Confusion About Visibility Of Comments, With Blogs Using Google+ Comments

Along with confusion about ownership of comments, published using Google+ Comments, we see similar confusion about visibility of comments, in Blogger Help Forum: Something Is Broken.

I shared the URL of my post in Google+ - and now I see my Google+ post, displayed as a comment, on my blog!

and

My comments are showing up in other people's profiles, in Google+!!

and

I'm getting notifications, in Google+ - but the comments don't display, on the blog!!

Not all blog owners understand the relationship between Google+ comments, published to a Blogger blog - and posts, in Google+.

Comments on a Blogger blog are treated the same as Google+ posts, with a Blogger blog using Google+ Comments.

If somebody publishes a Google+ post, and shares the post to a circle that includes you, or shares a post publicly, you may see the post - if you are viewing a stream which includes them.

If somebody publishes a Google+ post, and shares the post to circle(s) that do not include you - even if the post references your blog - you won't see that post. If somebody publishes a Google+ comment against your blog, and shares the post to circle(s) that do not include you - even if the post references your blog - you won't see that comment.

If you share the URL of a post in your blog, in a Google+ post, that post becomes a Google+ comment against your blog post. With a Google+ post, you can choose to share to Public, or to any (or all) of your circles.

If you share the URL of a post in your blog to Public, everybody who is viewing a stream, which includes you, may see your Google+ post. If you share the URL to specific circles, everybody in those circles, and who is viewing a stream which includes you, may see your Google+ post.

If you publish a Google+ comment to a post in your blog, and choose "Also share on Google+", that comment will become a Google+ post.

If you share a comment to Public, everybody who is viewing a Google+ stream, which includes you, may see your Google+ post. If you share a comment to specific circles, everybody in those circles, who is viewing a Google+ stream which includes you, may see your Google+ post.

If you are viewing a post in your blog, you can select the "Circles" icon, and view all comments made by people in your circles, against that post, that you may see - or you can select the "World" icon, and view all comments made by everybody, against that post, that you may see. Anybody else, viewing a post in your blog, can do the same.

If you're publishing a comment against a post in your blog, you can choose to "Also share on Google+". Anybody else, viewing your blog, and publishing a comment, has the same choice.

The purpose of Google+ Comments, in Blogger, is to include Google+ posts, about your blog, on your blog.

For example, if there's a public Google+ discussion about one of your blog entries, those comments and replies will also appear on your Blogger blog.

If you do not want to include Google+ comments, about your blog, on your blog, you don't need to enable Google+ Comments.

If you do decide to use Google+ Comments on your blog, be aware of the known problems with Google+ Comments.

You can revert the blog back to Blogger Comments - but if you do this, no comments made using Google+ Comments will be visible on the blog, to anybody.

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Confusion About Ownership Of Comments, With Blogs Using Google+ Comments

We're seeing a few problem reports, about ownership of comments, published against blogs using Google+ Comments, in Blogger Help Forum: Something Is Broken.

Why can't I delete comments?

or

Why can't I reply to comments?

or

Why don't I get notifications of comments, posted against my blog?

These blog owners do not understand who owns the comments, when they are posted against their blogs.

With Blogger Comments, the comments are jointly owned by the blog owner and the comment publisher. With Google+ Comments, on the other hand, the comment publisher has sole ownership of a comment published - even if that comment references your blog. This ownership policy does not please all blog owners.

Comments on a Blogger blog are treated the same as Google+ posts, with a Blogger blog using Google+ Comments.

If you publish a Google+ post, and mention somebody else's blog or blog post (or website, in general), you own that Google+ post. That Google+ post is exclusively yours to delete or edit - and to set reply (aka "comment") permission. In your Google+ Settings wizard, you can set per circle permissions, who can comment on your public posts (or reply to your public comments, against a blog).

If somebody else comments on a post in your blog, they own that comment (Google+ "post"). That Google+ post is exclusively theirs to delete or edit - and to set reply ("comment") permission. In their Google+ Settings wizard, they can set per circle permissions, who can comment on their public posts (or reply to their comments, against a blog).

Along with confusion about comment ownership, there is confusion about comment visibility, with Google+ Comments.

If you see a comment from another person, published publicly or to a circle which includes you, it's still their comment (or Google+ post) - their reference to your blog is simply not relevant. Their "comment" permissions control your ability to reply to their comments - again, their commenting against your blog is not relevant.

1. You cannot delete or edit comments made by other people.
2. You cannot reply to all comments made by other people.
3. You cannot even see all comments made by other people.
4. Even comments which you can see, you may not be able to forward, or reply, depending upon per comment setting by the publisher.

Again, all of this applies whether or not the comment references your blog.

