Today I got ten spam comments on this blog in the course of about three hours. It takes time to delete these annoying (usually illiterate) comments, and the comments themselves are potentially dangerous, inasmuch as the links, if clicked, may install malware on your computer.
So I've decided to bite the bullet and impose some controls on commenting. I tried this once or twice before, but curtailed the experiment because people complained about the inconvenience of having to sign in via a social media service like Facebook, or having to reproduce a random verification code.
I agree that this is more of a hassle than just clicking "Post," and the verification codes are often frustratingly hard to decipher. But the flood of spam is a problem I just can't ignore. This time I'm committed to the program. And I'm sure we'll all get used to it soon enough.
In the meantime, I've tracked down a helpful instructional video from NewsRadio that may help us better adjust to these new circumstances:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=37cf-WmEqPI