Dear Fellow Bloggers:

I'm having a few issues that I think you may be able to help me with. At least, I hope that you can.

This may seem nitpicky and I apologize if I offend anyone. But reading (too many) blogs every day I find it very time consuming to jump through the hoops of deciphering and retyping a verification of jumbled letters. Have you actually been terrribly spammed that you insist on this? I mean, I've had a few annoying spammers but I just delete the comment and they've gone away and left me alone. Could you maybe try this? Thank you for the consideration.

My other petty issue is with music on your blogs. Although I love some of the music that you feature, and it's wonderful to get to know what your music tastes are in such a fashion, it really distracts from concentrating on your words. I know, I know. It's probably just me, and I'm sorry. But there's another equally trivial reason that I have issues with this. Sometimes when I'm blogging and I really shouldn't be, I cannot read your blog. The music will wake a sleeping baby, distract the kids when they're studying and let my husband know that I'm not really "working" when I should be snuggling with him on the couch. So, you see, because of the music, I have to be careful when I visit you. I know that I can turn this off, and I do, but too often the music box is located so far down the page that just getting to it has already allowed a few bars to blare.

Again, I apologize if I've offended you in any way. I just want our relationship to work. I would hate to lose you altogether because of silly things like this that keep getting between us.

Sincerely,

The Petty, Whiny Blogger

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And on a more positive note, don't forget to enter in the giveaway! I'm changing all the rules, too. How fun is that?! Simply leave me a comment on how your Memorial Day weekend was (good, bad, there was a holiday?) and you're automatically entered in the drawing. Go talk to me here. You can win a free shirt from the store.

33 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thank YOU for your PBSA (Public Blogger Service Announcement). I hate music playing after the page loads, it just slows down the site and interrupts my music on iTunes (Rascal Flats and Ozzy don't mix) ;)

AutoSysGene said...

I'm so with you on the word veri. Sometimes I have to type those darn things 3 times and it drives me crazy!!

Beth from the Funny Farm said...

I AGRREEEE! I hate, hate, hate the verifications. Uugh!

I hate 99% of the music too. I want people to think I am WORKING... ;-)

Michelle said...

Hmmm... never thought about the word verifications. Unfortunately, I'm not blog smart enough to know how to turn them off.

That also means I'm not blog smart enough to have music, lucky you! (Although I wouldn't have any anyway, as I agree with you on the distraction -- I have my computer muted unless I specifically want to hear something.)

I'm still new to blogging, at less than three months in. I'll be interested to see others' reactions to the word verification.

Kristen said...

I agree with you on both! I always mute the music and I don't have the word verif. on mine. It makes my eyes cross!

Michelle said...

The word verification annoys me too - and yes, I know I'm one of the bloggers that has it! LOL I didn't have it for the longest time and finally broke down and put it on because yes I was getting spammed a lot. Most of the spam was a lot of nonsense stuff but it was very long. I don't know what the stuff was even about. Then after awhile I turned it off again and it was fine for several months, then the spammers started again so I put it back on.

I've considered doing the option of comment will be posted after reviewed by owner, but then it would take more time on the computer to sit there and approve all comments. Just for you though, I'll take the verification off again and see how that goes for awhile.

I'm w/you on the music though, that does annoy me. I just have my volume turned off so I don't even notice when someone has music playing :)

Debbie @ Three Weddings said...

I am SO with you. I had the word verification on for a while but didn't know it. I thought I had it turned off, but someone said something about it being on. I quickly went to my preferences in blogger and turned it back off. If it gets turned back on, I hope someone will let me know!

As for the music, just this morning that happened to me and Peanut is sleeping very close by. You don't want to annoy or upset anyone, but I really hate the music for just the reasons you stated!

Cass. Just Curious said...

The word verification is an indicator of how much my day is going to bite. If I can get the word verification "right" within the first 3 attempts then it's a good day - if I fail at even that then we're not doing so well. And the music ALWAYS gets me in trouble on conference calls. Whoops.

Spammon said...

Well, I used to not have word verification, and then the spam was just getting out of control. Then again, some of those spamments were pretty amusing...And it could spawn an awesome blog post for me. I'll give it some thought.

pb&j in a bowl said...

I'm SO with you on both of these issues! I can never seem to type the verifications right. I usually have a live stream of my favorite radio station playing on my computer when I'm reading blogs, and hearing other music at the same time drives me crazy. Have a great day!!

Burgh Baby said...

AMEN!

