Comment away!


We’ve received word that there have been some behind-the-scenes improvements in spam filtering, and I’ve gotten enough complaints about that annoying typekey thingie, that I’ve gotten rid of it. This is provisional, and I’m hoping I don’t get a flood of spam now, but try it—commenting should be easier.

Comments

  1. Carlie says

    Woo-hoo! C’mon boys, door’s open!
    (sounds of random gunfire, whooping, and general mayhem)

  2. MartinM says

    And you had to do this the day I finally gave in and signed up for that annoying typekey thingie, didn’t you?

    *sigh*

  3. says

    Hello Mister PZ Myers! I have a fantastic business proposition for you. For only the cost of one hundred thousand American dollars, you can help me rescue my large estate, which is held in trust for want of funds. Of course this could be very lucrative for you…

    Ha, just kidding. Commenting seems to be working fine, which is just as well, because that “keep me signed in for 2 weeks” button on Typekey never worked for me.

  4. thwaite says

    Thanks. I was getting pretty frustrated today trying repeatedly to post. Typekey had been fine for the last few weeks but today was, um, special.

  5. Diego says

    Huzzah! I did sign up with typekey when you first instituted the system, but found it cumbersome to the point where I simply stopped commenting entirely. I’m quite glad to see the system changed.

  6. says

    I had to remove some cookies before the non-Typekey comment box showed up.

    With luck, the Typekey login will stay gone, it was a bit annoying. (“Keep me logged in for two weeks” my arse.)

    Addendum: if I hit Preview, and then try Preview or Post from the preview screen, I get a 404 error. Anyone else get this?

  7. chuko says

    That’s nice. I may get back into the habit of commenting again. I don’t know if this is a good thing from your perspective.

  8. DFX says

    Woohoo! Finally I don’t have to register! I love the site. My only complaint is how often I have to come here to keep up with you. Slow down man! No one can think at that speed!

  9. steve s says

    Great. All day I’ve been unable to comment on ScienceBlogs because of some kind of typekey-related problem. Scienceblogs has been, so far, the most frustratingly defective site I’ve ever visited on the internet, w/r/t those kinds of problems.

  10. steve s says

    I generally favor registering systems, they really do work, but Scienceblogs has been uniquely incompetent about it.

  11. David Harmon says

    Until I nuked my TypeKey cookie, the name/address boxes were appearing, then *disappearing*, replaced by the Sign-in link — which led to “registration failed”. Now, of course, it seems to be working.

  12. Azkyroth says

    I think the problem with “keep me logged in” may be when people comment from different computers. I noticed that I can sign in and then comment as long as I’m on my laptop at work, and then I go home and have to sign in again. What this means is that the login system is designed so that the same account cannot be logged in from multiple computers. Since this would require extra code in almost any case I can visualize, I assume someone deliberately designed it this way.

    …I assume “someone” to be the same moron who’s responsible for Livejournal’s tendency to cause fatal display driver errors on my desktop. Where do they find these people, and how much XP can I get for destroying the source?

  13. Walter Concrete says

    From Media Matters

    http://mediamatters.org/items/200607070010

    However, contrary to Coulter’s claim, science has observed links between reptiles and mammals through an existing succession of transitional fossils. Skeletal features are used to distinguish between reptilian fossils and mammalian fossils.

    And let’s not forget that reptiles, like us mammals, share many of the same GENES with relatively simple organisms like yeast, with whom we all share a common ancestor.

    Coulter is a disgusting liar, just like all creationism promoting pricks.

    Liberals and science advocates need to learn not to hesitate from drawing the obvious conclusion. The ID peddlers claim it is all about the “evidence” but when the “evidence” shows that they must be willfully lying when they recite the same broken scripts, then suddenly they aren’t interested in evidence anymore. Then it’s about their “religious beliefs” and how they are being persecuted simply for their failure to be “convinced,” BOO HOO HOO HOO!!!!!!

    Just earlier today I saw a Cornell professor happily play the creationist’s “we’re so civilized” game. Check out this link:

    http://evolutionanddesign.blogsome.com/2006/07/07/why-we-fight/#comments

    All this bullshit “civility” just plays right into the creationist hands and Professor McNeill is simply too naive or too involved with his creationist students to figure it out.

