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• I am one of those who don't enjoy approving comments if you don't have your gravatar set up. The reason is because I enjoy connecting with people over at my blog. I can't do that if I can't see the person I'm speaking with.

  I do have some that I will let slide though. If I've connected with you on another platform and when you visit my blog I learned that you don't have it set up. I'll do my best to convince them.

  I also have some friends who would rather stay incognito and they have their reasons whether I approve or not. I still like them and want to stay connected so I'll continue to accept them. But overall, no. I want to see the person I'm chatting with and it free, simple and easy to set up. Really, there should be no excuses Stephen. You're making it so easy for them here.

  Thanks for this great and informative post.

  • Hi Adrienne,
    Thank you for chiming in. And showing the thoughts behind not approving comments without a Gravatar. Your so good at expressing your self.
    Come to think of it, when making the decision to approve a comment there is a hesitance when there is no Gravatar. So why leave a barrier when it is so easy to remove it!?
    ~Stephen

• Hey Stephen,

  Gary Vaynerchuk in this book "Crush it!" highlights on the idea that every single person on the internet should think of themselves as brands.
  And your Avatar is your logo (your own very unique logo) like the partly eaten apple for Mac. :) . Put it everywhere you can with a nice content (comment) attached to it, let people know that you ARE.
  Excellent share!
  best

  Akos

  • Hi Akos,
    I agree that the "Avatar is your logo". Thank you for making that Point. You have a great way of wording it.

    My Best,
    Stephen

• Hey Stephen I was writing a "Gravatar" post when I got your comment and saw your last post. I of course had to head over to read it! :)

  Another benefit (Which is what prompted my writing) is that a Gravatar can actually "Save" your comment rather than having it go to waste (along with the time you invested to write it).

  Akismet seems to be on a rampage lately and spamming legitimate comments and I'm having to go through my spam folder daily (which is a good idea anyway) and rescuing the valid ones while ignoring the bogus ones.

  A comment that has a Gravatar attached to it stands out clearly when I'm doing this process and has a 100% chance of being rescued while the ones without have a better chance of blending in with the spam comments.

  I wanted to say thanks for visiting my site, and also for introducing me to yours!

  Hope you have a great week!

  • Hi Warren,
    Good point about non Gravatars getting lost in spam when using Akismet. that really helps.

    I recently quit using Akismet and switched to G.A.S.P. plug-in. It is part of the CommentLuv Medley of plug-ins. Wow has way simplified the spam folder for me. Way less time involved. More accurate to boot.

    Thank you for comming to my site and leaving a very thoughtful comment.

    My Best,
    Stephen

• I'm using Gail's plugin also, but recently my spam jumped through the roof so reactivated Akismet. So right now you're only using G.A.S.P and not getting slammed with spam?

  • Right! Only G.A.S.P. I had to go over and check my spam folder. :) Only one spam there. You have a higher PR than I do. Maybe it has to do with ranking for the keywords that spammers are looking for?!
    What kind of spam went up? You got me wondering what to look out for. I would love check any other differences.

  • I'm not using Premium yet, but I see there are some great advantages to having it.
    Keep me posted. I am really interested.

  • Hi Stephen,

    The reason the GrowMap Anti-spambot plugin exists is because Akismet blacklists all our best commenters. Even when you delete it and use GASP, WordPress sometimes STILL puts some comments into spam (including my own on my own blog!!) - but at least by blocking all the spambots you can FIND the real comments in your spam folder.

    Just to clarify, GASP is part of CommentLuv Premium and is also available as a standalone free plugin. I'll put a link to additional information about it in the regular Website field which will link to it from my name.

    • Hi Gail,

      Wow I am so pleased to have the main guy over at G.A.S.P. commenting on my blog. Thank you Gail for dropping by and letting us know what it is that GrowMap Anti-spambot plugin is designed to do.

      I am delighted with how GASP has gotten rid of all my bot spam. You are always welcome here Gail, love to here what you have to say.

      Just to clarify Gail's link for addional info on GASP is on his Logo image above.
      ~Stephen

  • Hi Warren,

    The usual reason your spam can jump is because you got pagerank on posts and those end up on lists that spammers trade and sell OR they put you on one of their DoFollow lists - again, that spammers trade or sell.

    GASP blocks most bots but not human spammers. At least if you use Akismet with GASP you can FIND the real comments among the spam. When GASP first got released I was getting 1000+ spam PER DAY and it dropped that to ~40 so ~960 of my comments were left by bots.

    Some bot programmers are making a point of trying to crack GASP so if we see that happening let me know you think a bot or plugin is hitting you so I can let Andy know and hopefully he can lock them out again.

    • Hey Gail, great to see you. :)

      I think G.A.S.P. should have a feature that allows us to say "Block this website" I find myself unapproving the same people daily (though I add them to my wordpress blacklist)

      I love using G.A.S.P
      I hate using Akismet! LOL

      Like yourself when I first switched to GASP (Back when you first wrote about it) my spam dropped to a handful from hundreds. It's only the last few months that it came back. (I'm now using GASP and Akismet) and Akismet seems to have finally figured out that I'm not spamming my own blog! :)

      I'm getting slammed with the exact same comments from certain sites (Like Prefrd dot com) so I don't think they are manual.

