Interesting point, though, about moderating comments on older posts. It is true that the spam is most often on less recent posts.

Thanks for all the food for thought.

Great news!

It’s up to the blogger to create an environment that welcomes conversation and encourages feedback – even if the feedback is aggressive or hostile or disagrees with them. That’s the true spirit of conversation! Word verification comes off as a bit unwelcoming.

With the use of Akismet, a list of common spam words in the comment filter, moderating comments with 2 or more links (a sure sign of spamming is including links), it’s not necessary to have humans try and fumble through a messy filter. There are automated ways to do it that don’t require anything by the readers. Those ways make for a much more user-friendly experience. You should do the comment filter work on your end so they don’t have to. It’s a courtesy to your reader.

Having readers stop by is a privilege. We should make it as easy for them as possible to participate. I want my blog to feel like a community – not a one way street where I speak at people and they can speak back after completing tasks.

This isn’t possible for Blogspot bloggers, and I totally understand the lack of technology is working against them. But WordPress bloggers have the power to do the work on their end so their readers don’t have to. I love WordPress!

In that case, if it’s necessary because of a lower-end tech blog, like Blogspot – having the word verification visible is better. Knowing I’ll have to earn my ability to leave a comment is much better than having it pop up as a sneak-attack after the fact.

Thanks for the feedback. Always appreciate conversation ’round here.

BTW, more people have landed on my post “Legal Stimulants” than any other post. I am sure they are disappointed with what they find and it is a good reason to avoid cutsie titles. I should have titled it French Vanilla Creamer Recipe.

The comment captcha…. never thought about that making it difficult. I honestly thought it was a security feature. Better look into removing that!

I love how much you use your footer on your blog. I think a lot of people forget it as being an option when preparing their design.
.-= Crystal & Co´s last blog ..Womans Day Planner Winner! =-.

Sherry @ A Happy Valentine
.-= Sherry´s last blog ..Pink Saturday =-.

I’m very new to the blog world, but I’ve been around just long enough to know I pretty much agree with everything you wrote. As for the comments section….I have all of my comments e-mailed to me first so I can approve or moderate them. This technique came in handy last week when I got a spam message.

I love your suggestions here and I want to ask you if you would please review my blog and then email me what your honest thoughts are? But then again, I read how you’ll leave once you hear music and I actually do have music playing on my automatically. But would you mind doing a little suggestion/thought review anyhow? I, of course, did not create my design but donated to someone else to do so, but I did add all the sidebar ‘stuff’ (mainly button links, or actual links) and of course everything else printed on there is from me as well.

I’m in the works of creating a website for my photography shots (though I’m still far from being a Pro like your hubby is), but the lady that did my blog said she doesn’t do flash headers, which I would love to having showing some various images I took with my camera.

Do you have a tab that shows your fees for designing sites or just custom flash headers? What about if I say I’m related to you or your hubby, would that decrease the cost??? I’m not though, but what if I were to say I was? Would it deduct anything? LOL….can’t keep that going to well! LOL!

Nice to meet you. Love you site and what you’ve done with your husbands professional header as well. Looks awesome!!

Your boys are precious by the way.

Thanks for making me laugh with your 10 tips.

I always had my word verification turned off and then I started getting spam. I'm usually pretty good with technology, but I couldn't figure out how to delete my comments.

So, I turned on the word verification. I really want to turn it back off, so please let me know if you have advice! I read your comments to WP users, but I'm on blogger.