Comment Registration: The Experiment Ends Early

I've switched off User Registration. I said I would experiment for a week, but it is clear that it is putting people off commenting. OK, the comments that have been made have been rather less inflammatory than before, which was one of the aims, but all in all the comment threads have become somewhat monochrome. But if it gets back to the equivalent of a swear blog I'll have to consider reimposing user registration. But I am going to get tougher on moderation in general. If people abuse the hospitality or insult other users their comments will be deleted without explanation.

Comment Registration

Due to the increasing number of posts which I have to delete due to their abusive nature I have decided to introduce User Registration. This experiment will last about a week. It does not prevent anyone from commenting anonymously, but you will need to set up a Google account to do so - just as you do on many (if not most) other blogs. Hopefully it will discourage the astroturfers. We'll see what happens.

This is not intended to restrict anyone commenting at all, but there are only a limited amount of hours in the day and I cannot moderate 3-400 comments a day retrospectively. I'm just not prepared to allow comments from people who call themselves IAIN DALE'S DILDO. I'll allow any comment which disagrees with me politically, even if it is put strongly, but everyone should recognise there are limits.