October 15, 2007
DCist Comments Now Require Registration
As part of our continuing efforts to make the Gothamist network a friendly and reasonably polite place, we've now, as of this morning, eliminated "guest" comments on our posts. This means that to comment on DCist and any other -ist site, all users will need to complete a short registration process.
A note about privacy: the new system does require a working email address to complete registration. It does not require you to share your real name, or any other information about you. Gothamist will not sell your email address to third parties. Here's our privacy policy.
Registration is free and easy––either click the Create an Account link at the top of this or any other page on DCist or, easier yet, create an account right at the bottom of the entry page that you want to comment on. All you have to do after that is confirm your e-mail address and you're good to start commenting. And once you register you'll get a cool profile page, showing all of your previous DCist activity. You can also upload an avatar which will show up whenever you comment.
Of note: we've noticed that some hotmail users are having trouble receiving their confirmation email, possibly due to spam filters. If you use hotmail, we'd suggest registering on DCist with a different email account. If you have trouble receiving your email confirmation, you can also email me directly at sommer (at) dcist.com and I'll do my best to help you.
Photo by clarissa~
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That is shitty. Granted, eight out of every ten guest comments are trollworthy, but those other two are generally very worthwhile. Oh well.
YAAAAAAAY!
It really doesn't take long to register. Do it when you have a spare minute, and then you can make your usual insights when needed.
This is pretty low. I thought hiding guest comments as the default was a good balance, but this is just ridiculous. And it isn't "fast" if you need to go create a new account, which it sounds like Hotmail folks will have to (not that I don't think they should get a better e-mail service).
Yeah I don't really like the switch, it makes the site less of a sounding board for when there are breaking news issues and more of an insulated community.
you win, I signed up today
I can see, however, why Gothamist did it. The guest commentary over there was a real cesspool.
yeah, i'm going to miss the guest commenting....the best was back when people would use creative names for their sign-off. oh well...
At least we have no more grayed out comments - I always had trouble reading them on my monitor. Will miss the opportunity for people to just post when they got the chance. But I understand the rationale for doing so.
This makes me want to cut myself. Ok. Not really. Actually, I really don't give a damn.
I guess I might be the only person who doesn't really have a problem with this. It really isn't that hard to sign up. The default panda avatar did encourage me to create my own quickly, though.
so having only registered people to comment will make this somehow more highbrow??
But what am I supposed to do now when I want to write something hateful and ignorant with loads of misspelled words?
Gothamist hates racists and jerks, which I think is racist and jerky.
Registration is free and easy
Just like your mom!
Sorry, but with the guests gone, I got nobody to throw poo at.
Thanks for reminding me to do the quarterly log-in to my good-for-nothing Hotmail account! Also, I'm completely ok with this, and I would bet that once any technical difficulties are sorted out and everyone who wants to register is registered no one will think twice about it.
Boooooooooo
Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain.
Shit, too late
Yay.
I'll take the opposite complaint for 500, alex:: with guest commenting gone, now I don't know WHO to ignore.
But what am I supposed to do now when I want to write something hateful and ignorant with loads of misspelled words?
What about when I want to write something hateful but incisive? With impeccable spelling?
What happened to you, DCist? You used to be cool.
It's awfully conceited of Gothamist to think that these blogs are SO INTERESTING that everyone will waste more of their brain space coming up with yet another username and password to remember…
Well, anonymous commenting is still welcome over at Free Ride. There is a delay in approving comments, but we rarely censor.
I guess I finally have to reclaim that POS TypeKey account. On the upside, at least I can burn out some retinas with my obnoxious avatar!
That's the spirit, GhettoBurbs.
GhettoBurbs
That avatar is nothing. Try juxtaposing FF0000 red against 0000FF blue. That'll inspire a few headaches.
Can you fix the RSS feed to show the comment author? At least using Thunderbird it doesn't show up.
Thank God for BugMeNot.
Jeffrey: The chief place for hateful and ignorant comments with loads of misspelled words is Washingtonpost.com
Everybody knows that.
Yes, this may make DCist a bit incestuous (that's bad, right?..... I had a first cousin that was completely fuckable, and I always wondered how that would have gone....... plus, he was a Super Fundie Christian, and it would have been hilarious to see him give it up to a semi-heathen like me.....).... anyway, I digress.
Is it still incest if it's two guys, especially if we did it Marine-style (no kissing, just skip right to the hard stuff, then getting all overly sporty and hard-ass afterward)? I mean, it's not like we'd be creating mutant kids or anything.
Wait, what?
Great, one more account name and password to remember. DCist used to be a kind of fun/interesting workday diversion. Are there delusions that it is or ever will be more than that? Its primary utility is as an outlet for bored office workers to read about and comment on things more interesting than their jobs: music, art, drinking, their city and neighborhoods. Why the clampdown? I don't buy the "racism"/"abusive" canard, I read a lot of what goes on DCist, and a great many of the comments, and I just don't see it. The occasional nudnick chiming with a half assed troll? From time to time, but are we really that delicate?
It's just kind of lame, don't you think?
DCfist:
I accept your challenge.
Mike - I see your washingtonpost.com and raise you a wtopnews.com. Their comment thread are slightly less illiterate, but they all the posters seem convinced that Marion Barry is still Mayor. Their DC voting rights threads run the gamut from "move to a real state" to "go back to Africa."
Lame
Hurray!! Glad you finally made a fist and require registration for commenting. Now what can we do about all the panda avatars? Couldn't we just change them to a text block that says "Too lame to upload an Avatar"?
GhettoBurbs
Winner. I love it. But ow, my eyes...
Retarded.
Mandatory registration on DCist is just a prediction of a required National ID card...might as well get used to it.
and . . . so it goes. welcome to life after avatars, where everything is
the same.
I for one welcome our new insect, er, Gothamist overlords.
Indiecognition: What National ID cards? With our compulsory subcutaneous RFID chips, we don't need no steenkin' ID cards.
Mike,
Maybe the other DCists would be right to worry about radio id chips, but not me. To avoid sunburn and becoming the target of racism, I've gotten rid of my skin and thereby discovered and removed the RFID tracker. But with or without my skin and RFID chip, I still can't avoid recognition based on my driver's license photo with such pretty eyes (I'm sure our photos are on file with the DMV/MVA).
Either way, I liked having guest commenters...who else would we put into our soylent green?
Hey, can we change the default picture you give out? Or give out random pictures ... I am getting sick and tired of seeing that baby panda (hope my wife doesn't read this cause she loves the guy).
MS, it would have been just as easy and technically feasible for DCist to go with a goatse icon for the default avatar. So I think the baby panda was a safe decision. But you can't make everyone happy all the time anyway.