1. Due to recent revisions to the site design, trackback spam has increased several-fold; so I’m taking action at the server level to eliminate any trackbacks or comments containing key words. I will make every attempt to constrain the list only to those words most likely to occur in spam but relatively unrelated to whatever feedback visitors are likely to wish to leave:

   
   

   

   
   The image will be updated as new words are added to the list. (I can’t post the list in any other way, because my attempt would also be blocked!) Already, in the couple of hours or so of implementation, a lot of trackback spam hits have been diverted!

2. Commenting now requires authentication via TypeKey. Signing up for an account is simple; you can select to be logged-in to TypeKey for a week; and anytime you would like to leave a comment, signing in to TypeKey is relatively painless and quick. This feature alone will go very far in limiting comment spam. Be sure to set your TypeKey membership to send your email address when logging in to sites, because they are also required by the MT settings for any comment.*Updated; see below

   Also, comments which contain more than 5 links will be moderated before being posted.

3. All trackbacks will be moderated before being published. I am still tweaking how this works, since my MT installation at the moment is configured to limit pings to a certain number of attempts per day, and I am not altogether certain that attempted trackback spam which slips through the server-level word filters does not add to the overall number of attempted pings. (I have another setting in MT’s spam filters to filter according to a larger list of words, putting apparent spam into a “junk folder”.)*Updated; see below

Relatively soon (when I have the time), I will be posting a link to this entry, along with links to other site guidelines, in the right sidebar of the main page, for easier access, while eliminated such entries from the main body of entries posted to the main page.

*Update May 21, 2007: Trackbacks are now turned off for the blog.

Additionally, Typekey is no longer used for commenter authentication. Instead, visitors will have three options for logging in to comment: 1) register for the site and login through the site, or use 2) OpenID or 3) LiveJournal logins when leaving a comment. Visitors who already have an on-site account with Dreaming 5GW may use the same login to comment on Phatic Communion; see “New Commenter Authentication” at D5GW for more info.