You may have noticed that our comment system has been acting a little funny for the last few days. You might have seen an increase in the number of proxy errors you’re confronted with, or found that you can no longer leave your URL along with your comment.

Well, you’re not imagining things. The truth is that the boys in New York have been fighting an avalanche of comment spam, and these annoyances are the visible expression of it. The spam-clogged system is responsible for the proxy errors; the URL issues are an attempt to dissuade the spammers. We’re told that you can still leave your URL, but you’ll have to omit the ‘http://’.

We’re sorry for the inconvenience, but this stuff is largely out of our hands. If it helps, you can do like we do and put your childlike faith in the new comment system that we’re assured is just around the corner, and which should include blockbuster new features like better spam protection, improved performance, and the ability to send mild corrective shocks to the chairs of authors whose posts you disagree with. It’ll be a new golden age! Or so we’re told. In the meantime, please bear with us.