Paint Party Friday: Week 50 Check-In

Welcome to Week 50 of Paint Party Friday!! Wow! Last week was another awesome week with so many wonderful paintings by our regular and a number of new partyers. Great to have you all joining us!

Last week, unfortunately, had one overwhelming factor hindering our enjoyment of the party and our fun in visiting each other and leaving comments. Blogger has changed their word verification so it is now all captcha and asks "Are you a robot?" We hadn't known it but we have discovered we are robots. We find the new word verification very difficult to read. Some of you have vision and hearing problems and we know for you it is much worse. Many of you have voiced your frustration with the new captchas, so we are again entering a plea here. PLEASE turn off your word verification.**

One of the things we love so much about PPF (and we are frequently told that it is what you also love) is the community of artists here and everyone's warmth and friendliness in visiting each other. We want to encourage visiting and commenting.  Captcha is seriously discouraging it. People are leaving rather than entering those annoying letters.

It is the default setting on Blogger so you may have it on and not even know it! First thing to do is check to see if it is on. We are not techies, but here is our attempt at an explanation:

 - Go the your Dashboard

 - Click on Settings

 - Click on Comments

• You want to show comments so we can all see what everyone is saying
• Please allow anyone to comment as not everyone uses Blogger and it helps our friends and fellow PPFers who have their own websites or use Wordpress or Typepad to be able to comment
• The next 6 are less important  - whatever you prefer*
• Comment Moderation - if you are getting odd comments or spam gets though the usually very good spam filter that Blogger employs or are paranoid (like EVA. Kristin and PPF don't use it and have had few if any problems - knock on wood!), you may want to approve comments. (If so, enter an email address. One you can look at easily because on Fridays it might be busy!)
• Show word verification - NO!
• Remember to SAVE!

Here are two links to perhaps better explanations with more visuals - a Youtube video done by Randomosity and a post by Cheriquitecontrary with screen captures.

While we are talking about Blogger settings, PPFer Geri of My Heart Art has a great explanation on getting replies so you are not a "no-reply blogger". (Dashboard - Edit Profile - check "show my email address" and enter it - SAVE profile.) We changed our settings when she first mentioned it and it is great to hear back from someone who has appreciated your comment. If you are uncomfortable with sharing your personal email address then email us (link on sidebar) and we can send you an invitation to get a gmail account which you can forward to another address.

**Having said all this, if you are having serious spam or security issues, of course you should keep word verification on or if you've tried the other options and moderation (and deleting spam) isn't working for you. We want you to feel safe.**

Phew - was that enough talking? Barely time for a poll. Last week's showed that while most of you are painting purists and haven't used digital painting programs, many would be willing to try! This week, we thought we'd ask about blog security since it is on our minds.

Please make sure to use your post URL address NOT your blog home page URL address as there are many late visitors who get confused as to which post is for PPF when they arrive (after Friday) at your website. If you are unfamiliar with Mr. Linky, an explanation of how this tool works can be found on Week 1 and Week 2 Check-Ins.

Have a great time at the party!

*EVA has found that even with moderation some spam slips in unless she uses "embedded below post" on the Comment Moderation Placement section, then none does.