    When someone’s entire agenda is to smear you and your profession with lies, and then you set “ground rules” in place which prohibit people from publically recognizing that one side is reciting lies, then you have just screwed yourself in the ass with the fossilized jaw of an alligator.

    Why would anyone do that????

  14. Kagehi says

    Ding, ding, the typekey is dead! lol

    Seriously, I am sure I have seen “less” well designed systems which drove me more nuts, but I can’t think of what they where at the moment.

  15. Azkyroth says

    However, contrary to Coulter’s claim, science has observed links between reptiles and mammals through an existing succession of transitional fossils. Skeletal features are used to distinguish between reptilian fossils and mammalian fossils.

    And let’s not forget that reptiles, like us mammals, share many of the same GENES with relatively simple organisms like yeast, with whom we all share a common ancestor.

    Like Coulter and her forked tongue weren’t proof enough…

  16. says

    Yay, TypeKey gone.

    Problem being, that over at Dispatches, Brayton said it was in the process of being implemented all over ScienceBlogs. So my bottle of beer says it’s gonna come back.

    OTOH, why not use the word verification scheme Blogger uses. That’s one of the few things that actually work over there. The bots have yet to figure out how to guess those piccies.

    – JS

  17. Caledonian says

    I never had any problems with TypeKey. However, the word recognition system for some reason won’t acknowledge my computer — no matter how many times I type the correct words, I can’t post.

    I’m sure this will motivate you to implement word recognition systems post-haste.

  18. says

    May all beings be filled with joy and peace.
    May all beings everywhere,
    The strong and the weak,
    The great and the small,
    The mean and the powerful,
    The short and the long,
    the subtle and the gross:
    May all beings everywhere,
    Seen and unseen,
    Dwelling far off or nearby,
    Being or waiting to become:
    May all be filled with lasting joy.
    Let no one deceive another,
    Let no one anywhere despise another,
    Let no one out of anger or resentment
    Wish suffering on anyone at all.
    Just as a mother with her own life
    Protects her child, her only child, from harm,
    So within yourself let grow
    A boundless love for all creatures.

  19. says

    i got this:

    Precondition Failed

    The precondition on the request for the URL /cgi-bin/MT/mt-comments.cgi evaluated to false.

  20. says

    Dear Prof. Myers,
    You don’t, by any chance, happen to have any journal entries on the phylogeny of placoderms or cephalaspids, do you?

  21. Gentlewoman says

    Oh, thank goodness. I didn’t comment here often, but for the past week or so, I’ve been unable to make the typekey thingie work at all. And the preview doesn’t work for me either, but I don’t care.

    Just so you know, I don’t have anything to say. I’m just happy to be able to say it ;)

  22. dcb says

    Arun, tha argument is a strawman. Atheists aren’t ignorant of the cultural and social aspects of religious practice. Also, scientsts aren’t all atheists.

  23. says

    What annoyed me the most about TypeKey is that it would force me to log in every single time no matter how many times I told windows to save the password (or checked the “keep me signed in for two weeks” box). So many clicks and waiting! Maybe this cable connection has spoilt me. :(

    Good one, disgruntled chemist.

  24. sleepyinsaudi says

    Yeaaaa! I never liked the typepad thingy. I love cephalopods, especially for lunch! thank you

  25. Steve LaBonne says

    Hmmm, I can post here but not to the “Bye bye, RA” thread…

    Wow, a thread euthanasia feature! ;)

  26. Ian H Spedding says

    Steve LaBonne wrote:

    Hmmm, I can post here but not to the “Bye bye, RA” thread…

    Wow, a thread euthanasia feature! ;)

    Speaking as a pro-thread-lifer, I believe a thread should have the right to continue without termination…

  27. David Harmon says

    I just had the pleasure of a day with my sisters and their kids. When my 20-month old neice was asked what her favorite animal at the zoo was, she answered “Octopus!”

  28. Pekka says

    They did a new series of spoofs on that Kinkade painter guy over at Something Awful. This page has the one you’ll probably like best (search for “giant sea creatures”):

    Link to SA

    I wanted to post this when it was new, but the Typekey thing prevented me. I was too lazy to register.

  29. quork says

    They have a better spam filter now? Does that mean tha annoying Jason spambotwon’t be posting any more?

    I am thankful for the changes, I couldn’t manage to post under those restrictions.