So, I wrote a custom plugin called 'ocomments' that uses an SQLAlchemy- based database API to assign cookies to users who make comments. That way I can control who has automatic posting access (anyone who posts a sensible message, basically) and who doesn't. I can also toggle comment visibility on an individual or user basis.

Initially, I allowed unapproved postings to be made visible. I hoped (irrationally) that spammers wouldn't find the blog for a while.

Then spammers found the blog and set up an auto-comment-spam loop.

So I made new posts invisible by default.

And still they post!

Or, at least, they try to post. Heh.

I think that's funny.

It's nice that I can certify users. It lets anyone who's already visited post without my ok. Perhaps someday I'll make the ocomments plugin publicly available, once I clean it up a bit...

--titus

p.s. I am not Andrew Kuchling! (c.f. planetpython.org)

Legacy Comments

Posted by DougN on 2006-10-28 at 00:14.

Thank you for solving a problem for me I hadn't had time to think
about yet ^_^.    The same thing can easilly be done with Django
session cookies and a quick model.

Posted by Titus Brown on 2006-10-28 at 01:32.

Yeah, but I'm not using Django, I'm using pyblosxom ;)