September 20, 2007
New Guest Comments Default
You may have already noticed that all the -Ist sites made a slight adjustment to the way comments appear overnight. We've adjusted our default settings so that unless you choose to see them, the gray "guest" comments, those written by people who choose not to register for our commenting system, will be automatically hidden. You can, if you choose, still view guest comments by selecting "show guest comments" at the end of any post. I had a little bit of trouble getting the feature to work in Firefox this morning, but found that after a few tries at clicking, it worked.
Why are we doing this? If you read our comments, you can probably guess. Guest comments, while occasionally valuable, tend by and large to be the place where people with only insulting, obnoxious things to say reside. We've found the commenting experience to be greatly enhanced by hiding guest comments -- it's as though suddenly everyone who comments on DCist is reasonable and engaging. That's the kind of experience we'd like all of you to have, thus the change to the default setting.
If you've been holding out on signing up for the commenting system, please remember: it takes about 20 seconds, we will never release your email address to anyone or use it in any way other than to verify that you are not a spam-bot, and you get a nifty new Profile page in our system (here's mine) to keep track of all of your comments. So take a minute and register right now.
Will we eventually do away with guest comments all together? Probably. We're still working it out among all the -Ist sites. For now, we hope you enjoy the new default setting as much as we do.
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no comment
dcist was a lot more fun when you could read everyone's post and post anonymously...
PLEASE don't get rid of anonymous posting! I've lost track of all the free drinks and anonymous hookups I've been getting from my "fans," some of whom are pretty nasty. Like guest #47. Girlfriend's had more condoms in her than a CVS.
I've registered twice -- and every time I try to log in with either ID, I get a bad password message. So I just got tired of messing with it. If the guest feature is done away with, then I guess I won't comment.
I logged in as a guest once and now I cannot log out. When I access DCist on a different browser, the "Create an Account" link just goes right back to dcist.com. Help us out, here....I'd register if I could.
I'm having trouble getting the guest comments to show up as well (firefox). Clicking on "Show Guest Comments" doesn't seem to do anything...
[SHOW GUEST COMMENTS] doesn't work for me "after a few tries at clicking" in Firefox.
Is this a glitch that will be fixed? An ist without guest comments just ain't the same. Firefox compatibility should be a given these days.
same situation as guest 4
Why will DCist likely get rid of guest comments all together in the future???
lame. i don't agree with your analysis, either, a lot of guests have interesting things to say, and a lot of "registered" comments are just as stupid and pointless as you describe guests' postings to be.
not that you'll change back.
sincerely,
a guest
They're afraid of the simple truths that guests provide.
I keep selecting the -Show guest comments- but nothing pops up. Hi! It's just me passing through.
is it possible to block out people who aren't registered as guest? i find the people who register to be, in a word, asses.
Boooo! This is censorship at its finest. Way to go DCist.
I'm all for it. Not only is registering not difficult but it's not like anyone really gives up their anonymity by doing it. If you're that paranoid -- or cowardly -- just get yourself a bogus new Hotmail account.
I'll look forward to seeing fewer racist comments and personal attacks.
(I also can't see the guest comments in Firefox on my Mac.)
Boourns.
Guest commenting allows me to make quick comments at work without logging in.
DCist keeps getting worse - crappy writing, crappy content and now crappy policies. Good thing you are free because I would never pay to partake in this drivel.
lopping guest comments cuts down on the humor factor. Most of your registered guests are equally anonymous, but many are also horribly predictable.
definitely a problem on Mac OSX/ Firefox but fine in Safari and Windows/Firefox.
this new feature's paid for itself already by keeping posts like #14 (plain vanilla dumbass'dness) and #15 (get back to your shitty dayjob, peasant) out of my face.
Fewer comments like "This is MY city?" No complaints here!
i am done reading dcist.
way to go sommer!
go back to writing drivel about how cops are the bad guys, and how cool shaw is.
f---ing tool.
It's about time. I've always hated "the guests." And their unregistered "opinions." I'm definitely anti-guest. A guestist if you will.
I definitely think the guest comments are better quality than the non-guest comments, across the board better.
Censorship? You're freaking kidding, right? This is a step in the right direction, but wouldn't it be clearer for everybody if DCist just did away with Guest comment capability completely?
"this new feature's paid for itself already by keeping posts like #14 (plain vanilla dumbass'dness) and #15 (get back to your shitty dayjob, peasant) out of my face."
What we need is an ignore feature, to block out idiotic comments from individual registered users, like this gem from Sexy Fistula.
Funny how your kickball story is posted immediately after your Comment BS. Sorta goes against what I thought dcist was all about. And don't give me the vulgar language bit either, click on the Kickball link and see what you hypocrites are endorsing. And DON'T tell me you're not endorsing that either. You guys suck. Oh, but I'll censored I suspect...
