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1. Sandi Saunders | May 14, 2012 at 10:49 am

   Well yes, I “really must complain about it”, it is frustrating, tiresome and all too often an occurrence! You are hardly a fledgling site still ironing out the wrinkles. I do not know if your spam warrants this kind of frustration but I REALLY don’t think you need to act like we have no right to be testy over it. For people who do not use a browser like Google Chrome, they lose their whole post every time such an error occurs and the extra work of copying and pasting every post is annoying. I would appreciate it if you did not act like our complaints were unfair.
2. Other John | May 14, 2012 at 12:08 pm

   I’ll post one final time, and one final complaint over this. It’s beyond frustrating, and the fast that these problems have continued to persist for so long has driven me from contributing to any of the blogs. I’m done. And the tone that Sandi alluded to does not exactly make me feel like I should bother giving it a go later on, if/when these problems are resolved.

   This comment miraculously posted the first attempt, others on this site have taken upwards of a half-dozen attempts.

   Perhaps these problems are by design (or just a mere ‘coincidence’) to push the whole commenting system over to a facebook-managed system. In either case, it’s enough to keep me from coming back, and I’d been a regular for a good many years, going back to at least 2006 or 2007.
3. Jack | May 14, 2012 at 12:42 pm

   The captcha is gone now. This solution actually works.
4. Luanne R. | May 14, 2012 at 12:50 pm

   Whatever is happening now may be friendly to you, but I’m blasting spam here.
5. Brian Lindholm | May 14, 2012 at 1:05 pm

   To #4 (Luanne): Ergh. The current absence of the CAPTCHA filter is friendlier for users, but I’d imagine that the influx of spam will overwhelm the moderators who review potential postings.

   To #2 (Other John): Due to CAPTCHA misadventures, I’ve adopted the [ctrl-A] [ctrl-C] strategy before hitting “submit”. [This is "select all", "copy".] If the submission fails, I hit [ctrl-R] [ctrl-V] and submit again. [This is "refresh", "paste".]

   I think I’ve lost only one posting in the past couple of months by doing this, and in that particular instance it was because I forgot.
6. Sandi Saunders | May 14, 2012 at 1:09 pm

   Brian, are you posting from a phone or a CPU/Laptop?
7. Scott M. | May 14, 2012 at 1:10 pm

   Sorry for the spam. I for one appreciate the work you guys are doing.
8. Sandi Saunders | May 14, 2012 at 1:14 pm

   I have no doubt you are dealing with spam. And I am genuinely sorry for that, but there has got to be a better way.
9. Sandi Saunders | May 14, 2012 at 1:15 pm

   Casey switched to a “copy this password” and it too failed us. Is there any way you all can use the system like the Virginian-Pilot uses? It seems a lot easier than this…at least on our end of it.
10. 89Hoo | May 14, 2012 at 2:21 pm

    Just out of curiosity, how much would everyone here be willing to pay the Roanoke Times for a site that was more user and poster friendly? Put differently, if the RT decided it could produce such a site, but charged everyone a nominal fee, would you pay it? How much would you be willing to pay?
11. Jack | May 14, 2012 at 3:15 pm

    Again… a forum. A blog is not the appropriate venue for the types of discussions here. It’s very non-friendly for the user in more ways than just the human-prooving mechanisms. It’s difficult to follow discussions and replies.
12. Sandi Saunders | May 14, 2012 at 3:15 pm

    I would pay in a heartbeat, without blinking an eye. Probably up to $10.00 per month even.
13. crooked road | May 14, 2012 at 3:34 pm

    Interesting that you take such a condescending tone towards your customer base – ‘If you really must complain…’ when your product is the one that is defective. Perhaps if the RT didn’t use such antiquated security systems there wouldn’t be an issue. Is it because it was cheap? Or is it because you don’t understand the concept of a user friendly website?

    Oh, as to the question posed by 89 above – I won’t pay anything to visit this website, nor to post on the blogs. The market doesn’t show the need, and the content doesn’t merit the revenue squeeze of the customer base. The RT can’t even figure out how to allow customers to post stress free, they certainly haven’t earned my donation.
14. Brian Lindholm | May 14, 2012 at 3:37 pm

    To #6 (Sandi): At various points in time, I’ve posted from a desktop running Windows XP, a desktop running Debian Linux, and a laptop running Windows 7. The only commonality is my use of Firefox as a web-browser. Never tried it from a phone.

    [Hmmm... A check-box to prove that I'm human. That might be worth a try. Simpler that the CAPTCHA stuff, and hopefully still enough to spare the moderators the pain of weeding out machine-generated spam.]
15. Rick H. | May 14, 2012 at 3:44 pm

    Luanne, you are blasting spam because that box wasn’t working earlier. It wasn’t necessary to check that box. You guys/gals get those IT geeks to really know what they are doing, and it will work.
16. Luanne R. | May 14, 2012 at 4:38 pm

    As most of you know we are undertaking a redesign of roanoke.com and are interested in hearing what users have to say. In fact a blog, RefreshRT, was set up just to talk about these things. Here’s a link to first post that explains the redesign.

    I agree the captcha code is unfriendly. We’re most interested in hearing what types of registration systems users would find bearable.
17. Sandi Saunders | May 14, 2012 at 6:13 pm

    The reason I asked Brian, is that according to some of the people I have talked to who post from a phone, all that “[ctrl-A] [ctrl-C]…” from their phones is harder. I think a desktop or laptop is easier and as I said Google Chrome keeps your comment even if the gremlin gets it.

    So can a spammer not know to check the “human box”? Interesting.
18. Brian Lindholm | May 14, 2012 at 7:39 pm

    To #17 (Sandi): I don’t doubt that a spammer could write a web-interface routine to select the “human box”, but I guess I’m hoping they won’t bother. After all, the RoundTable blog isn’t a big, attractive target (like the NY Times or Washington Post) that has tons and tons of traffic.

    I guess the ultimate test will be to try out the “human box” and see how much spam makes it into the moderators’ queue. If the spammers implement a check-box bypass, the RT guys will become aware of it pretty quickly. If not, then our blogging experience here will have gotten a little simpler.
19. Leo Lady (SW Roanoke City, Elevation 1026') | May 15, 2012 at 8:17 am

    I too “must complain” and found the tone that RT used toward the blog participants to be insulting. I guess you forgot that the people who buy the paper, pay your salaries. I am one of those customers, and most customers would really appreciate being treated a little more nicely.

    I did not have a problem with the captcha code until RT decided to change the website and “fix” what wasn’t broken. I am now having lots of trouble and have given up trying on many occasions. I use my home desktop computer and do not have this trouble with other websites I visit.
20. Jack | May 15, 2012 at 9:28 am

    Well, I don’t give the newspaper a dime, so I can’t complain from that perspective. But what kills me is that I have worked in IT for many years, and currently work for a large software company and I know what a ridiculously stupid problem this is.

    It is easy to solve, but unnecessary… this really, as I’ve said, should be a discussion forum, not a blog.