New comment policy
Yes, spam has taken on disgusting proportions. For at least a year, there have been programs that crawl the web, looking for web logs like Before, and use them to post comments. The comments invariably contain links back to sites selling prescription drugs. The user’s name and e-mail address are always fake and the comments are usually posted to really old entries. The idea here is that my web site then becomes a billboard for these other sites, and further, the search engines pick up the fact that I’m recommending these sites and help boost their rankings.
Well, bob@y3897.com, if you weren’t an annoying program, you’d be able to read this and learn that I have defeated you! Anyone leaving a comment will now have to check a box indicating humanity. It’s my hope that the spam programmers won’t take the time to figure out what makes this site different from all others. If they do, I’ll change it to something else.
I realize this leaves me open to certain criticisms — “Oh, just because I’m inhuman, you don’t value my opinion? You don’t want me to comment on your site?” Well, I guess I don’t.