Commenting bug fixed.

A few people have complained that they write a comment here, and it’s denied with a “comments are closed” message. Which must be infuriating, having invested time in writing something, and then having it be lost to the ether. I’ve eliminated the plugin that I was using to prevent spam, and now I’m fighting spam like the rest of the rabble. But the good news is, no more infuriating attempts to comment. I’m sorry for the trouble!

Published by Waldo Jaquith

Waldo Jaquith (JAKE-with) is an open government technologist who lives near Char­lottes­­ville, VA, USA. more »

11 replies on “Commenting bug fixed.”

  1. Silly question, why did you eliminate the plugin that was refusing spam? I thought it was elegant and effective, and I tried (too briefly) to figure out which plugin it was and how to duplicate it on my own blog so that only humans could comment…

  2. Scott: Presumably because it was buggy, even though the theory was nice.

    Waldo: Did this happen after the WP 3.1 switch? Also, hitting the back button has always given me my comment back.

  3. Scott, the plugin I was using was WP-Gatekeeper. It was great when it worked. Tim, I suspect you’re right—that the switch to 3.1 coincided with it starting to get wonky. The problem isn’t consistent, so I’m not able to say for sure that there’s a relationship. Jack, I don’t think that the problem is what you think it is. People correctly fill out the CAPTCHA (people who have been commenting here for years and years), but find that their comment is rejected, with an erroneous error.

  4. well GOOD! I was about ready to give it up but your loss.. there were some really GREAT comments that you missed – forever!

    the last one was particularly exquisite.

    :-)

  5. Thank you, I’d wondered; it seemed a really elegant solution. I pretty much hate all the captcha schemes as they (like speed bumps) punish everyone for the crimes of a few… but I liked your simple one word but require thought gatekeeper, it was a lot less frustrating, but an effective filter of most junk spam.

  6. I’m imagining all sorts of people now coming here to comment who were stopped by the previous captcha, not because they were bots, but because they thought it was the “Democrat” party. ;)

  7. I figured — I always thought that was a fun response to the petty language politics of the right.

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