First, don’t panic – we are going to make this easy. Starting About November 7th/8th, commenting on WUWT will require you to be a registered user. Read on for the hows and whys.
For over 15 years, WUWT has been open to commenting by anyone. That had both good and bad aspects to it.
The good was obvious – anyone could immediately comment by simply placing their email address and name/handle into the comment box. The first comment required approval, after that comments went unfettered provided the commenter didn’t use any of the prohibited words or phrases that most platforms already flag as inappropriate.
The bad was not so obvious – and appeared mostly behind the scenes at the moderation level. Through the years we have fought with some nefarious people hell-bent on disrupting this forum doing things like using fake email addresses, spoofing other identities to get past moderation, (in particular, one well-known climate troll from Oregon has been caught and warned dozens of times, and is banned), and then we have the “bots” – which are getting worse daily.
A recent WUWT article noted this:
We are being spammed by an extremely clever and aggressive spambot.
The bot uses several techniques to spoof users but is trying a new one today.
Then there’s Twitter, which has millions of “bots” estimated to be somewhere between 5% (according to Pre-Elon Twitter) and as much as 20% by other estimates.
How many bots do we have on WUWT? Well, there could be dozens to hundreds. Some people, like “griff” act like bots, where they throw up some cryptic or inane comment, and then never respond to replies to it. But, we don’t really know a total bot count.
What we do know, is that it is getting worse, and as the climate alarmist establishment gets even more zealous, trying to make people believe there is a “climate crisis”, our workload to weed out false commentary from bots and other fakes has increased significantly.
When I started WUWT in 2006 the Internet was a different entity. Now, it’s a climate war zone, and we have to harden the fort against daily attacks. I’ll point out that almost any other website today that has user interaction requires registration – we are just late to the party.
As I first said, “we are going to make this easy.” Here’s how.
We have a process by which we are going to use some automation assistance to help our valid pre-existing users get registered. I don’t want to give the details, because that will tip our hand to the bots and the bullies. Let’s just say, you’ll be hearing more soon.
For reference, here are some WUWT statistics as of this writing:
- 475,929,091 Views
- 28,652 Posts
- 3,490,060 Comments
Thanks to all of you for making WUWT the most-viewed (and likely most-commented) climate related website in the world.
-Anthony
UPDATE: Some folks have jumped to erroneous conclusions about what registration here will require.
All that will be required is two items you supply now – a name/handle and and email address, and additionally, a password of your choosing.
Passwords are encrytped – only you will know it. – Anthony
Extra security.
griff immediately goes into indignant panic mode at the thought of all his personal details being exposed to the world at large, like anyone’s interested.
Turns out, all Anthony seems to require other than an email address and a handle is a password.
Shock Horror! griff turned a straightforward function into a catastrophe of his limited intellectual capacity and immediately accused Anthony of being a right wing, white supremacist, Jan 6th, MAGA terrorist.
🙄 🙄
griff has decided to return using his real name
Englebert Lipshitz
Hi Anthony, its me again. Ive been trying to get on today but it wouldn’t let. me . Lets see if this works. Name: Dr Judy Ryan
[email redacted–mod]
Message: Dear Anthony, You may remember me. I was the editor for PSI Australia which has folded now. It was not a good experience with John O’Sullivan. However, I am still a skeptic of ‘Climate Change’ plus I am a skeptic of the Covid 19 p’andemic’ I send out MSM messages to thousands of ordinary people via mobile numbers. There was a link on your website around 2014 showing the incineration of birds at the Ivanlach Solar Farm. I cannot find it now. I can only find clips of it that then it branch off to useless links. Could you please send me the link again. I will store it in my finder so that I cannot lose it.
I also will submit a story about Tytlers hypothesis of how temporary democracy can be before a society slips into bondage. It will be very good practice for me as I plan to make a presentation hopefully for the next Australian CPAC conference. Keep safe and sane in this crazy world. Regards
Judy.
Sounds reasonable.
Genuine dissenting views should be welcome if they have a rational argument, backed up with some actual evidence. Thus far, the warmists have come up with NO actual evidence.
I’m puzzled by the claim that the unwanted posters include those who don’t reply to comments on their posts. I’m probably one of those, since it’s been impossible for me for many years now to get notification of responses to my posts or of further comments on the topic. Lately I don’t even see that as an option, but the problem existed long before the option disappeared. And although I persisted in checking the boxes, I never got notification, as I used to in the earlier years.
