Thanks – and a note for the future of WUWT

On this traditional day of reflection and thanks, it is only fitting that I give thanks to the many many people who have made WUWT what it is today, and helped me personally.

From memory (which is of course imperfect, so I have likely missed dozens if not hundreds) I offer my thanks to these people.

Charles Rotter aka CTM or Charles the Moderator Charles gets a special place all by himself at the top, for reasons to numerous to mention, but also because he has kept WUWT going over the last year after I went into survival mode after the disastrous camp fire in Paradise. I’m about to come out of that, read on.

Mark Steyn, Melissa Howe, Andrew Lawton, Steve McIntyre, Ross McKitrick, Richard Lindzen, Willis Eschenbach, Christopher Monckton, Roger Pielke Sr., Roy Spencer, John Christy, Patrick Moore, Judith Curry, Evan Jones, Eric Worrall, Harold Ambler, David Middleton, Bob Tisdale, Chris Horner, Joseph Bast, Sterling Burnett, Robert E. Phelan (REP) (deceased), Thomas P., Mike L., Mike J., Andy C., Verity J., Lee K., Robert C., Keith B., James Taylor, Jim Lakely, Keely Drukala, Andrew Singer, Nikki Comerford, Frank Lasee, Malon W., Kennneth P., Jennifer Marohasy, Peter Ridd, Andrew Bolt, Jo Nova, David Archibald, Malcolm Roberts, Andrew Montford, Josh Gifford, Benny Peiser, Marc Morano, Pierre Gosselin, Ryan Maue, Paul Matthews, Tom Nelson, Chris Martz, Mike Smith, Marcel Crok, Mike Bastasch, Barry Woods, Richard Drake, Nic Lewis, David Rose, John Coleman (deceased), Joe D’Aleo, Chris Bortz, Mike Jonas, Jimmy Haigh, David Little, Mike Wolcott, Dino Corbin, and Rick Anderson.

I’m sure I’ve missed several people. Apologies.

Last, and most certainly least, is Michael Mann, who has done more to create readers and climate skeptics than anyone I know.

Now, the news:

After a year of mostly being on Hiatus, I’m coming back to regular daily operations in January 2020. There will be an announcement forthcoming related to that and to the larger news that enables me to spend much more time at WUWT than ever before. This will include some plans for expansion, as well as some significant changes about how we operate.

One change will affect our readers, and make for a better reading and commenting experience overall.

One of the biggest problems we’ve had is with trolls that use fake names, fake emails, and fake connections (proxys) to threadbomb. One in particular in Oregon has bragged about it, one in Canada made threats, and I called the police on him.

And, it keeps happening; some people who are narcissistic mann-equins think they are entitled to do it, because they are holier-than-thou defenders of the planet or something. Some of these same people also impersonate other commenters here. We’ve stopped them all (at least we think we have). But, we need better tools to detect and stop this.

So, around the first of the year, WUWT will no longer be an open commenting system, it will require registration to comment. Many, many, websites that allow comments require this, and it has become clear to me, that we need to go that direction too. Doing so will help keep the quality of conversation elevated, and will only require a one-time registration that will take about two minutes to complete. It will stop the trolls, the impersonators, and the drive-bys and give us a tool for enforcing our commenting policy. It will also ease moderation duties. Reading content will still be publicly available as I abhor paywalls.

And there will be other changes, including better search, better commenting tools, and an expanded reference section drawing from the WUWT archives that will be suitable for sharing.

The plan is simple: A rising tide lifts all boats, where the “boats” is climate skepticism worldwide.

Thank you, all of you. My sincerest best wishes.

P.S. If you are so inclined, you can support WUWT by shopping on Amazon during Black Friday Deals. Simply follow this link:

We’ll get a small percentage.