If you object to a comment, published to your blog, you can report that comment as "spam or abuse", just as any other Google+ member can do. With Google+, abuse reporting is a community activity. You have no need to "moderate" (either before, or after publishing) any comments, made against your blog - except when convenient.

Concentrate more on your blog, and less on comment spam.

If you do decide to use Google+ Comments on your blog, be aware of the known problems with Google+ Comments.

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All Mobile Computers Are Not Created Equal

We've seen a few questions about comments, supposedly published - but vanishing, when using a mobile computer, in Blogger Help Forum: Something Is Broken.

This symptom, as reported, reminds us of the long ago reports of "vanishing comments" - but using desktop computers.

At least one of the folks who isn't able to comment said she was attempting to do so from her mobile phone. Is Blogger now losing comments from mobile devices?

The answer here is not quite so ominous, though the situation is still frustrating - to both the blog owner, and the various visitors.

Blogger comments are offered in three "desktop" computer styles, selected by the blog owner.

• Embedded, positioned below the posts.
• Full screen, on a separate page.
• Popup, in a separate, miniature window.

Each of these choices have their own special advantages and disadvantages, which vary in relevance, according to the blog reader population.

On a "mobile" computer - and with the "mobile" template enabled, there is yet a fourth style.

• Embedded, in a special "mobile" dialogue.

The comment entry process, in general, involves at least four distinct steps.

• Authentication. Where required by the blog owner, and / or preferred by the blog visitor, the visitor may provide personal identification.
• Entry. The comment is entered, and edited.
• Preview. The visitor can view the comment, as entered, before actually publishing it.
• Verification. Where required by the blog owner, the visitor solves a puzzle, aka "CAPTCHA", to prove that he/she is not using an automated script.

Entry and Preview goes back and forth, at the preference of the comment publisher, until satisfied.

Depending upon the "mobile" computer and template in use, any of the four comment entry styles may be a problem, for any of the four steps identified. If you are familiar with the comment entry process, in general, consider the various controls and objects involved - and when each object is presented to the visitor, attempting to publish a comment.

Consider three different possible ways of presenting the various controls and objects, involved in publishing comments.

• Everything "visible" simultaneously, with the display zoomed out so everything is visible. On anything but a large screen tablet, you would probably need a magnifying glass, to read the captions, instructions, and labels.
• Everything "visible" simultaneously, but with most objects off screen, until each is needed. Scrolling is done using finger gestures, not using scroll tabs - and it's never obvious where any "missing" objects may be, at any time.
• Everything visible in sequence, one step at a time. Extra controls, to move forward and backward in the sequence, are required. To someone not familiar with the comment entry process, in general, some controls may not be obvious.

None of these three options provide perfect solutions. Even being experienced in the commenting process, I have found no obvious excellent choice, when using a "mobile" computer.

Besides the various control and display issues discussed above, consider the effects of cookies and scripts, which may or may not be supported by any given "mobile" computer - and layered security, which is a challenge, on every computer. Both may be a special problem, on "mobile" computers.

Until "mobile" computers are developed, with controls and displays equal to (better than) to those of "desktop" computers, I suspect that there will always be problems with commenting on "mobile" computers - just as there are problems with use of "mobile" computers, and with commenting on all computers, in general.

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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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Google+ Comments, And The Display Order Option

Blog owners have been asking for this option, for years.

How do I setup comments, so the latest comment displays at the top?

For a long time, the answer has always been "You can't.". This response does not satisfy anybody.

This option is finally here. With Google+ Comments, your readers can choose either "Top comments" (default), or "Newest first". The latter choice shows the latest comments at the top of the comments display.

If you are able and willing to use Google+ Comments for your blog, you can now provide this option, to your readers. This is in my opinion, the first unique and useful feature offered by Google+ Comments.

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Reverting Your Blog Back To Blogger Comments, From Google+ Comments

We're starting to see regular evidence of dissatisfaction, in Blogger Help Forum: Something Is Broken, about Google+ based Blogger commenting.

We've known about some undesirable features of Google+ commenting, for a while now.

• No ability to moderate comments, made against your blog, before they are published.
• No ability to moderate comments, from the dashboard.
• No controls for moderation, or for notification, of comments.
• No ability to view all comments, made against your blog.
• No ability to block all undesirable comments, made by people who don't like your blog.

These are just the undesirable features which directly affect commenting.

Not every blog owner realises that anybody in Google+, able to view their blog, can make comments about their blog. Unfortunately, just as you can't see the posts made in Google+, by people not in your circles, neither can you see comments made by people not in your circles - even if their comments are published against your blog.

Deciding that Google+ comments may not be their cup of tea, some blog owners decide to revert to Blogger native commenting, and recover normal commenting features.