For years now, the only way I can know that someone has posted a reply or comment on one of my posts is to keep the WUWT email of the day, and reopen it the next day, open the topic page and do a page search on my name. It’s quite tedious, so I seldom persist for more than a day if there are no responses initially.
I’ve asked to post a story once, and was barred because I’m not using my legal name, and insist on keeping my anonymity. Frankly, I can’t understand how people who claim to cherish truth and the freedom to express it can disparage the time-honoured practice of using a nom de plume. The time may come when we will all be “chipped’ or hunted down, but I refuse to submit voluntarily. I find the justification of “trolls” and “bots” for forced registration ludicrous, almost as absurd as the rationale that “most other web forums are already doing it” (what those despised forums where everyone agrees about Climate Change, vaccinations, wet markets, etc., are the model the most awarded climate site now seeks to follow?).
Some of the best forums I’ve participated in were in the alt.usenet, without any moderation. And that was in an era when bandwith was a serious problem for most users. Moderation of forums certainly has advantages, but only so long as the users can see what has been censored, and demand an accounting from the moderator(s). It’s certainly technically feasible now, but I’ve never seen or heard of such a forum. My experience is that the moderators soon become dictators, secretive, vindictive, abusive, arrogant. And this is not limited to forums dealing with highly emotional, life and death questions. It happens on linux forums in which people get enraged at those who report problems with their favourite app. And guess what? The tinpot dictators attract followers, who act as guard dogs, savaging anyone not showing sufficient respect for the emperor’s new clothes…
I shall miss several of the stalwarts who actually shared hard earned knowledge here, and patiently tried to communicate it to those, like me, who’s technical education is wanting.
If any of you come across a forum that welcomes anonymous, non-partisan participants, please drop me a line at gmail.com or protonmail.com.
Until then,happy trails to you all….
If you use gmail email “they” already know what sites you visit. And good luck with your search of the new sane home.
Anthony said above that you can use a “handle” instead of a name. The only change is you need to setup a password and login.
Well, I gather that privilege will be restricted to the chosen few. He’s made it clear to me that he has no respect or understanding for anyone’s desire to comment anonymously. And he blocks such posters from making a presentation here by requiring them to identify themselves to him (and who knows how many others?) without even deigning to offer his justification for open debate.
The problem is clearly not security but rather the emotional and intellectual insecurity of the moderator and his followers. Except for their unorthodox views on climate change, and perhaps vaccination, their attitude towards society, economics, law and order is rather ultra conservative, leaning towards red-neck. For instance, mention of the name of the author of Worlds In Collision has been enough to “disappear” a post, and I’m sure there a many other names and words that have the same effect. I’ve had many posts refused, always without warning, comment, or explanation – unless you consider “contrary to the rules” an adequate explanation…
I’d like very much to see a repository of all of the posts to this forum that have been blocked by the censors, and then to have the censors stand up and defend their decision, AND the way they implemented it, in open debate with those they’ve censored and with opponents of arbitrary and unfettered censorship. But the reality is that ad hominim attacks have come to dominate the “critical” responses more and more.
This forum has become sorry sight, and is heading for pathetic.
I tried to enter “a” before “sorry” in the post above via the edit function, but instead the entire text disappeared with only a blank window in its place. When I hit the edit button again in the hope of bringing it back, the response was that it was too late to edit.
Wow, are you normally this paranoid?
Or does dealing with people who disagree with you bring out the worst in you?
A parrot or even a Mynha bird can call someone “paranoid”, it doesn’t take a large brain, and certainly doesn’t convey any information except about the limits of your intelligence and your emotional maturity. If this is the quality of input the moderator seeks, I don’t see why he would worry about trolls or bots.
otro – do you not see the “Subscribe” option at the top of the comments section? I use that and it has worked for me every time.
No I hadn’t, noticed it, thanks. And I’m now ‘subscribed’.
But as I noted above, when the option was displayed under one’s post prior to submitting, I always checked both boxes, and for the last two years or more before that option was removed, I never once received a notification for any of my several dozen replies.
If I’m really interested in finding out whether someone has replied to a comment of mine on a particular post, I just re-open that article and do a page search Ctrl-F on my handle.
Quite! See my comment about intelligence above…
When I started WUWT in 2006….Wow
I appreciate all you & the Mod’s do Anthony.
anyway, I came back just to thank two people: David Middleton, for consistently interesting and well informed articles (and a love of classic Star Trek)
and Markw, for consistent and principled defence of Ukraine. My Ukrainian relatives-by-marriage appreciate it.
