Since I started Cipher Mysteries several years ago, I’ve tried to follow a fairly laissez faire comment moderation – basically, as long as it wasn’t spammy / sweary / abusive, I’d approve it.
But recently, though, the blog has been receiving a series (i.e. they all came via the same New Zealand ISP, very close IP addresses, etc) of troll-like comments aimed squarely at XLamb, and where all the plausible-looking email addresses bounced when I tried to email them to check.
Hence I’ve reconfigured the sites plugins so that for a while (maybe longer) there will be an extra layer of comment verification in place. If you leave a comment now, you’ll be required to verify that the email address you’ve given with it is valid (though this should only happen once per email address, mind you!). If the plugin thinks that it’s suspicious-looking, it may also ask you for a CAPTCHA verification… but that shouldn’t happen very often, as I understand it.
As with all things computery, this may (of course) run into teething problems while I’m getting it going: so if you have any difficulties leaving a comment over the next few days, please email me ( nickpelling at nickpelling dot com ) and I’ll try to fix it / them. As always, the email address you give doesn’t appear on the website at all, it’s only there for me to email you if there’s some kind of problem or issue with the comment.
I’m very sorry that one person has to spoil it (a little) for everyone else, but that’s just how it goes on the Internet sometimes, I hope you understand. 😐
checking in.
It works! (Or seems to) Thank goodness! 🙂
Check
Why isn’t the CAPTCHA in Voynishese?
xplor: for the simple reason that qokedy dal dain chor chol daiir. *sigh*
September 26th, eh?
Dear Nick, it wasn’t me–I’ve been in hospital w/collapsed lung these past 7 days. I shall now print out your new sign-in comment protocol so that my brain can operate with an adequate supply of oxygen. I’ve missed y’all!
bdid1dr
Hi Bd1
I was so bored while y’all were on holiday that I began baiting certain nameless persons.
It’s my version of growing old disgracefully, equivalent to older males wanting a red sports car or leathers and a Harley-Davidson caravan.
Ridiculous- why is it trolling just because the names are not traceable? Xlamb hides her own identity. Nothing that was said was sweary, spammy or abusive – just the facts already in public domain. How will a captcha work when I am not a bot? Silly
Minstrel Janet: I received a number of full-on troll comments from the same New Zealand ISP but with fake emails. If I get a questionable comment, I would want to check it with the commenter to see if they can point me towards whatever proof they have for the allegations. Hence I (as a sysadmin) need a valid email address to correspond with – in the case of XLamb, she has always posted with a valid email which I have not passed on to anyone.
If you have a better way to respond to trolls, please tell me! 🙂
http://online-anonymizer.com/
Better choose a different country next time!
Have you heard of anonymizer’s on the Internet!
Nick I use Akismet (akismet.com) on a number of WordPress blogs, it maintains lists of nuisance IP addresses and 99% of spam is usually caught. There is a WordPress plugin for it which is easy enough to install, might be worth looking into.
Stu: I use Akismet (as well as Mollom), but these troll-like comments came from an individual whose IP address was dynamic.
Minstrel Janet: I called it “trolling” simply because the content of the comments came across as inflammatory. I need comments to be sent from a valid email address so that I can give people a chance to back up their claims.
Reveal what you know of the Harkness connection! Solve the mystery. Where does the Jewish influence come from? Was SM selling arms to the near-newly minted Israeli state?
did Robin Thomson become a car dealer when he retired from ballet in 1976?
Nick,
Occasionally there’s a glitch with my statcounter and my own visits appear. They seem to come from all over the place too. I gather its because I use a fully-mobile system in areas where coverage is poor, so the provider constantly switches between whatchamacallits to give optimum signal.
That doesn’t change email addresses, though, i think.
Dear Di: Some other time I’ll tell the story of my life-endangering experience of riding pillion on a Harley-Davidson motorcycle. The man was certifiably crazy. Nuff-sed. Years later, I got myself a red moped. Wild. D’ya think we’ve stretched our dear host’s patience enough? Sorry Nick. I refuse to wear a patch over one eye — I had that experience when I had eye surgery (as a child).
bd1
My experience of the certified-crazy is extremely limited, but it seems to me that their lives lack anyone in whom they feel they can trust: someone whose care for them prohibits betrayal. Or perhaps you meant someone like Hunter Thompson – I don’t think I’ve ever met someone crazy in that way.
further to last – Bd1, I’ve just remembered a saying,
‘Whatever doesn’t kill you makes you stranger’.
🙂
stranger? stronger? Whatever. How about wierder? Thank goodness I had taken gymnastics, trampoline, and competition springboard diving. Take my word for it, time slows way down when one is thrown ten feet into the air above the traffic at a major intersection (thirty foot wide roadway into Golden Gate Park). I did a tuck & roll and a layout to land flat on the pavement and then rolled sideways to end up against the divider curb. Scraped ankles, knees, elbows, and tip of my nose.
There is more to the story:six lanes of traffic, and only one woman witnessed the whole incident because I came flailing to earth right in front of her vehicle. She had seen the bike go down and had scribbled the car’s license plate number. So, maybe stranger and stronger could apply to this survivor? Forgive my monopolizing this “open”-comment on this policy-change page, Nick — please? Epharisto!
Dear Nick and Friends: I would like to mention, on this page, a day of observance here in the United States: the destruction of the twin towers of the World Trade Center, New York City, on September 11, 2001. I hope I’m not posting inappropriately. Thank you, in advance for your consideration.
beady-eyed wonder
Speaking of remembrance days, before seeing this comment, I’d put up a postcard showing a rarely-noted portrait photo of Wilfrid Voynich, taken about the time he moved to America ( dnodonovan.wordpress.com) .
I added a postmark to it to indicate the reason – September 21st is a day assigned to expressing gratitude for things and people we appreciate.