Please note: Jihad Watch is back up and running, with a shiny new installation of Movable Type 3 and registration (through TypeKey) for comments. Robert Spencer was being plagued by anonymous comment Morlocks, using every underhanded trick in the book to sow chaos and discord. And spammers posting hundreds of links to pr0n sites.

Sounds familiar. Hey! I know why! That used to happen here at LGF quite frequently too, before I got motivated enough to write the LGF registration code.

The original plan was to leave commenting open to unregistered people sometimes, and I still may do that. But even with all the support issues the registration system caused, I feel as if a weight has been lifted from my shoulders.

Oh, I know trolls can still get in. But they have to work a lot harder to do it (and we all know trolls hate work), they have to leave a trail of some kind (even if it’s a free email service), and I can ban them with one click, permanently, no matter how many anonymous proxies they use. If a Morlock is especially determined, I can simply shut down new registrations until it goes away, and all current registered lizardoids will still be able to post.

People who lie, impersonate others, leave foul and hateful comments, wear panties on their heads or walk into the middle of the room and pee on the carpet are no longer welcome.

It’s a groove, homey G. Join the registration revolution.

An idea that came up recently was to have a special “Lizard Lounge,” as a kind of free-for-all chat section not tied to any particular topic. I like the idea; I’m thinking about doing it as a sort of rotating queue, with a maximum of 100 comments—so that as new comments are added, the older ones scroll off and disappear.