a request for some advice...
i told myself i'd try to keep peterdot blogs less websitey and more fun-to-readey, but i need some advice
as most of you who will read this come to my site with frequency, i assume at least a good number of you also go to other sites on this interweb thing. some of you, i'd even say, are part of other online communities. thus, you probably have some experience with this.
comments.
comments are a tricky subject for a blog site. peterdot, for example, requires you to be a user, with a verified email address and password, to post comments. this prevents spammers from being annoying and also keeps comments, generally, to people who come to the site more than just once. the problem with this, though, is that it limits comments/commenters. if i got to a site and want to make a comment, i won't make the comment if i need to login. too much of a hassle
livejournal.com, however, puts more faith in people and allows "anonymous" users to post (or, you can login as you do here). i'm not sure how they limit spam, but it seems to work.
the unofficial apple weblog has a method i kind of like. they allow you to either login or post anonymously. if the latter, they send you an email with a link you need to click to verify you're not spam. and when you click that link, you can also opt to be "remembered" such that you don't need to do it again (for 30 or 60 days or whatever).
what do you all think? which way do you think is the best? is the email verification too much of a pain? the user id / password? (keep in mind that being anonymous means someone can post using your name...)
comments:
You know, I don't know how LJ keeps spam down, I mean from robots who ask you if you want to play online SuDoKu, that kind of spam. You could ask them, they're pretty nice. Although I don't know how quickly they get back to you. (They're really busy!) You get plenty of spam from actual users who are just being poopy faces (I used a stronger word until I remembered you like to keep things clean here, Peter).
But each journal is given the choice of allowing anonymous comments or not. I can block comments altogether on a post so no one can say anything, or block just anonymous comments. (Of course, you can also make posts friends-only so only people you trust can see them, but you're already using that on this site.) I can also ban specific users from ever commenting in my journal.
Personally, I log IP addresses on every comment made on my LiveJournal. So when Kate comments anonymously, I usually know it's her. Or if one anon comments, and later another anon comments in the same thread, I can know if they're the same person or not (within reasonable doubt). I'm not sure if you can ban IP addresses on LJ, but I bet you could do that here if it came up.
Poppy | December 14 @ 4:16pm
I think a lot depends on what you are trying to do. It seems like this site is geared for people who know you (and weirdos like me, who want to pretend we know you). If that's what you want, the login seems fine and not a big hassle.
If, instead, you want to reach out to a wider readership, the membership/login thing will (I believe) hold back that growth. I often see people comment on one blog something like "I was going to comment on that site you linked to, but they wanted me to create an account. Heck with that."
If you do open up, though, expect an onslaught of spam. On my blog, the Akismet anti-spam plugin has caught about 80 spam comments in the past two days. I can't imagine trying to keep up with comments and spam without a similarly effective spam-blocker.
Steve | December 14 @ 10:33pm
thanks, steve! i agree. i like the way this site is now, keeping it limited to people who know me (all of you!)
this is for a site i'm working on, which i'd like to be a little more open. i figure for now i'll test out the slightly less spam-free method, and in time, when the spammers start to figure it out, i'll start utilizing more security. i'm still a little torn, but i wanna get this site rolling!
thanks again!
THE Lowly Peon | December 15 @ 12:29am