Article
Tweak, tweak, tweak
Over break, I found a few hours to make some much-needed fixes to the site. The short version:
- Upgraded to MovableType 3, at last! I had been dragging my feet for some time, initially put off by the licensing drama and still pretty happy with MT 2.6. But after reading Six Apart’s new Guide to Comment Spam (skillfully written by John Gruber), I decided to upgrade. The transition was flawless, and the comment management tools and new interface alone are worth the price of admission (which happens to be, um, nothing).
- Renamed
mt-comments.cgi. I have been researching spam prevention techniques for months now, and this one is my favorite — simple, elegant and reasonably effective. Word has it that the most clever spammers will get me anyway, but it’s still worth a try. (I will let you know how it works.) - Closed comments on entries over two weeks old. Ever notice spammers only attack older entries (those which have been indexed by Google)? Using David Rayne’s mt-close.cgi script, I made sure spammers won’t be able to hit these older posts.
- Setup author highlighting for comments. Now it will be painfully obvious to you when I leave a comment on my own site.
- Tweaked the sidebar. It was awfully busy over there, so I chose to feature fewer links more prominently.
Almost a week after making these changes, we’re still spam-free. So cross your fingers, and please let me know if you find any problems (specifically with commenting).