Blogger Word Verification: How It Works and How to Turn It Off

Blogger word verification is the “type the letters you see” check that Blogger shows to fight spam. This guide covers the 2005 episode when Blogger forced it on bloggers’ own posts, how I got my blog whitelisted, and how word verification for comments works in Blogger today.

Quick answer: In 2005 Blogger’s spam robots flagged some real blogs as spam and made their owners pass a word verification test before every post; a quick human review removed it. Today word verification is a comment setting you control. Open your blog’s Settings in Blogger, find the Comments section and switch Word verification on or off.

What happened with Blogger word verification in 2005

In October 2005, Blogger stepped up its fight against spam blogs (splogs). Its automated spam detection started flagging blogs that looked spammy, and the owners of those blogs had to type a word verification captcha every time they published a post.

Next to “Word Verification” in the post editor, Blogger showed a small orange question mark. It led to a form that explained the problem:

“Blogger’s spam-prevention robots have detected that your blog has characteristics of a spam blog. (What’s a spam blog?) Since you’re an actual person reading this, your blog is probably not a spam blog. Automated spam detection is inherently fuzzy, and we sincerely apologize for this false positive.
Before we can turn off mandatory word verification on your posts we’ll need to have a human review your blog and verify that it is not a spam blog. Please fill out the form below to get a review.”

Once a person at Blogger looked at the blog and confirmed it wasn’t spam, they whitelisted it and the word verification requirement went away.

My blog got whitelisted in a few hours

Even my blog was asked for word verification, so I submitted a request too. Blogger whitelisted my blog within a few hours of clicking that orange question mark. This is the reply I got:

“Your blog has been reviewed, verified, and whitelisted so that it will no longer appear as potential spam. If you sign out of Blogger and sign back in again, you should be able to post as normal. Thanks for your patience, and we apologize for any inconvenience this has caused.”

Blogger had already added captchas to block comment spam, which cut spam comments a lot, and it had added a way to flag objectionable blogs. The splog review was the next step in the same fight.

How Blogger word verification works today

Today word verification in Blogger is about comments, not your own posts. According to Blogger Help, when it is on, anyone who wants to leave a comment has to complete a word verification step first. Blog authors don’t see it on their own blog.

Turn word verification on or off

1. Sign in to Blogger and choose your blog.
2. Open Settings from the left menu.
3. Scroll to the Comments section.
4. Switch Word verification on or off.

Blogger Help notes that even with the setting turned off, some commenters may still be asked to enter a code before posting. That is Blogger’s own spam filter at work, not your setting.

Other ways to stop Blogger comment spam

Word verification adds friction for real readers, so many bloggers prefer to leave it off and use other settings in the same Comments section:

• Comment moderation: review comments before they appear. You can moderate all comments or only those on older posts.
• Who can comment: choose anyone (including anonymous), users with Google Accounts, or only members of the blog. Blocking anonymous comments removes a lot of spam.
• Delete and report spam: clear spam from the Comments view regularly so it never sits on your posts.

A good balance for most blogs is word verification off, comments limited to Google Account users, and moderation on for older posts where spam bots like to land. If you moved to WordPress, see how a simple math question blocks most WordPress spam comments and how Akismet stops comment spam.

FAQ

Does Blogger still ask bloggers to verify their own posts?

The 2005 rule made flagged bloggers type a captcha before posting. Today the word verification setting applies to people leaving comments, and blog authors don’t see it.

Where is the Blogger word verification setting?

In your blog’s Settings, under the Comments section. Switch Word verification on or off there.

Why do commenters still see a code with word verification off?

Blogger Help says some commenters may still be asked to enter a code even when the setting is off. Blogger’s spam checks decide this, and you can’t turn it off.

What is the best way to stop comment spam on Blogger?

Combine comment moderation with limiting comments to Google Account users. Add word verification only if spam still gets through. For an old comparison of comment systems, see Blogger or Haloscan comments.