Reverting the blog, to use Blogger based comments, is simple enough - in most cases. From the dashboard Google+ menu entry, look for the selection "Use Google+ Comments on this blog". Un checking that selection, your blog is back to native Blogger comments. To verify success, you may need to clear browser cache, and restart the browser.

Some blog owners think that deleting their Google+ profile, or simply reverting their Blogger account, will immediately recover control of commenting. Having deleted / reverted the Google+ profile, however, the Google+ dashboard menu entry disappears - but the blog continues with Google+ based comments, and with no dashboard selection to "Use Google+ Comments on this blog".

For any blog owned by a Blogger account with a newly deleted (reverted) Google+ profile, the blog owner must now again upgrade the Blogger / Google profile to Google+, and create a new Google+ profile. With the Blogger account again using a Google+ profile, the dashboard Google+ entry, with the necessary "Use Google+ Comments on this blog" option, will be restored - and Google+ comments can be disabled.

If you decide that Google+ based comments don't suit your Blogger blog, you can recover normal Blogger comments - but please recover carefully. Always uncheck the dashboard option to "Use Google+ Comments on this blog", before doing anything else.

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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 Spam And Referer Spam Has Various Purposes

One of the most intriguing subjects discussed in Blogger Help Forum: Something Is Broken involves the seemingly purposeless spam which torments us in our comments and our Stats logs.

I see this random garbage on my blog - and the sites advertised are complete junk. Is there any actual reason for this?

Interestingly, both nice blog spam (in our comments), and referer spam (in our Stats logs), have purposes - though with the continually varying content used in both, it all looks very much like random garbage.

If we analyse the content, structure, and volume of the various spam attacks, we can see patterns - and an understanding of the overall purpose of the spam.

Both our comments - and our Stats logs - are continually assaulted by seemingly random and useless noise, in large volume. This is similar to the random spam which attacks our email.

If you look at enough comment and Stats log spam, you will start to see patterns - and reasons for the spam. The spam, though apparently random in content, is not purposeless.

First, some warning may be appropriate.

1. If you wish to examine the sites advertised in comment or referer spam, learn to use a proxy server.
2. Unless you are a computer security expert, with a properly protected (or intentionally sacrificial) computer, do not surf these sites advertised, using an unprotected computer. Avoidance is the best way to protect yourself.
3. If you do, even inadvertently, surf a comment or referer spam site, quarantine and scan your computer as soon as convenient. If you must surf the sites advertised, while unprotected, diagnosis is the next best way to protect yourself (and others around you).

Examining the comment and Stats based spam diagnostically, you'll see various purposes behind the spam.

• Spam delivery. It is called "comment spam" / "referer spam", after all.
• Malware delivery. This is the secondary purpose, known by many people - and the reason why I provide the above advice.
• Attacks against third party, non spammers. Various third party blogs and websites, who do not subscribe to the service, may be maliciously targeted, by some spam.
• Strategic malware delivery. Some malware may be packaged in portions, delivered through multiple attacks.
• Filter poisoning. Some spam may be simply intended to overwhelm the malware / spam detection systems.
• Email address mining. Some very special comment spam, which I call "Nice Blog" spam, is a very imaginative email address mining technique.

The best way to identify comment and referer spam may be to simply follow the various forum discussions - and observe which spam techniques are reported by multiple blog owners, being assaulted in identical style. As the old saying goes,

If it quacks, it's probably a duck.

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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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The Google+ Comments Feature Was Recently Updated - And Is Now Broken

We are seeing an abrupt flood of reports from Blogger blog owners who have accepted Google+ Comments, in their blogs.

It appears that Blogger has fixed the observed problem with the Comment Count not displaying - and has possibly at the same time, broken Google+ Comments, in general.

Blog owners are reporting that comments are simply not visible - even with the Comment Count now showing a non zero value. My test blog is now showing this problem - though it did not, before I updated the post template.

We have a new Rollup Discussion, where everybody observing this problem is invited to provide some diagnostic details.

---

(Update 2013/05/02 23:00): The problem appears to be resolved.

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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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If You Comment On Blogs Extensively, You Should Consider Using Google 2-Step Verification

One recently identified cause of deleted Blogger blogs appears to involve brute force hacking against our Blogger / Google accounts.

We've known, for some time, about blog owners receiving alerts about "suspicious" / "unusual" account activity. The alerts frequently involve locked or deleted Blogger / Google accounts - and generally include the owner having to change their password, solve a CAPTCHA, and / or provide their phone number (mobile or home phone) to login.

Later, people started reporting that their blogs were being deleted - possibly as a result of having to change their password, solve a CAPTCHA, and / or provide their phone number.

I've been observing - and blocking - an annoying style of comment based spam, which I have termed "nice blog" spam, for some time.

