Blog Posting #5: Why are you using the scramblers?

This entry is more like a letter to my class rather than a blog entry where I rant about this or that. Well, it's both of these things, actually.

All 18 of my student's blogs are private blogs that the general public cannot access. Only invited classmates and the instructor, and perhaps some friends, can view these blogs. Yet some of you use the "word verification" option regarding people leaving comments. As Dawn Armfield mentioned, word verification can make it very difficult for learning impaired readers to leave comments. Now, as impaired as some claim I am, I don't believe I'm to the point where my ability to read has been affected, but even I cannot make out the letters on the word verification scrambler. Whoever came up with this ideas for word verification had a good idea, expect some of the actual "codes" that readers are supposed to decipher are impossible to read. It took me till the third try to leave a comment for one of you. Three times may be a charm, but I'm you're instructor, not some internet stalker. I was about to leave another comment, but was discouraged by the thought of facing the eye scrambling torturous word verification monster again.

But to get back to the point, this is really a logic thing. You know, related to that word we all love, logos. Well, if only your classmates and I can leave comments, why enable word verification?

Apparently I need to incorporate more lessons about that sense that is supposed to be common.

-Paul