      I think this will be an ongoing fight (Spammers vs. us) for some time to come, but I think it should be a simple thing to add a feature that allows us to a. whitelist our regular commenters, and b. blacklist spammers.

      Hope you had a great week Gail

• Spam that went up was not related to me at all! LOL
  Coach bags, NFL jerseys, etc. Mostly junk stuff. I kept adding urls to my blacklist, but each day I'd have about 50 new ones and it was taking up too much time. Now I'm rescuing the legitimate ones (hoping Akismet figures it out soon) but even that only takes a few minutes in the morning.

  I even went and check if there might be a new version of G.A.S.P (mine is V 1.1)

  • Akismet will NEVER figure out the difference between real comments and spam because bloggers have no idea and they click spam for all kinds of reasons. I've had them tell me they think spam is:

    1) Any comment they don't like
    2) Comments from people they already know
    3) Any comment that has a link

    I've even seen blogs with KeywordLuv installed that will flag you as spam for using it. So there is no way that we are not all going to end up flagged as spammers.

    That Akismet was letting so much objectionable bot spam through makes me wonder if they weren't getting paid to do that. Hard to believe they couldn't block that kind of stuff if they wanted to do it.

• Warren, 50! That is a lot! My G.A.S.P. version is 1.1.1
  I was checking around and Ana Hoffman is a pr4 and she say's she only uses G.A.S.P. and has very little spam. She uses Premium CommentLuv. Don't know if that is a difference or not.

• I just tried turning Akismet back off, (hour ago) and have ten spam comments already that G.A.S.P. approved.

  Ana gets a ton of traffic too! Hmm, I just assumed you all were getting slammed as hard as I am, but it looks like not. I wonder if I have a defective G.A.S.P.
  Going to try and reinstall it and see if it helps.

  I've been hearing some great stuff about Premium Commentluv, are you using it yet?

• Hi Stephen,

  I also wrote a post how to create your own brand avatar.
  If I don't know the person without a face I don't see it as a real comment.
  When I see faces in the comment area it just make me curious what they have said.

  Thanks for sharing,

  SANDY

  • Hi Sandy,

    I really appreciate you coming by. You refered to the avatar as "your own brand avatar" I like that. I often think the avatar as a logo which is the same as your "brand". Great comment!

    My best,
    Stephen

• Here is a question for you Stephen, or Sandy. (Or anyone else for that matter)

  One thing I've struggled with decision wise is do I use my logo (as I'm currently doing) in order to help brand my blog, or is it smarter to use my actual picture?

  I've read and can relate to both sides of the argument and realize the benefit of wanting to connect with a "real" person vs. a brand but just thought I'd see what you guys and gals thought!

• Hey Warren,
  Yeah, there really isn't a one size fits all that tends to touted out there.
  It all depends on what is the most important for you to promote. What is most important for people to recolonize? You or a company?

  I prefer the personal touch with the picture for blog commenting. Is the comment coming as a company memo singed by the management? Or is it from someone that I can relate to and have a conversation with and care about?

  If the personal touch isn't as important then the logo rout would seem better to me.

  Well there you go my thoughts. It boils down to what is the most important to you and your business model.

  My Best,
  Stephen

  • The usual advice is to use a photo - but as I often am I am the contrarion on that. I remember logos but very few faces register with me. Many places they use tiny versions so in a sea of tiny faces none stand out - while a well designed logo can't be missed.

    I personally do not want my photo plastered across the Internet for many reasons and I also prefer to judge a person by what they accomplish instead of appearance. Few realize how much we are affected by conditioning regarding how someone should look.

    I often VERY surprised by someone's appearance when I finally come across their image somewhere because pink hair on women, super short spiky bleached hair on men, revealing clothing - none of these will ever be "normal" for me.

    The most brilliant and talented programmer I know shaves his head, often has a full goatee, ear rings, and rides a Harley while I was picturing a clean cut guy in a suit because he is in management with a major corporation.

    First impressions DO affect what people think. I prefer to know someone by what they care about, what they've done and how they write - not what they look like.

    • Hi Gail,

      Thank you for your input on the Gravatar debate. You have some great insight and perspectives. What it really boils down to is that there really isn't one answer that will fit every one. None of us are the same (thank God :) ). Nor should we be. That is one thing that is so delightful about people. You just don't know what to expect.

      I think what we really want to achieve is to stand out. And to show why people should pay attention to us. Whether that is done with a picture with spiky hair ..... a logo with green slim that gets all over you if you touch it. ...... Oh wait..... our technology hasn't got that far has it?! :)

      So the question is how can you stand out without losing the people you want to attract? Or is it how do you lose the people you don't want to attract?!

      I would love to hear or see more questions, answers,
      perspectives on this.

      ~Stephen