I have to agree with most of the guest dumbasses. Making this Invite Only just narrows the dialog until it's the usual assholes trading the usual quips, barbs, and bon mots, and using the same tired language, like "crotchfruit," "get off my streets," "bridge-and-tunnel," and "perineum."
Also, the anonymous posters add just enough piss to the gene pool to keep this from becoming an incestuous little highschool clique that would end up suffering from the same maladies that affected royal families that intermarry too much. Of course, if you want to change the name to hapsburghist.com, be my effing guest, so long as the guest filter works.
"I've registered twice -- and every time I try to log in with either ID, I get a bad password message. So I just got tired of messing with it. If the guest feature is done away with, then I guess I won't comment."
I've had a similar experience. It took way longer than 20 seconds, and now I probably can't sign up using my selected name.
-Mr T in DC
random house defines "guest" as:
2. a person who receives the hospitality of a club, a city, or the like.
so will you be renaming "guest comments" then? i don't think the hospitality aspect of it really applies anymore. do you, dcist?
I had to jump through several hoops to be able to log back in to the Gothamist LLC Movable Type user system, which continues to throw me multiple errors and "bad password" notices on login, even after I try to change the system-generated password on reclaim and signup.
I guess I just won't be leaving any more comments after this one, seeing as how Gothamist LLC's Movable Type expertise makes user login unreasonably difficult for those who can't remember their email-assigned passwords, and then hides the comments of those who don't wish to log in.
Those of you who are stuck with guest login, clear your cookies, cache, and authenticated sessions, refresh, and try again.
(When I first tried to post this I was rewarded with a malformed URL in the comment form action attribute. Brilliant, guys. So, yeah, so long and thanks for all the fish. Let me know when users can actually *change their passwords.*)
Irony, about 60% of the comments on this post are anonymous
You can still leave comments as guests dumbasses so it is not censorship....I hate some of the crap DCIST puts on but I read it, if I really hate it I make a comment, if I like it a lot I comment and move on. It took all of 30seconds to register and I did it even though I hate half the shit that is here but it is far from censorship when they ask for a simple registration and if not they still allow you to comment this is just letting you know you can skip guests comments.
Anyone have a problem with changing "guest" to "anonymous idiot?" This was suggested quite some time ago.
It's kinda implied that if you're registered with dcist, you're a registered idiot.
Right, because YET ANOTHER USERNAME AND PASSWORD is exactly what I need. Yet another profile page with outdated information. I know TypeKey on DCist crashed and burned, but come on. Down with accounts for every podunk website.
The 'show guest comments' doesn't work for me either. I'm using IE 6 on XP Pro.
Lovely that the -ist universe now wants to track, segregate, and alienate speech.
Were the Federalist papers written by a registered user? Anonymous speech has a strong history in this country and many worthwhile benefits. Only cowards fear what Anonymous has to say.
Guest #36 is EXACTLY why we need anonymous posting.
Yelling "Eat f**k pie!" in a church will always be the sort of bold antiauthoritarian statement that America is SUPPOSED to be all about.
That, and peeing on the rim.
#25:
The ignore feature is built in to most adults, so it's not "we" but you who's needy. why the fuck wouldn't I want to option out cowardly anonymous barbs thrown by some tiny-spirited bamma?
monkeyrotica:
comments from registered users look pretty varied to me. but even if they weren't, DCist would hardly be the first or last place you'll run into clique-ishness
It's an unfortunate response to an even more unfortunate reality, the John Gabriel Internet Dickwad Theory:
http://www.penny-arcade.com/docs/internetdickwad.jpg
The only problem I have with banning guest comments is that sometimes I check from other computers, and I don't want to log in from there (and then log out). I will comment as guest. I have found that (for some reason, maybe on my end) you can't click on the log in link at the top of the page. You try to log in but the DCist logo is in the way.
why not show the IP address of all guest posters instead of terminating them?
IT
IS
NOT
A
GUEST
COMMENT
BAN
GOD
DAMN
IT
doesn't anyone read or think anymore? jesus ...
Definitely need to bump the logo down a notch. The login window overlaps and half the time, I end up hitting the logo, which takes me back to the homepage.
Slashdot has had Anonymous Idiots since day one, and they've done pretty well for themselves. Most of the highest rated posts are from AIs.
And I'd like to invoke Godwin's Law by saying getting rid of anonymous posting is worse than Hitler.
This makes sense, b/c the comments of logged in users is usually so insightful and considerate.
Exactly. Makes perfect sense.
This is so lame ... dcist don't turn into consumerist
"Show guest comments" isn't working for me on DCist, but it is working for me on other -ist sites (namely, Gothamist and SFist). XP and Firefox.
Sorry-- I should have said 'with the proposed banning of guest comments'. I was aware that they are not currently being banned, just hidden.