I do seem to have got diverted, but this really is goodbye.
I’ll second that
Additional thanks to Anthony (of course), all the mods and contributors, and all commentators that have made the last 16 years educational and at times fun
ha ha
THIS WAS JUST A FAKE THFREAT TO REQUIRE REGISTRATION AND IT WORKED !
Hes in Germany
I find it telling that griff is already “leaving” (although he has not yet) without waiting to see exactly what information will be required (if anything other than a password). Jumping to conclusions without evidence appears to be an alarmist trait.
Anthony has already stated what data will be required at registration.
Once again griff manages to completely miss any data that does not conform to what he has already decided to believe.
About all I have to say on the subject is that’ll make all of us and your site an easy target for some hassat with money and a belief that Germany’s readings of 540ppm+ in ’44 didn’t happen.
Your house your rules. Life, liberty, and the pursuit of knowledge.
Whatever you need, Anthony, I’m all in. WUWT is a national treasure. We are all in your debt.
Good luck with that.
I surf from a distributed network of overseas (and domestic) virtual private networks (VPNs). So far, WUWT is one of the few sites that continues to send content to nodes on these networks. Most others — served by the large content delivery networks (CDNs) such as Cloudflare — refuse, presumably in the name of restricting bot traffic but really to enforce tracking for ad revenue.
My concern is that registering will be tied to this kind of tracking. Say it ain’t so.
I don’t necessarily need anonymity here, but I don’t think it’s any of your CDN’s business or your Web hosting provider’s business where I post from. (I don’t think it’s any of my Internet service provider’s business what sites I visit, either. That’s why I surf through random VPNs.) If part of your registration process is recording my IP address and comparing that to the ones used on future login attempts, then I’m afraid you can count me out.
Do not be misled by your CDN. Repeated CAPTCHAs and requests for two-factor authentication to allow bouncing from one IP to another are not an advantage to your reader but a burden to him and an obstacle to expression on both sides.
We will only care about username, email, and password. This doesn’t necessarily allay your concerns, but it’s not much different than it is now.
I’m in, where do I sign?
Is there already any registration? When I click in this box, my name and email automatically go into the boxes- but maybe that’s just the Microsoft OS doing that for me.
Thank you Anthony and team for all your efforts. Looking forward to future updates.
Please don’t tell me you’ll be using Vuukie 😩
Since it was obvious, from Day One (or, at least in February, 2020) that Covid-19 was climate-affected, posting in groups that appreciated accurate, thoughtful, useful information was imperative.
I, an experienced chemical engineer, rapidly realized the importance of ventilation in diluting what was rapidly seen (by some) as an airborne aerosol-caried viral particle. And just like your Grandmother, staving off colds by keeping the humidity up by boiling a pot of water on the stove, I realized that dry virus particles moved further and stayed airborne longer at low humidity’s, i.e. during Winter Months.
Then, there was the issue of CO2. Normal breath (exhale) is around 30,000 ppm CO2. If your small, portable $100 CO2 meter showed more than 3,000 ppm in a room you were entering, leave or don’t stay long. The ventilation was inadequate.
My posts in these areas were sometimes appreciated, unless I had the temerity to mention ivermectin…
As a valuable forum, I do greatly appreciate WUWT. You are on the good side of history.
Ok. Do what you think best.
A question.
Will registering require keeping a “cookie” on my PC to stay registered?
I’m in the habit of deleting all cookies when I close my browser. (I don’t have a cellphone.)
Gunga – obviously I’m not the site owner but I can say that typically “registration” is handled server-side. The only impact of deleting cookies would be that you have to log in again.
Thanks. Hope you’re right.
I’m used to having to reenter stuff for my bank etc. even after I click “remember me on this device”.
Better safe than sorry! 😎
You will have that problem here, then – “Remember me” sets a cookie so when you clear your cookies it won’t remember you anymore. So you will have to log in every time – but that’s different from registration. Your bank may not remember your computer since you delete cookies, but it remembers that you have an account!
As I said, I’m used to it for my bank, Social Security etc.
Just so long as I don’t have to go through the whole registration process again.
I have 3 or 4 things that clear cookies, browser history, etc. when I shut down. I know how to exclude some on some of them but not all. I’m fine with that. Easier to keep them all, I suppose, but I’d rather not make myself an easier target.
(If they do “get through”, they’ll find it wasn’t worth their time!)
