During the last few weeks we have made a change to the way comments are added to the blog posts at LostArtPress.com. Based on several e-mails from readers, there is some confusion about it. Here is the straight dope.
We now ask you to register your e-mail with WordPress.com – or have an existing account with Facebook or Twitter. To register with WordPress, you do not need to sign up for a blog. You just need to enter your name and a valid e-mail address. You will not get spam from WordPress. It is simply a way to determine that you are not a spam-bot.
Here is the link to register with WordPress.
For your convenience, you also can comment if you have a Twitter account or Facebook account. We are not forcing anyone into the world of social media here – the Facebook and Twitter logins are simply for your convenience.
Why did we make this change? Simple. Spam and hate mail.
Like many blogs, we get bombed with spam – about 700 messages a week – that has to be monitored and cleaned out. We have to pick through that pile of garbage to rescue real comments that somehow got put into our spam folder.
And I got weary of reading an almost daily litany of profane hate speech from one IP address (yes we know who you are; you really should investigate getting a rotating IP address if you want to really remain anonymous).
So this change saves me about 30 minutes a day, which I can spend writing or woodworking.
If you don’t like the change, I’m apologize. But we are not turning back.
— Christopher Schwarz
> I got weary of reading an almost daily litany of profane hate speech
I’ll never understand why anyone would waste their time writing hateful emails when they could be off turning a bowl. #priorities
You? Hate mail? I just don’t understand the world anymore. Maybe you clock your screws at the wrong time.
Or using the 24 hour clock…
I was a little ruffled that I had to sign up with WordPress… and it turned out someone already had an account with my name so I had to come up with something else. But I immediately guessed the reason for the change. Gotta do what ya gotta do.
andrae
@Ronald:
> Maybe you clock your screws at the wrong time.
LOL!
Screw the Republicans v. Democrats, or Roman Greens v. Blues – let’s fight about screw orientation!
( P.S. 45 degrees clockwise from the vertical, or you’re an ill-bred lout with horrific body odor)
Now that we’re on the subject of spam, what
I now have a Word Press ID. That was simple, quick.
Part II – is the image on your logo, between the two legs of the divider?
It is the letter “E.”
Good idea on WordPress, already get other blogs using their site.
Good idea. Get everyone on the same page.
Whatever it takes to keep a clean shop…
It appears I can comment using my Twitter credentials, but would require WordPress credentials to reply to another user’s comment. Is that right? Or have I missed something?
Cheers,
Ian Wigle
I welcome the change. Hope this helps to ‘weed out’ the spam Chris.
GrumpyAlaskan
Spammers suck. I can’t believe how much spam has increased over the last year. I don’t blame you at all, I blame the spammers.
I’ve had a page on WordPress for a while now. I hope my existing login works.
Bummer you have to put up with that stuff.
Gentlemen
I regret that you have been burdened with spam and vulgarity.
Am I registered, signed up or logged in or whatever the incomprehensible form requires so I might comment upon your blog?
The form insists that my email address is not mine. It then asks if the address is mine. Then It provides me with no way to answer in the affirmative.
alexander@greenwoodworking.com
IT IS!
All I receive is an ad to create a blog.
This is not the first time that I have found World Presss use of the English language absurd.
Make a
from a
Jeez, and I thought I signed my hatemail with my full name…lol. Even us private citizens end up with 70 to 90 a day just for keeping an account active for more than a year. Spam that is. I am sure the hatemail is headed my way as we speak.
Is sarcasm still permissible?
Rubbish. Never mind all that and get back to editing Roubo. I want my Roubo dammit.
Support the move compeletly. Glad not to have someone peeing in my ice cream.
Thanks Chris…I had given up in frustration.
Its OK, buy I still like Spam sandwichs.
Mumm. Especially grilled with tomatoes
The only thing I found annoying was the fact I couldn’t start an account from my phone. It took me a couple of days to find an actual computer to start an account. Word press needs to fix that bug.
Oh yeah and all this talk of spam is making me hungry.
Back from Outer Darkness! The only problem is I now have to remember yet another computer identity. Oh well, modern life and it’s pressures, I suppose.
Hate mail? I can’t understand that one at all. Some people need to get a life. The guilty party isn’t the CEO of a power tool manufacturer, eh?
Use a utility like 1Password and you don’t have to remember any of your identities.
I had in the past proposed a spammer hunting season, but the Michigan Department of Natural Resources has declined to act on my suggestion.
I am sort of ashamed. My first reaction when I couldn’t comment was: Oh bullocks, now the children have messed up the computer again. (I might have used some stronger words).
But I managed to create a WordPress account, so I didn’t cancel their allowances anyway.
I totally understand and sympathize. My wife, an at home art teacher, has a blog for the parents, on word press. She has the same problem. Keep up the good work. Ever do any work shops in TX?
I’ll be announcing a weekend workshop in Texas later this year.
Not a big deal (to me). Make sure you have akismet setup and configured properly – it should catch all the spam for you. I wouldn’t really worry about false positives either – odds are they were useless comments anyway.
Sounds like a good plan, keep up the great posts! verb
WordPress SUCKS!!