stay tuned

update

The comment registration feature needed too much of my time to get it working, so I’ve backtracked. I think I’ve got a simpler solution.

I have already dubbed many of the regular contributors as trusted commenters. Those of you who have the little trusted commenter badge next to your name can go ahead and comment as usual.

If you haven’t commented recently or are new, you can also just go ahead and fill out the comment card, but here’s what will happen:

1. The comment will be held for moderation (by me)
2. I will read the comment.
3. I will use my gigantic brain and stupendous reasoning powers to decide if you are a real person with something to say, or, alternatively, if you have gone over to the dark and evil side, the spammer universe.
4. If you are indeed a real human with something to say, I will immediately dub you a trusted commenter.
5. At that point your comment will magically appear on the weblog, and all future comments will also show up straight away, no further need for moderation.
6. If it turns out you are an evil, no good spammer, I will cast your comment into oblivion and no one (except me) will ever see it. I know you spammers live to inflict pain on others, so consider this a selfless act on my part. I deal with all the spam there so you don’t have to deal with it here.

So are we clear? Basically you can go ahead and comment. There may be a slight delay in your comment showing up you haven’t got your little badge yet, but that will only happen once.

Whew.

And just because y’all have been so patient and kind and wonderful while I struggled with the spam demons, here’s a little giveaway. Submit a comment to this post. You don’t have to do anything but say hi, but you could, if you like, tell me about your most memorable demon spam encounter. I’ll pick two names at random and those people will get a signed copy of the trade paperback of Tied to the Tracks when it comes out on July 3.