Also, the paragraph indents required just look like crap, and on a long thread with lots of comments, it becomes very hard to follow what a particular comment is responding to (unless there’s a ruler-bar at the top of the screen to measure the number of indents, and even that wouldn’t help much). So why bother? If you want to make it clear that you’re responding to one particular person’s statements, then address that person by name and/or repaste — that’s much easier to read anyway.

And I delete those. There are other kinds of commenters who are often called “trolls” but usually there is a more specific add on adjective. Like “concern troll” for someone who pretends to be worried that someone is doing something they should not do and makes a comment to that effect. I’ve found that concern trolls do a pretty good job of making themselves look like idiots, so I don’t bother “filtering” them.

In the case of this particular crackdown on commenting, though, there was something ELSE going on in addition; Not troll behavior but simple spam, getting through the spam catcher.

Half the time I start a response to a post but get busy and never finish. When I come back I can’t tell if I’ve fallen victim of moderation or failure to post. If you don’t approve of me it may be a long time before I figure it out.

In the future we will have a different system that will be easier and more fun. I don’t know the details but probably registration via SNORKING media as well as integration with SNORKING servies (like, having your comment automatically posted to your facebook page if you want, etc. … though again, I’m not sure what will be implemented).