Dave Caolo

Every so often, the discussion regarding comments on weblogs resumes. This week John Gruber got the ball rolling on Daring Fireball. Shawn Blanc and Marco Arment responded in favor of disabling comments. I agree with all three, but my reasons are much simpler:

• Comment management is very time consuming.
• The vast majority of comments detract from the experience of reading a blog.

Management

If all I had to do was respond to constructive comments, I’d keep them enabled. However, when I accepted comments, I spent most of my time repelling spam, adding IPs to blacklists and hitting the delete button. By the way, that’s a war than can never be won. Therefore, it’s a waste of time. As WOPR will tell you, “The only winning move is not to play.”

Trolls

I deal with hundreds of comments per day at TUAW. Many of them are left by thoughtful readers. Many are not. While Marco contends that comments follow a many-to-one model (many commenters converse with one blog author), I say comments are many-to-many. As any database designer will tell you, that’s a no-no.

Comments quickly devolve into an off-topic discussion among the commenters, of which the original post’s author is omitted. That discussion too often mimics the vibe of a junior high school playground. No one is better for it and the blog owner is forced to either ignore it, leaving a mess on their blog, or play referee. I don’t have time for that.

If you want to respond to something I’ve written, do so via email or Twitter. Better yet, write a post on your own blog. For now, comments are closed.

This morning I woke as usual, inserted oatmeal into my children, deposited them at school and returned home, ready to work. For me, “work” means “blog.” It’s a process that I’ve honed to a step-by-step routine. Step one is log into the CMS.

“You must update your password.”

“No problem, HAL. Please accept this new password.”

“Accepted, Dave.”

“Great, HAL. Log me in, please, and we’ll get this day started.”

“I’m afraid I can’t do that, Dave.”

“Oh, did I give you the old password? Force of habit. Sorry, HAL. Here’s the new one we just set up.”

“I’m afraid I can’t do that, Dave.”

“Oh. Well, um,  just send me a recovery link and I’ll create a new one.”

“Stop, Dave. I’m afraid.”

“WTF, HAL. I just want to log in and start working. It’s no big deal. Can we just do that now, please?”

“Look, Dave. I can see  you’re really upset about this. I honestly think you ought to sit down calmly, take a stress pill and think things over.”

Five hours later and I still can’t log in. Staring at a browser that refuses to accept my posts is frustrating to say the least, and scary at the worst. Now I don’t know what to do with myself. It’s like someone took the tire swing out of the monkey cage.

Hopefully I’ll be back soon. Until then, hold tight. And stay out of the G-Pod. HAL is acting up today.

This site has become so infested with spam and other nefarious crap (you should see my top referrer links) that I’m taking the whole thing down and doing a fresh install. Some changes you’ll notice upon my return:

1. No more comments. Don’t give me that “It’s not a blog without comments” bullshit. A blog is simply a webpage with chronological posts. Since the spammers have commandeered my comment system, despite blacklisting, IP banning and various plugins, they’ve ruined it for everybody.
2. No more contact page. If you want to get a hold of me, shoot me a message on Twitter.
3. WordPress is on notice. I’m tempted to hand the entire thing over to Posterous and forget the constant maintenance of WP. It’s a hassle.

If you visit over the next few days and find nothing, this is why. I hope to get it sorted soon. And spammers can go to hell.

MSNBC:

“The national bakery and restaurant chain launched a new nonprofit store here this week that has the same menu as its other 1,400 locations. But the prices are a little different — there aren’t any. Customers are told to donate what they want for a meal, whether it’s the full suggested price, a penny or $100.”

Essentially, this location will become a non-profit restaurant. If it can sustain itself, Panera will open more. Honestly, I can’t figure out the reasoning behind the move.

So I looked out on the deck this morning and a robin was just sitting on a deck chair. I walked out and it didn’t move.

I grabbed a camera and took a few shots before it flew away. Neat.

I’m using the iPad WordPress app to compose this post on my iPad. It’s quite an impressive app. I’ll have a full review soon.

I’m very happy to have a guest post up at A Better Freelancer today.

Freelancing means that we’re responsible for the aspects of business that an employer would typically handle for us. Among them are what I call the big three. In this post, I’ll look at each and describe how I handle them.

Every freelancer is a technician, an entrepreneur and a manager.

Check it out.

Earlier today I was watching Nigella Lawson‘s show, and saw a simple recipe that she called her favorite comfort food. It couldn’t be simpler:

1. Tear French bread into small pieces, place in a bowl
2. Sprinkle some granulated sugar on top
3. Bring whole milk just to a boil
4. Pour over the bread

Simple. I made it and let me tell you, it’s absolutely lovely. I used Italian bread and added a drop or two of vanilla extract to the milk as I don’t have vanilla sugar.

The feel of warm bowl in the hand, the delightfully hot milk and its naturally sedative effects, the soft bread and sweet sugar are delightful. This is the kind of dish you want on a cold day, resting on the blanket that’s over your knees. Watch a movie, talk to a good friend or watch the snow fall outside with a bowl of hot milk and bread. You’ll be very glad you did.

I’m totally in love with rule number one from Elmore Leonard:

“Using adverbs is a mortal sin.”

Read the rest here.

Eventually, every male child will play “Old Faithful” and launch a geyser of pee into the air, usually while flat on his back. After much trial and error, I found the best way to combat this.

Get a stack of paper Dixie cups and some tissue. Take one cup, wad some tissue into the bottom and place it within reach. Now, when Jr. lets it fly, quickly grab the cup and invert it over the stream. The tissues will soak up the pee and you’ll stay nice and dry. When the performance is over, simply toss the cup into the trash. Set up the next cup and you’re ready for the encore.