My Comments on Comments

Blogs by their very nature need to have comments, otherwise they are nothing significantly different than any web posting.

(Yes, Webslinger lacks in this regard - despite the much-appreciated efforts of three loyal readers.)

With this blog, I really wanted to be as open as possible to hearing from anyone - including complete strangers or passing readers that want to leave a quick note. Therefore, I have left the settings of this blog open to anonymous comments.

This tactic, I believe, helps encourage discussion and interaction and makes new readers and blog newbies more likely to comment.

The downside is spammers are hijacking this openness to post spam comments. I hate spam as much, if not more so, than anyone, so I find this really annoying!

My last post has an anonymous comment that I'm fairly certain is spam. I am reluctant to delete it though, as I don't want to cut legitimate comments - even if they are vague or off-topic. So if you were the person who posted it - please identify yourself.

The spam comments to date have not so numerous that I can't delete them manually. But I've been told that as a blog's readership grows, so too does spam.

I've decided in order to encourage easy and open dialogue in this blog, I'm going to continue to allow anonymous comments. I hope the spam doesn't grow or I might be forced to restrict comments.

I'm certain most other bloggers have faced or will face this same issue. It will be a real shame if spammers ruin one of the greatest strengths of the blog medium.