Considering what you've gone through, a major policy change is entirely understandable.

"A man's gotta do what a man's gotta do"...

http://www.usgennet.org/family/bliss/images/john_wayne.jpg

(Yeah, HTML is disabled. I still wanted to link a shot of The Duke, just the same.)

Interestingly, the email I get notifying me of a new comment does have the active link, so *I* get to see it with just a click. It's good to be king! ;-)

And, speaking of royalty (or at least nobility), how did John Wayne come be called "The Duke"?

That's actually an interesting story and there's a lot of different explanations, most of them wrong.

The truth is he asked ME for a catchy nickname!

Mitch (back then his friends called him by his middle name "Mitch") and I were hanging out one afternoon after school. He'd been catching a lot of flack for his real name 'Marion'. So, Mitch and I were talking stuff over and he said, "Ahhh say dere, Freen (back then he called me "Freen"), ahhm uh gitten' mighty tired of folks 'round these parts pokin' fun at mah name."

"That's an easy fix, Mitch, You need a spiffy new nickname. Something that will grab people. Now, everyone around here knows your name isn't Mitch at all. It's like you're trying to hide who you are. Sooo... take it one step further. Do what that cooking guy Emeril says on TV. Just 'kick it up a notch'. Give yourself a totally different name! You need a name that will capture your bearing and presence. Something noble sounding."

"That sounds mighty fine, Freen. How 'bout, 'The King'?"

"No, no, no... You don't want 'The King', Mitch. It's too overbearing. You gotta be a music star or something to get away with calling yourself 'The King'. But you're on the right track, though."

"How 'bout "Earl?"

"What? And have every guy in New Jersey laughing at you? They'll think it's the stuff you lube your car with. Nahh, Earl is bad. But we're close, real close. I've got it! Duke!"

"Duke?"

"Yeah... Duke! It's simple, it's catchy. Kids can chant it when they're watching you beat the stuffing out of somebody who made fun of your, ah, OTHER name. I'm telling you, Duke, it's a winner."

"Hmmm... ahh see whatcher sayin'. It's got a certain snap to it... like mah right hook."

"That's the best part of it, Duke. People aren't going to want to mess with you. I mean, who's going to mess with 'The Duke', right?"

"There's just one other lil' 'ole problem. What happens when people ask me 'bout mah new name?"

"Problem? What problem?"

"Ah sure as shootin' ain't gonna tell 'em ah got it from a guy called 'Mistuh Freen'. People will 'spect me to start cleaning their floors!"

"Oh, yeah. That. Hmmm... I've got it. You need a good backstory, like that stuff Mrs. Kreeble was jabbering about in English class. You could pretend that people gave you the name because of your dog, sort of like how Indiana Jones got his name in 'The Last Crusade. It worked for him, right?"

"But mah dog's name is Happy Boy."

"Not anymore it isn't! Now it's 'Duke', just like you! Trust me on this. Give this 'Duke and his dog' thing a whack. I'm telling you, as long as you stick with the story, people will buy it if they hear it enough."

...And, so, that's how Marion Robert Morrison got the nickname "The Duke".

It worked so good, that now everyone believes the story about his dog.

http://ask.yahoo.com/ask/20010529.html

http://users.orac.net.au/~mhumphry/wayne.html

http://experts.about.com/q/1509/2930913.htm

http://www.destinationhollywood.com/celebrities/johnwayne/funfeatures_content.shtml

Oh, that's right...I remember hearing that story. Thought it was just an urban legend, though. Nice to hear some credible confirmation...

Newer versions of wordpress (http://www.wordpress.org)
include the option to moderate comments with more than N links.

Works beautifully!

As long as the comment has fewer than the number of links you specify it goes up immediately, otherwise you get an e-mail with a link to approve it, or delete it.

--Jeremiah

Jeremiah, that sounds like a pretty good compromise screening method, and it recognizes why comments spammers do what they do. I just really don't want to ditch MT at this point.