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Hey everyone-- you may have noticed that we've made a few small changes to our commenting and feedback systems:
1. Commenters now have profile pages with a bit of information about them, and links to their recent comments, along with comments other people have left in response. If the commenter is also a Gothamist author, the page will include a list of their recent posts. Here's mine. You can register here-- it's fast and painless, but does require a valid email address for confirmation. Login or out using the link at the top left of any Gothamist page.
2. Anonymous commenting is still allowed, but anonymous commenters can no longer make up clever names and fake email addresses (oh Mr. FukcYou@FukcYou.com, how we'll miss you!) If you wish to leave anonymous comments, simply log in as Guest (password, Guest), and fire away. And remember: you don't have to register with your real name! So even if you do register, you can still protect your privacy.
3. We've also replaced out outmoded Forum with a new version, which allows anyone to post on Gothamist. Simply login with your username and password. Notable posts will be soon be included on the front page.
We've made these changes because the old comment system was constantly getting snarled with spam, and we wanted to give our readers a personal page here on the site. A number of other features based on the new profile system are coming soon-- expect them in the next couple of months. We appreciate your constructive feedback on the new system-- please note that it's a work in process, and the experience may be sub-optimal for a few days while we work out the kinks.
I put a picture of a kitten on this page because it sort of looks like the kitten is saying something, and this post is about commenting. Also, I read somewhere that cute animals discourage people from being mean-- so I expect nothing but positive reactions to this post.
add to stumble upon
add to reddit
tweet this
post to facebook
Fantastic idea.
...But good god, that's an ugly cat.
"Meow! You son of a bitch!" Aw crap, you know who I am now, don't you?
that cat has nothing on the wilfred brimley cat
So for all the effort, I can still expect the racist venom from anonymous commenters on every other post -- just now they can't make up email addresses. Onward to glory, I guess.
cat people are fags.
stupid stupid stupid - g'mist has now officially jumped the shark.
oh the autonomy!
I definitely don't mind signing up, but does this mean anonymous people can't leave one-off comments anymore? Do you think that will stifle debate?
P.S. That cat is totally adorable and, yes, I am a fag, guest. So what?
Good idea.
I'll miss Al sharpton.
OK, not really.
What will my ex-wife stalker do now if she can't annonymously post? Oh, woe is me...
Way to go, Gothamist! The flamers and haters will never go away, but this is a great step forward.
How dare you. A cat that looked exactly like that one killed my parents.
Cool improvement.
The only suggestion on profile is very minor, On "Last 20 comments" looks like it is FIFO, that is oldest comment 1st. Maybe LIFO order would be more relevant?
that cat appears to be disabled.
now half your comments will all say posted by 'guest' which will make debate a bit more confusing. unless people sign off within the comments themselves. i'd rather just have one those scrambled letter thingies for each post. sincerely,
christopher guest
All cats are ugly, but this one is some sort of über ugly cat.
If we have to sign up we should be able to comment on Gothamist Interviews. For example, I've been in Cape Town for the past week and a half and what Sillwa is saying in the above post is complete BULLSHIT. Crime is bad but certainly not as bad as he says, and I haven't seen one Guardian Angel.
One good thing is that this seems to have gotten rid of the ridiculous number of server errors during post attempts. In recent months, almost every single post attempt had resulted in an error. I don't remember a post attempt in the last month that didn't say "contact root@localhost.com." I wonder how Gothamist got any new posters at all if newbies kept getting those.
i need a multi-site pass as i comment on several ist sites.
you won't need a multi-site pass. this ID will work for all ists when we roll them out.
Spiritof76: one of the big pushes for us to do this is that our servers, like many, are overloaded with spam. by going to an account required system, the load on the server is greatly reduced.
jtg: good idea, we'll look into it. perhaps we can limit it to just non guest accounts can comment.
This is really not needed, but I guess its just another level of control Gothamist likes to use on its readers.
As long as they don't go Gestapo and start banning people left and right, I'll roll with it.
Turn off guest comments. If you don't have the stones to stand behind your statements, don't make them.
I could do with less un-necessarily racist comments.
Kitten thinks of nothing but murder all day...
I could do with less un-necessarily racist comments.
So you would prefer more necessarily racist comments?
just wanted to let everyone know that we added an additional feature today. note at the top of the comments the following:
Comments (26) [hide guest comments]
clicking on this will hide all comments from the guest user. it will set a cookie in place for one week. enjoy the silence!
I just wanted to go on record saying I think that the kitty above is a cutie, but not nearly as cute as Winston.
I cannot freaking WAIT for SFist to get this feature.