These days, when any system is changed, people’s first instinct is to panic. I am sure that any change at WUWT will be handled without difficulties, and we can relax again.
Anthony Watts
must stop the bots.
“We have a process by which we are going to use some automation assistance to help our valid pre-existing users get registered. I don’t want to give the details, because that will tip our hand to the bots and the bullies. Let’s just say, you’ll be hearing more soon.”
LOL. I’ve been using my email from my blogging days which ended some 15 years ago. With a nice I used then. I haven’t used that email for almost as long and don’t remember the password or what the link is for changing it.
I guess I’ll have wait on your update to us on procedure.
I thought that this was another good & informative article that I’ve read since I was introduced to this website a few months ago.
This is my very first WUWT comment. I guess I just want to get in on the more easily ‘approved comment list’ before it gets harder next week lol
I really like your website.
Unfortunately I will probably walk away.
The old browser I usually use does not support acces any more and the changes will likely only make that more difficult.
The changes will not make any difference to the multitude of flt-by comments that are not useful. Just note how many short quips are aimed at Griff when he really did not say anything.
It takes a lot of hunting through to find the few useful pieces of feedback.
To me those look like (quotes):
Vlad the Impaler
October 29, 2022 8:54 am
I’m sure you’ve thought of this, but I do not (and would prefer not to) have any interaction whatsoever on the (anti-)social media stuff. I do e-mail, and that’s about it. Don’t even have one of those ubiquitous ‘demon devices’ which are mis-named “cell phones”, so as long as nothing more than an e-mail address is needed, I’ll be OK.
Thanks for all you do, Anthony and Charles (and any of the other unsung hero moderators).
Joe Crawford
Reply to Vlad the Impaler
October 29, 2022 12:43 pm
Turns out their two stage authentication feature wasn’t designed to handle phone number changes via flip-phone. Only thing their customer support could come up with was to cancel the accounts, wait some defined length of time then create two new accounts. So, I only did the first step of that suggestion.
Anthony Watts
Author
October 29, 2022 12:16 pm
all it takes is a name/handle, email, and a password – two of those three are the very same things we use now and stored with every comment.
Separately
Some people are Science Heros !
Thanks for the efforts.
Sunsettommy
Editor
October 29, 2022 10:22 am
I moderate three science blogs even administrate one of them
(end quotes)
There are a few who do seem to be trying very hard to get good information for us comsumers !
However I am a strong believer that the internet is a source of information for me but not of data about me fro others to profit from !
Internet Tracking is Stalking
Ban All Internet Tracking
Unfortunately the Internet is a source of information about you and already collected.
This covers
1. Where you go, via your mobile/cel phone
2. Emails
3. Banking
4. Online purchases via credit/debit card
5. Shopping via credit/debit card
6. SMS/texting
7. Walking down the street via RFID checks
You can not escape the internet nor government.
Enjoy life
IT IS POSSIBLE TO HIDE YOUR PHONE’S LOCATION WITHOUT REMOVING THE BATTERY,OR TO TRANSMIT A FAKE LOCATION — Check on google
There are ways to hide email addresses, although not all are free — check on Google
Credit and debit card purchases were tracked before there was an internet.
Using a special blocking sleeve for credit cards with RFID chips
You have to be proactive — the default mode is no privacy. It’s best never to write anything online you would not want the world to read.
Yes my phone and credit cards are in blocking selves.
I assume you mean blocking “sleeves”? That jogged my memory back to the days (or was it years?), when you were warned about car thieves picking up your remote’s signal, and identity thieves reading your credit card info. Whatever happened to all that? I also remember laptops and phones with easily removable batteries. Harder than hen’s teeth to find either now. Can you still find blocking sleeves for phones?
I’ve been looking for years now for a mil spec laptop shielded against EMP.
The old browser I usually use does not support access any more and the changes will likely only make that more difficult.
Interesting that you should mention that problem. My old $2,000 2009 model Apple MacBook Pro would not allow me to make comment here for about 95% of the articles after the website format was updated. (Why not 100% I’ll never know). I had old Safari, Firefox and Chrome software.
That computer stopped working last Summer so I bought a cheap $200 HP laptop. Which immediately allowed me to comment on 100% of the articles (probably disappointing many readers here!) ha ha
WITH OLD COMPUTERS you often can’t load updated modern browser software, so some websites will not load properly, or you can’t register at a website, or you can’t comment at a website. Please check your new registration program with at least one old computer / browser software to be sure you have not forced some readers to go elsewhere.