Main Site Comment Management

[MidnightCowboy]

In response to recent spam attacks we have had to introduce new management measures for the main site.

As a first step it is now mandatory for those making anonymous comments to leave a name and email address.

This situation is still under review and further measures may become necessary later.

[Taurus]

It's about time! This is a very good first step, MC.

[judgedredd]

Why are you changing things just because of some pissy spam attack?

How it was before is why I found this site so enjoyable. Now it is a chore to post anything and time wasting.

[Anupam]

This change is not a knee-jerk reaction. This is a well thought out decision, and its working well. Spam is a big problem all over the internet for websites. Because of this, almost all sites, forum, blogs are now, not allowing anonymous postings. Everywhere you will be required to put your name, and email address before you make a post or comment. We had been avoiding this for quite sometime, but ultimately decided to go ahead with it.

And the results have been good. Number of spam being posted has reduced considerably. Bulk spam was being posted on the site, which has now stopped. Also, because of this change, comments from trolls have reduced too. They have not stopped, but they have reduced, and that is a good thing.
Meanwhile, there is no reduction in the number of useful comments being posted on the site, which is again a good and positive sign. People who want to post something useful, are still doing so, and we are happy about it.

We have done nothing different from the other sites on the internet. They had adopted this long time ago, and we have done it a little late.

This change is here to stay, so its better to accept it, and adopt according to it.

[MidnightCowboy]

Originally Posted by Anupam

This change is here to stay, so its better to accept it, and adopt according to it.

Indeed this might not seem mind blowingly important to some folks but to the volunteers who give up their time to help manage the site then this is an important and popular development. None of those who use the site regularly and contribute large numbers of posts are complaining.