I've been trying to figure out why I rarely get any spam in comments. Maybe because I publish to a dot com and not blogger itself? Regardless, I hate having to pass a test just to comment. I double hate when I have to pass the word verification test AND the blogger holds comments for review. Why two tests? Really. Why?

And, oh, the music. Mr. Husband has actually banned me from reading blogs that have music when we're both home. It annoys him to no end when music suddenly comes blaring out of my laptop.

Andrea said...

I hate the comment verification too! I have it on my blog, I am a dork. But I type in the letters and most of the time I have to do it again. I hate it. So, they why do I have it on my blog? Who knows? But I can take it off. I think I know how to take it off. I will try to take it off if you please will come and still read my blog! Don't hate me becasue of my comment verification!! LOL!! :) Oh, and I love a good contest!! I commented. I didn't even realize you were having a contest. I am so blonde. Man, I am suprised I can make it through a day sometimes!

Lost said...

First time commenting though I've been lurking for a little while lol.

I HATE music on blogs, there is nothing like quietly reading at 3 am and innocently going to a blog and getting blasted out of your chair by music you don't even like LOL.

Pam said...

I hate the word verification thing. There are days I can barely keep my eyes open much less see straight enough to type in those cryptic letters.

Quarantine Hobby said...

Yeah, I'm with you on the music thing. I get really frustrated when music starts playing on a webpage I'm visiting. Fortunately, I read blogs in a news aggregator, so I don't have to deal with it most of the time unless I go to leave a comment!

I also get frustrated always filling out those spam things. Now that I think about it, though, I don't know if I have one set up on my page! I'm guessing not because I have deleted some awesome "free porn" spam a number of times.

Unknown said...

UGH!! Hate the letters....

Wineplz said...

you crack me up!

and I hate those word verifications too...I don't have that, neither does Justin, and we really don't have any spam comments (or if you're cool enough to have Wordpress like me, it has a spam commenter filter instead of annoying your readers with irritatingly small, misshapen letters to copy). While having music is tempting, I know that my in-laws are on dial-up so I don't want to tax their page loads. Glad to hear I won't lose you as a reader (at least not for having annoying page features...as for my content, that's another story, right? ha ha)

KG said...

I'm SO with you. I mean - hell - how hard is it to delete the spammer comments?

And the music always scares me when I'm not expecting it.

Unknown said...

I finally took the music off my blog when my hubby complained to me that he can't read my blog while he is on his weekly conference call. I agree with the jumbled letter thing!! Is there anything more annoying?!

My weekend was rainy.

Anonymous said...

Do I have the characters? I honestly don't know. And, I so had that thing WON. Drat you going and changing it all up. Did you see the post?

Kellan said...

I hate those word verification thingys too and the music distracts me too!

We had a great weekend - I hope you did too!!

Take care- Kellan

Tanya said...

AMEN!

lindsey said...

Oh my gosh... I hate music on blogs. Especially when you aren't expecting it. I wish that feature were never invented.

Cecily R said...

Woohoo! I must be your FAVORITE. I have neither already!! :)

Anonymous said...

Spent the weekend shopping

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Cynthia said...

Thanks for saying what I've been thinking:)

imbeingheldhostage said...

Ackknowledged, licking my wounds as I leave...
Hey, I don't have word veri-- does that make me only HALF annoying?

OHmommy said...

I hate those jumbled letters too. I have them on my blog. Only after getting hit up with a dozen spams in one day and cluttering my inbox. UGH! I don''t know which is more annoying. ;)

caramama said...

Hmmmm. I will consider this issue about the word verification. I have never found it to be an issue, so I never realized others wouldn't like it. And BBM makes a good point about there being two checks, as I do have to approve comments (this is for good reasons, so that will stay). Thank you for bring it to my attention.

As for the music on blogs, I don't do that. And my computer is always muted unless I have specifically un-muted in order to hear something. So I never realized that other people have music on their blogs. Look at what I've learned today. Thank you!

The Sports Mama said...

Ok. Because you and a couple more of my favorite blogging peeps EVER have spoken out against the music....

I will graciously refrain from sharing my love of the best decade of music EVER on my blog.

Besides... I keep both my laptop and my desktop muted at all times, so I'm not even listening to my own music. So really, what was the point of having it there??

...now if I can just figure out a way to embed it so someone can listen to it if they WANTED to.....

(also... sorry I haven't been around much lately. Its not you. Its me. Totally.) :)

just jamie said...

Ditto that.

kari and kijsa said...

We love this post...we are with you on the word verification...we have to type it so many times to get it right! Thanks for the PSA!

Have a blessed weekend!

smiles, kari & kijsa

JennyH said...

I totally agree!!!