This is an open suggestion to Bloggers who use Blogger – specifically those who are restrictive on allowing comments.
Once upon a time there were three options for who could comment (assuming that you allowed comments on the blog in the first place). The options were Anyone, Registered Users, and Members of the Blog. I can understand the drawbacks of allowing anyone to comment but not everyone uses blogger – that makes for less than ideal choices to be made.
Recently there has been a new option added. Registered users used to mean people with blogger accounts but that has become “Users with Google Accounts.” The new “Registered Users” option allows people to use WordPress, TypePad, AIM/AOL, or LiveJournal identities to make comments. This is nice because users like me are no longer forced to use a defunct identity to comment. Please consider using the new “Registered Users” option if you currently only allow Users with Google Accounts.
Thanks for the note, I have opened up comments.
I’m glad to hear it Tyler.
Not having open comments is one thing that really gets under my skin. I was glad to see that Google decided to crack things open even further. Maybe they’ll even get around to a decent anti-spam system that isn’t a CAPTCHA.
Seriously. Despite what anyone may think – CAPTCHA is not perfect at keeping bots out, and it is also imperfect at letting people in. Most WordPress users already know that they an keep the spam at bay without CAPTCHA – though some still use it with the WordPress blogs.
I leave mine open to anyone. I am rather amused at some of the idiotic comments I’ve had anonymous people post on my blog. And so far, I haven’t had any spam. But, if I ever need to change that, I’d switch it to Registered Users.
I always had mine open when I was using blogger too (just like I leave them open on WordPress) but It’s certainly not my place to tell anyone else to do that. I hope you never feel forced to make that change.