My comments have been infested by a particularly obnoxious troll over the past couple of days, someone who seems to think that because I allow feedback, he's free to leave offensive and racist remarks and that I am somehow obligated to let him. Normally, I'd ban such a person, something I've only had to do three previous times in the three years I've run this site, but since he posts from multiple IP addresses, that wasn't a workable option. Given no other choice, I've decided to take the drastic and unfortunate step of closing comments for the time being. I'm not happy about this, but with a sick kid at home, I've got neither the time nor the inclination to clean up after this joker. Until further notice, please send feedback to the email address listed above. My sincere apologies to you all.
UPDATE: After soliciting some feedback from friends, I've decided to reenable comments going forward, but with moderation in place. That means I'll have to approve comments before they're visible on the site, something that is done normally for older posts by the MT Blacklist plugin. You should see a message of some kind saying that your comment will appear after it has been approved. Still not as good a solution as having the obnoxious troll go away and bother someone else, but better than throwing out the baby with the bath water. Again, my apologies for the inconvenience.
Posted by Charles Kuffner on December 29, 2004 to Administrivia | TrackBackGood luck with your comments spam problem. Spam hasn't hit my comments yet, but my message board has been under attack for as long as I can remember. And it drives me nuts!
Hope your kid's feeling better soon and happy new year!
Posted by: Mad Kane on December 30, 2004 3:51 AMThis is what seems to happen when a site receives a little bit of fame. I don't have a problem with people offering different opinions from a broad spectrum of views, but what you describe in the post has no place here or anywhere else intelligent people gather.
What you describe seems to be a "spambot", which can be traced via Whois.net to the originating server. This is the same type of "genius" that advises that your PayPal, Ebay and Citigroup credit card accounts have been suspended and you need to "re-enter your information" before it can be reactivated. What people like this don't seem to realize is that anyone who has even the slightest understanding of IP addresses can find out where the message came from.
This is your house, and I'm merely a guest. I can understand why you have to approve all comments before posting them.
Posted by: William Hughes on December 30, 2004 4:53 AMSorry to hear you are having to deal with such a jerk, and double sorry that your bright little girl is ill! I hope all is better.
Posted by: B. K. Oxley (binkley) on December 30, 2004 7:41 AMI just know that when someone finally starts trolling my site, then they've hit rock bottom. It would be like getting to the end of the universe.
Posted by: norbizness on December 30, 2004 10:09 AMThanks, everyone. I appreciate it.
William, this was definitely not a spambot. The troll had commented more or less civilly in the past, then after becoming increasingly offensive, refused to accept a request to tone it down. It got ugly from there.
Posted by: Charles Kuffner on December 30, 2004 10:18 AM