Dusk Is Approaching On Your Day In the Sun, Guest

Sorry, "Guest," you're on your way out. Seattlest loves you--For the most part you who forgo the site's great commenter profile system to add your wisdoms to our posts are well-behaved and interesting, but our brothers and sisters across the country (heathens, apparently) are of the mind that people act differently when their words are attached to a name, any name, and that all commenters should be logged in. Starting today "guest" comments to Seattlest posts are hidden by default and soon it will be impossible to comment anonymously at all. We didn't want it this way, but it's register or perish. On the positive side, registered users can now upload a 100x100 avatar by clicking "Edit profile" way up at the top left there when you're logged in. Soon it'll be attached to all your comments.

Photo by dviousto.

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By Dan in Miscellaneous on September 20, 2007 1:08 PM

Comments [rss]

Geoff

Wow....that sucks.

Dan

Try this, guest. Delete all your browser's cookies that pertain to Seattlest and then try to register and log in again. We've found that this sometimes helps when the site has erroneous preconceived ideas about who you are and is making logging in or commenting difficult. I know, it's a ridiculous solution, but I think it might help here. If you're still having problems, email me.

@8 I think it's going to look pretty cool. I believe it's going to look more like little avatar icons than full-blown 100x100 images next to every comment. Check out the comments at Gawker.com. I think it'll look like that.

guest

Obviously you're free to do as you wish, but I disagree with the choice.

I'm more concerned about the avatars than my soon-to-be lack of abilty to comment, though. Will these avatars be seen on all posted comments, or just on registered posters' profiles? Avatars really clunk up page formatting on message boards. I'd hate to see them in the comments here.

Jack

I just wanted to say that that's an awesome picture, crocs & all.

guest

@5: At the risk of sounding pedantic, don't you think I tried that?? Each successive attempt locks me out of the previous name, and I get no response from the host, so screw it.

Dan

@3 there is no validation component to our registration system, at least not one that is dependant on us. You go here: http://seattlest.com/profile/register and enter a name, email address and password (twice). When an email arrives in the inbox of the account you specified you click on the link it contains. That's it.

guest

BOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!

guest

I feel like I'm wasting my breath here, but your registration system STILL sucks. I've tried to register here multiple times and have never been validated (not so easy, apparently). So I finally gave up and continue to comment as a guest. Guess you don't really want more feedback than you're already getting.

MvB

I'm with koggit. Feels like it closes the site off from the casual visitor. Maybe it helps with the "flying troll monkeys" syndrome when a post hits Digg or BoingBoing, but still...

koggit

Registration was easy, but just for the record, I oppose this move. I understand it's likely out of your control, but I certainly don't see the need to completely disallow guest commenting if they're already going to be hidden by default. It sounds like you agree, but still.. I just wanted to say it. If I weren't registered, I wouldn't have been able to.