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The Latest Round Of CAPTCHAs Left Me Speechless

During the past week, I have seen a small handful of mentions of the latest Blogger CAPTCHA form, so I was not surprised this evening when I encountered one, in real life. In this case, where I was privileged to see these real examples, I suspect that the CAPTCHA itself was only marginally involved, as the cause of the problem being discussed, in Blogger Help Forum: Something Is Broken.

In looking at these three examples, I immediately hit "Publish" on the first two. I attempted the third, simply because I wanted to move forward with the actual problem diagnosis.

The "easy" "words" which contain "characters" in black, on a clean white background, are sort of guessable. I've seen enough of them. They suck - but they are predictable.

The other "words", in the shadow box, with noisy details - I guess represent the latest attempt to keep them from being guessable by automated processes. These, I fear, are simply over the edge.

??? After looking several times, I can see a dim "3" - so I suppose I would guess that, if I was reasonably sure that I had a good chance with the other, relatively easy "word" ("tokshous"?).



????? This one, I cannot begin to see characters. I would immediately pass on this one, every time. Even if "asuchSe" is correct for the "easy" "word" (or might that be "asuch5e"??). FAIL.



I can sort of see characters - possibly all capital letters, and a space in the middle. A guess, fortunately correct, was "AF9" (hoping that the space was not significant). And, hoping "Iflages" to be the "easy" word (that could be "If1ages", just as easily).



You get one chance with each CAPTCHA - a wrong guess, on either "word", simply leaves you looking at a different CAPTCHA. So, you have no opportunity to learn from your mistakes.

The above 3 examples show the "non easy" "word" semi visible, at least. Recently, I have seen some CAPTCHAs where the "non easy" "word" was just a black box on the screen - no content at all visible. In one case, I hit "Publish" 4 times without entering anything - simply because I could see absolutely no detail in the black box. Will your readers be that persistent?

If you are using CAPTCHA screening in the comments, on your blog, you will have to decide for yourself whether you wish to continue doing so. I removed the CAPTCHA from my blog, a month ago. Had I not removed the CAPTCHA a month ago, I would most surely have done so, today.

Were I be idly preparing to comment on your blog (for any purpose not involving me diagnosing a problem for someone), and were I to encounter these CAPTCHAs, this would simply be the last time I attempted to publish a comment, on your blog.

Comment publication I regard as maybe optional - it's no great problem (to me) if I can't publish a comment, on your blog. I have no idea what I will do, when encountering these abominations under a high stress situation, however.

1. Account creation.
2. Account / blog unlock.
3. Two step authentication necessitated re login (which I do see, regularly, when using the forums).

None of those 3 scenarios lend themselves to sitting there and guessing indecipherable puzzles, with marginally predictable outcome. Especially as my suspicion is that CAPTCHAs protect us only from the very simple hackers and spammers.

I don't use CAPTCHA screening - though I will moderate, here.

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