Category Archives: Blogs

Please report problems with captcha when commenting

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Have you tried to leave a comment, only to be rejected repeatedly when trying to enter the displayed “captcha” code?

If so, please let me know. I’ve heard from two people who had this problem. Both are regular readers, and both say they tried repeatedly, without success, to enter the correct code.

As you may recall, I installed this screening mechanism on the advice of my hosting service after experiencing a glut of “comment spam” and being temporarily shut down.

If you run into a similar problem, please let me know (email ian@ilind.net). And you can always email me your comment, and I’ll bypass the system and post it.

Winner selected in PressReader giveaway

1 Reply

A winner has been selected in the PressReader giveaway.

The one-year subscription goes to the reader who used the initials, IR.

To select a winner, I compiled a list of all comments received on the two posts dealing with the giveaway.

I then deleted two comments left by readers who exceeded the three-comment limit.

In the end, there were only 36 valid comments.

I then used the Random Integer Generator at Random.org, requesting a list of 36 integers between 1 and 36.

The list that was returned ranked IR’s comment at #1.

Congratulations to IR, and thanks to all of you who participated.

I’ll look for other opportunities to reward readers in this way!

Giveaway deadline extended: “Free” is harder to give away than I expected

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On Monday, I announced an opportunity win a free 1-year subscription to PressReader, a portal to access more than 2,200 newspapers and magazines around the world (“News Junkie Alert: Win a 1-year subscription to PressReaders’ 2200+ publications“).

All you need to do is leave a comment suggesting what publications you’re most interested in. More details are found in Monday’s post.

The next morning, this site experienced a significant meltdown when a barrage of “comment spam” hit my hosting service, and they responded by declaring the account “suspended.”

In the meantime, there have been few people indicating an interest in winning the subscription.

Does this reflect a limited interest in accessing additional sources of news? Or did readers miss Monday’s announcement?

I’m not sure, but just in case, I’m extending the deadline. Originally, the deadline was set at midnight tonight. I’m now extending that until midnight this Sunday, March 2.

At that point, I’ll randomly select one of those who commented on Monday’s post as the winner. To do this, I’ll number the comments, then use a random number generator to select a number in the same range.

The winner will be notified on Monday.

“Captcha” added to protect against automated comment spam

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On the advice of my hosting service, I’ve added a “captcha” plug-in which will require you to retype a word or phrase when you leave a comment (or when registering as a user, or doing a few other things).

Most of you have likely dealt with these before. They are designed to prevent automated spam robots from submitting an overload of comments and overwhelming a site, as happened here earlier today.

I hope that you’ll be okay with this. My few options included requiring everyone to register with a valid email address, but that would make anonymous comments much more difficult.

So I’m going to give this system a try.

Please report any problems you have with it. There are several similar plug-ins to choose from, so some trial-and-error may be in order.

Thanks for participating in these online discussions.