This weekend we began a new phase in the battle against link spam on my GripeLog website. And, fingers crossed, so far I am optimistic that we are slowly getting to the point where we can once again have the kind of open discussions we all want without netbot attacks ruining it all.

Late last year you may recall we were forced to suspend anonymous posting. Spammers were abusing the comment-posting engine of my weblog, posting thousands of link spam comments a day and bringing my server down nightly. So, although I did not want to limit our discussions to those who've created a login on my site, I really had no choice at the time.

And it worked. While suspending anonymous posting did not immediately stop the netbot attacks from hitting our server, it did prevent their link spam from actually getting posted. The nightly traffic surge started to diminish as we found ways to block some of the most frequent sources, to the point where our server goes weeks without crashing. Spammers who go to the trouble of creating a login do occasionally still post their trash, but that's much easier for our moderators to detect and eliminate. While we're still cleaning up the comments in the older stories that were trashed while the netbots were at their most active, we're getting there.

The thing we've missed by not having anonymous posting, however, is the wide range of opinions and perspectives that first-time and very occasional visitors can bring to a discussion. While we still have some good conversations, they haven't nearly as lively since. So we've turned anonymous posting back on, but with one small difference. We now have a challenge question - which of these is not a car, etc. - to answer before you post your comment.

This is an experiment, of course, so we'll just have to see how it goes. These captcha-like things are a bit of an inconvenience - a few of the challenge questions aren't all that easy, as a matter of fact - so I don't know if it's going to result in more comments or less. And there's no guarantee the netbots won't find a way around it and start crushing us again, or perhaps crush us even if they can't find a way around it. Our server did crash Sunday night -- perhaps just a coincidence or perhaps it was an attack on our new security system. If so, the bad guys appear to have failed to get any of their link spam posted, so maybe we passed our first test. But they'll be back, so we'll just have to see how it goes.

The goal is simply to have the best online discussions we possibly can. So whether you're a regular with a login on my site or an occasional visitor, I hope you'll stick with us while we work the bugs out. And, as always, when you've got something to say, let us hear it. Post your comments, anonymously or not, below or write me at Foster@gripe2ed.com.