Fully support the new policy. Guest commenting is not taken away, you have just made it easier for us to completely ignore those who don't even care enough to register a commenter name, but then think we should pay attention to their comments. Those who are in need of annonymous posters should be able to eventually turn them back on and can enjoy the mysterious annonymous posters to their hearts' content, the rest of us do not have to be bothered by them anymore. Good job Sommer.
Duh... it works now that I did a CTRL+F5. Nevermind.
I'm registered. None of you sad collection of freaks knows who I am. Though I suspect that should I ever have the misfortune to run into one of you, my awesomeness would probably alert you to my identity. *yawn*
@ Guest 36 -- You could register as "Publius" and still maintain your anonymity. The Federalist papers represented a cohesive viewpoint and had anonymous authors but they were not a set of random nameless comments. Using a consistent pseudonym is pretty much in keeping with the American tradition here. The internet as a whole has really embraced the anonymity of aliases and avatars, and people with random fake names are making a serious impact on political debates.
That said, I think DCist should keep allowing guest comments but I can sympathize if you want to make all guests register, what with dealing with spam and abusive comments and everything.
How am I going to post many times with completely different crackpot, rasist and classist opinions if I cannot hide behind my annonimity? If I actually have to register, then people might realize that it is the same person posting totally idiotic crap incesantly and might begin to ignore what I have to say. How is that fair to ME!!! If I actually have to register a name to comment, then I will actually have to more carefully consider what I am posting, and that is so not what I want to have to do. Why can't we make the entire comments section annonymous, so that no one knows which comments come from who? That way there would be no personal accountability at all and we could all post totally inane crap with no fear of ever being called on our earlier comments or views.
I sure do love tacos.
Oh my God, someone compared anonymous blog comments to the Federalist Papers.
Why don't you go ahead and throw some tea at your laptop in protest? That'll show 'em!
Why would you turn guest comments off and miss gems like that?
Guest [52]: You've read my mind.
Whatever happened to the random Ralph Wiggum quotes? Remember those? Anyone?
Those were great.
Me fail English? That's unpossible!
monkeyerotica, as is typical, is killing me.
As a steadfast anonymous commenters (to register for something as worthless as this would just make me feel more like a tool than I already do for commenting here), I actually have to say this new middle road solution is fine... as long as the firefox issue is resolved. If people want to read boring, but never offensive comments, *cough* *cough* H_____n *cough* *cough*, then they can click off the guest commenters. If they want to read an entertaining dialogue, and have a thick enough skin to not be offended by occasional “offensive” comments, then they can click on the guest commenters. I have no problem with that.
But, please, don’t ever make the mistake of eliminating guest commenting altogether. It would make the comment threads painfully dull, it would kill the dialogue, it would slow your traffic, it would reduce your ad revenue and ultimately inhibit gothamistllc’s ability to provide your editors with their modest salary.
I think the failure of typekey speaks for itself.
Oh, and #51 gerhardi is precisely why I generally hate the registered commenters. *yawn.....YAWN*
#58, well said, except "If people want to read boring, but never offensive comments, *cough* *cough* H_____n *cough* *cough*"
You lost me at "never offensive." But your point stands.
As with #4, I've tried to register several times to no avail. I'm official done with this site. It really does suck now. Screw the opera posts and Martin's whining. I'm moving the the Express blog.
First!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1
Seriously, can we get a button to only show 'guest' comments? I'm offended by the people who register with their silly names and lame comments trying to show how 'cool' they think they are.
We're sorry if you are having trouble with signing up. Email me at neil at gothamist and I'll do my best to get it working for you. I've helped others in the past successfully.
If the "show guest commenters" isn't working for you, you need to refresh your cache or reload dcist.com/mt-site.js as we updated the js with a new function last night. After doing that you should be all good.
From the Austinist: If you're a registered commenter, you'll notice something new when you click the "Edit Profile" link in the top left corner of our site: you can now upload a 100 x 100 avatar. For now, that icon will only be displayed on your profile, but soon it'll be used to identify you in the comments for an article.
Is that going to happen with DCist too? How come no mention of that?
To the people having trouble registering:
Make sure your mouse is over the register link. The DCist home page link extends up into this area of the webpage on some browsers. Take your time - YOU CAN DO IT!
i'm going w/60. out
oh sweet. this is so much better than LNS's "A Forum."
use the tab key to highlight the register link then hit return. I just tried to update my profile and could only click on the logo.
From the Austinist: If you're a registered commenter, you'll notice something new when you click the "Edit Profile" link in the top left corner of our site: you can now upload a 100 x 100 avatar. For now, that icon will only be displayed on your profile, but soon it'll be used to identify you in the comments for an article.
Is that going to happen with DCist too? How come no mention of that?
I uploaded an avatar. Do they show up in the coments?
EmoEmu: No
If you must show guest comments, insert an avatar of a white robe and hood.
I actually like reading the guest comments. It would be nice if you could make the font color a little darker grey so they aren't so difficult to read.