Blog stuff and spammers

I notice the spammers are going to the trouble of using real people instead of "bots" to leave their junk in our comment sections, because I have word verification in place and still had an oriental spam comment this morning. This is the first time that's happened to me; I've been very happy with the word verification solution, although I wish I didn't have to use any methods that make it harder for people to comment. I also notice that some of the spammers are getting downright sneaky, leaving comments that, at first glance, appear legit. Then I'll see there's a link included in the comment, and that link is not one I would like to have here.

Here's something that has happened to me a lot, lately: I click to comment on someone else's blog and my comment does not go through the first time; I get a message in red that says, "Your request could not be processed; please try again." I click to post the comment again and sometimes it goes through, sometimes it does not. If it fails to post the second time, I am presented with word verification (which wasn't there at the beginning of my valiant effort to comment), type in the word, and my comment finally appears.

This happens several times a day. I always persist until my little blurb is officially added, but I think this might be discouraging to some folks. There are certain blogs where it always occurs. Ora's is one.

Just another of those things that make me go "Hmmm".

On a different subject, I'm trying to figure out a way to put my music system in the computer room ( spare bedroom now that I have the daybed). I spend a huge amount of time in here, and I know I'd get a lot more use from it in this room. I have it in the bedroom now, because I thought I'd turn it on at bedtime, to lull me to sleep; I've found I prefer my Grace Internet Radio for that purpose, though. The time of day when I really want to listen to the radio/CD player is in the morning; right now it's in the bedroom where Cliff is sleeping, and he doesn't get up until at least 10 A.M., thanks to the wacky shift he's working at his job.

This is such a small room, though, that I'll need a not-too-big table of some sort on which to place the radio. I'm keeping my eyes peeled for such a table. Garage sales will be starting up in a couple of months.

Oh, thanks to all the comments on my "hoarding" entry. Dee from Tennessee, I believe I'll do as you did and buy a CD "storage thingie"; perhaps an album-type one. I'll toss the jewel cases. Problem solved. "Pudge450" shared some wisdom: Katrina taught her that all that "stuff" isn't so important after all. (I do hope I'm right about saying "her"; the profile doesn't tell me much.)

Right now I'm considering the bookcase I have in my bedroom. I love each and every book therein, but how long has it been since I've read a single one of them? Trust me, it's been ages. Maybe I need to have a few book giveaways here on my blog.

spam comments and spell-check

I'm still battling the spam comments; at least once per day I get one of the Asian porn comments, but it's always on an older post, so it doesn't show up because I have moderation set for anything over three days old. Since this particular one was always on the same post, one with a peach cobbler recipe from last July, I decided to delete it and see what happens. I occasionally get spam on new posts, but not often. I simply delete them. It isn't real people doing the dirty deeds, it's "bots" set out to troll the Internet (by real people).
I could avoid all this by (a) using word verification for comments or (b) blocking anonymous commenters. Either method loses commenters, so for now I'll keep doing what I'm doing. It's rare that I get a legitimate anonymous comment, but when I do it's very special because it's usually someone saying, "I've read you for a long time" or "I read your blog every day." It's a treat to hear from someone like that, somebody who has never come out in the open before.
On another note, am I the only person whose spelling seems to have gotten worse since spell-check appeared on the scene? In the old days I'd stop and think about how to spell a word; now I just type it in any old way, knowing spell-check will give me the proper spelling.

Asian porn in my comment section

About every day, once or twice, I find in my comment section some oriental characters. When it's left on an old entry, it doesn't post; I have chosen to not allow comments on any post over two weeks old, so I can look at the comment and reject it.

My Sitemeter tells me the spammer is in Taiwan, and that he/she/it comes from a blog that is seldom updated these days, one where there's a link to my blog.

Are any of you getting Asian porn links left in your comments? I think I will temporarily apply controls where readers have to type in a nonsense word in order to comment here. I hate to do that because I think it discourages comments; but who knows where those links would take you?