Nice blog. I will keep visiting this blog very often.

This style of spam, from what I can tell, has been published by the millions, in various blog comments, on both Blogger and non Blogger platforms.

The reason for the spam always intrigued me. Observing that the spam was published in the millions, suggested to me that it had a special purpose, intended by its creators. Looking at a typical spam message, in my email (since I moderate before publishing), I could see no consistent type of content.

• Some messages would contain links, others not.
• Some messages would mention what looked like commercial products, other references were obviously imaginary targets.
• Some messages would appear to be mere babble.

Recently, I discovered one strong possibility for the purpose of the spam - a very ingenious form of email address mining. The spam comment is only needed to allow a hacker to subscribe to a given comment stream, using the "Email follow-up comments to ..." option. It's possible that the subscription is not even affected by moderation - whether the blog owner is moderating, either before or after the comment is published to the blog, the hacker remains subscribed to the comment stream.

All that the hacker / spammer has to do is to publish a spam comment, select the "Email follow-up comments to ..." option, and watch while his Inbox fills up with subsequent comments from other Blogger / Google / OpenID account owners. Any comment containing an email address, and linking to a Blogger blog, would go straight into the hackers database.

Later, the hacker could go to work against the Blogger accounts referenced in the comments. In some cases, this would result in successfully hijacked Blogger blogs, which would become part of a spammers blog farm where advertisements of various nature could be hosted. Valuable blogs, with established reader populations, could also be used to serve malware (and more hacking) to unsuspecting readers.

The demographics of some hijacking attacks provide interesting clues. In one episode, we had a significant number of home / personal / small business blogs that had been hijacked by one specific individual. Many of the victim blogs

• Contained details relevant to the owners, which provided clues to passwords used by the owners.
• Were owned by people who used commenting extensively, for networking both with friends, and with business targets.
• Were read (and commented upon) by similar people, who similarly provided password clues in their own blogs.

Having been part of the restore process, both with people who had their blogs hijacked, and who had their accounts locked and blogs deleted, I observed that the former (hijacked blogs) seem to have decreased in volume as the latter (accounts and blogs locked / deleted) increased in volume. I don't think that the relationship is coincidental - or spurious.

My opinion is that the locking of Blogger / Google accounts - and subsequent deletion of blogs - directly results from detected attacks against the accounts in question ("suspicious" / "unusual" activity). Noting that the attacks seem to be more common to people who comment on blogs as a form of networking, it appears that commenting can lead to accounts and blogs being locked or deleted, as Google protects us against hacking.

Considering this possible cause and effect relationship, Google 2-step verification is a good idea. Click here, for Google instructions on setting up 2-step verification.

Use of 2-step verification helps safeguard our accounts against brute force hacking. This will help anybody who is anxious about accounts and blogs being deleted or locked, as a result of "suspicious" / "unusual" activity. If you own a blog which is subject to this threat, you should consider using 2-step verification.

The sanity (heart attack, ulcer) that is saved may be your own.

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If You Use CAPTCHA Screening On Your Blog, Try Publishing A Comment, As A Guest

Not all Blogger blog owners, using CAPTCHA screening to reduce abusive comments on their blogs, know first hand what the typical CAPTCHA puzzle can be like.

We're seeing a few concerned blog owners, in Blogger Help Forum: Something Is Broken, asking why they're seeing fewer comments on their blogs.

I'm hearing from people that they can't post comments on my blog. I tested, and comments are working just fine. What is the problem, here?

Not all blog owners bother to test the CAPTCHA, on their blogs - or even know why they don't see one, when commenting.

Not all blog owners, enabling Word verification in their blog commenting settings, bother to read the tool tip behind the "?".

Show word verification
This will require people leaving comments on your blog to complete a word verification step, which will help reduce comment spam. Learn more.
Blog authors will not see word verification for comments.

The simple advice

Blog authors will not see word verification for comments.

does not sink in, to everybody.

This leaves many blog owners unaware of how frustrating it may be, for their guests to comment, on their blogs.

If you're a blog owner, musing whether to add word verification to your blog, in an effort to cut down on the spamming and trolling going on in many blog comment threads, maybe you should try posting on your blog, as a guest. With "Show word verification" set to "Yes", logout from Blogger - or clear cache, cookies, and sessions (yes, all 3!) - then restart the browser, and try leaving a comment on your blog.

What you discover may not please you. Then ask yourself how many of your readers will have the patience, to solve a CAPTCHA, every time they wish to publish a comment?

As a blog owner, you have 3 settings which are used, in proper combination, to provide a safe environment for your readers to leave comments.

1. Authentication.
2. CAPTCHA Screening.
3. Moderation.

Consider using one or both of the other two options, if possible.

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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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