Patrick Tulskie

My father IM’d me this afternoon because he wanted to comment on my article about Digg vs Mixx. Apparently no one could register and no one could comment on my blog as a result. I had initially turned it all off so that I didn’t have to deal with spammers and the like but I had forgotten to turn it all back on once I had some countermeasures in place. Oops.

The Dilemma

This brings me to the great dilemma one must face when carrying on with a blog - there is an inherent administrative burden by enabling people to post comments on your blog. The biggest problem comes where people spam the hell out of your comments with things like penis enlargers and sexual enhancement products - things that obviously have no business being splashed anywhere. The interruption in my daily routine to remove this rubbish from my blog is seemingly not worth it.

Opening My Eyes…

So I thought about it some more, and looked at things from the same perspective that I wrote the article about Mixx and Digg and I began to realize what a fool I was being for not allowing people to comment.  My focus is on social media and web development.  These are two things that rely on communities to provide input.  I took a step back, fell off my soap box, and realized the only way to fix this was to provide ready access to people for their commenting pleasure.

Bracing For Impact

In any case, I’ve enabled registrations (which I obviously encourage) but I’ve also granted access to not-logged-in comments. I don’t want to deter people from commenting due to a required registration.  I’ll just hope that this new ability is not abused to death by the darkness on the internet and is actually used for constructive feedback and discussion.  If it’s abused and ravaged by spammers then I’ll have to find a solution to that problem when it arrises.

Thank you father dearest.