Lately, the comments boards have become a haven for spammers, hawking porn, Viagra, whatever. I've tried to delete them as quickly as I can catch them, but sometimes I miss them. My apologies.
Anyway, this infuriating development has led me to consider some form of registration to leave comments. I don't like the idea of it, and I know you don't, but I feel I've been pushed to at least consider this by the jerks online. I'm not sure how I would do it, possibly moving to Scoop or something like "DailyKos.com":http://www.dailykos.com has done, but I think it has come to that. I'll keep you all in informed.
Again, my apologies for moving in this direction, but the spammers have forced my hand, and -- again -- made something cool and convenient less so.
I thank you for your understanding and patience.
*UPDATE* Apparently, "I'm not the only one":http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,1282,60912,00.html pissed off by this. (By the way, "Wil Wheaton's blog":http://www.wilwheaton.net/ is considered popular and influential?)
*UPDATE 2* Thank to "James":http://www.sitehouse.net/jamesbow/index.shtml for pointing me to MT-Blacklist, a plug-in from the he-who-should-be-sainted "Jay Allen":http://www.jayallen.org/journey/. Now, if I can just get it to work. At the moment, I keep getting 500 Internal Server Errors.
UPDATE 3 Yay! MT-Blacklist now works and it's lovely. Thanks, Jay, for all your help. Spammers: To hell with you.
Spammers
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About me
Hi there! Thanks for stopping in. I'm Christopher Allbritton, former AP and New York Daily News reporter. In 2002, I went stumbling around Iraqi Kurdistan, the northern part of Iraq outside Saddam's direct control, looking for stories. (Some might call it "looking for trouble.") In March 2003, I made it back in time for the war, becoming the Web's first fully reader-funded journalist-blogger. With the support of thousands of readers, we raised almost $15,000. You can read my dispatches here. It was one of the moments in journalism when everything worked. It was a grand -- and successful -- experiment in independent journalism. In 2004, I moved to Iraq, where I would spend the next two years. It was a raucous, scary and exciting place with a lot of news going on. But I've since moved on to Beirut and the wider region. I now report for a variety of outlets.
Chris,
There is an MT patch that you can install that seems to work well. Download it from here:
http://www.jayallen.org/journey/2003/10/mtblackliststopspam_now
Yes, in fact Wil’s blog is considered popular and influential by a good many people, myself included. His facility of language is far better than many professional writers I know, and his insights, both political and personal, are always worth reading. He also has a great sense of humor.
It’s not like I’m taking back all those years of mocking ‘Wesley’. But yeah, Wheaton’s blog is really hilarious and people have been reading it for a long time!
Chris, how are we doing with installation?
Joel, over at Pax Nortona uses a system where people leaving posts have to initially confirm their email address before comments are put on board.
http://www.notfrisco2.com/webzine/Joel/
nice place here, i enjoy beeing here