TypeKey

As I discussed over on the tech side of things, I’m keeping a close eye on the new version of Movable Type and the TypeKey plan to combat comment spam. Given the content of this site, I’m very concerned about anonymity and the ability of folks to comment, but at the same time I’m concerned about people being safe. It’s a difficult balancing act. In the forums, which are small now, and aren’t seeing many people other then me post, but which I hope more people will take advantage of, I’ve tried to create that balance by requiring everyone to register, but not making any personal information a required part of that. All you need is an email address that you can verify once. No one other than myself ever sees that address unless you want them to. That allows for some anonymity but also makes it at least a little bit of work for someone who wants to spam the forums or is being harassing to other users. I’d like to make comments work a similar way, where you can be anonymous, but spammers and trolls will have to work a little to get to us. Currently I use Mt-Blacklist to keep spammers at bay, and it’s working remarkably well, and is still allowing everyone to comment anonymously. I may have to change that to some degree in the future, but I will still be looking for a way to let everyone who comments here or posts in the forum choose what level of anonymity they need and feel comfortable with. I won’t know what that will mean exactly until MT is done with their beta testing and everything’s out in the open, but rest assured I’m keeping an eye on it!