Requiring User Registration on the BJS website

We at Brothers of John the Steadfast have made the decision to require registration to comment on the site. The reason for this change is the massive amount of spam comments we are receiving.  We have worked hard to prevent most of the comments from making it onto the site, but it is a lot of work behind the scenes to do this.  Most other blogs that we’ve looked at have gone to this registration requirement in an attempt to stop the spam.   We wanted to announce this change prior to making it, and allow you to comment on the change.   We will be making the change sometime within the next week, as soon as some additional programming can be done to make sure the process is as straightforward as possible.

This change is in no way intended to restrict comments from the site, or require identifying yourself when you write comments.   You are free to choose whatever name you desire when you register for the site, and the email address you use for registering may only be viewed by the administrators of the site.   I see on some other sites people choose names such as “Anonymous 1308”; two people can’t choose the same name, so there can only be one “Anonymous”, but you may add anything to it as long as it is unique. Also, if you want to keep even your email address confidential, you may create a “throw-away” email address to register on this site at gmail.com, hotmail.com, fastmail.fm, or any of the other free email address sites.

The registration process will be as follows:   You enter your username and email address and request registration.   An email is sent to that address with your password in it.   You must return back to the site and login using your username and password.   You are free to change your password and make your username appear how you want it, then you may comment on any article written on this site.

If you encounter problems with writing comments, please contact us explaining the problem.

We hope you have noticed several changes in the past few weeks, including the addition of easy-to-find RSS feeds for the articles and the comments, the addition of more featured articles on the front page, and a “Promote BJS” page whose link is found at the bottom of all pages on this site. We are trying to continue to make it easier for you to read and comment on the site. As always, if you have an idea for something that will make it easier for you, our reader, to interact with our site, please contact us!

Norm Fisher
Pastor Rossow
Brothers of John the Steadfast

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Notify me of followup comments via e-mail. You can also subscribe without commenting.