Comment Changes
A couple of notes on comments:
1. I cleaned out a lot of past spam. I am sorry for not doing this sooner. If I decide I want to advertise bestiality or transvestite sex, I will do so myself.
2. I updated my ban list. My ban list is based SOLELY on spamming. I have not, to this date, felt the need to ban anyone based on contents of a real comment post, though I suppose with enough provocation that could change (this is NOT a challenge!!). If I banned you by mistake, send me an email. I am just trying to get some of the bots.
3. Going forward, I just can't stay on top of the bot-driven spam, so I am now requiring authentication. Frequent commenters on other sites will know the drill, and many of you may already have a TypeKey account. It is a simple, non-intrusive, one-time registration whose only purpose is to try to defeat the bots. You can link to the registration right from the comment screen. Sorry for the extra work.
Update: By the way, I had a blinding glimpse of what I guess is the obvious for most bloggers, but I have been missing a lot of my comments. I read comments by looking over the last 8-10 posts each day and seeing what new things have been said. I have never used the "most recent comments" screen in the dashboard Moveable Type gives me, except to attack spam. I found, though, that many of my comments are coming in, presumably via Google hits, weeks or months after the post. In particular, I get my most negative comments this way (for example, per a recent email, I am the spawn of Satan for posting this). Sorry if I have been missing your comments, and I will try to keep up better in the future.
