Be a "trusted" commenter

It's no secret that the spam-protection features of Movable Type stink. Who hates Captchas? The swirly letters you must type in to make a comment at most blogs -- Blogger calls it "word verification" -- are hated by one group -- the blind. I sympathize. I don't want to discriminate against any group. Luckily with Movable Type I don't have the choice. No Captchas, and if you leave comments wide open, it's spam all day and night.

Well, with Authenticated Comments enabled and Typekey verification loaded, the spam still comes into the server. It just doesn't show up on the blog. It's supposed to be deleted at predetermined intervals, but that isn't happening.

In any event, I really, really, really want the real readers -- those who don't want to sell ringtones, porn, prescription medications and the like -- to be able to comment as easily and as often as possible.

To that end, I will try to make every previous commenter to this blog a "trusted" commenter. And if you do make a comment and somehow can brave all this Typekey bullshit, then I will make you a trusted commenter at that point.

I don't know if this will work, but if you wish to be a "trusted" commenter and don't want to deal with Typekey, send me an e-mail, and I will put you into the system.

And if you are blind and read Click, welcome. I am very interested in how the blind use technology in their work and home lives. I'd love to hear from you.

Except for the discriminating-against-the-blind-part, I love Captchas. They provide the best way of keeping spam comments out while not requiring readers to register in order to make a comment. I rarely will register with a site. I read ZDNet all the time but have never registered. With LXer, I registered because I wanted to post there, and now I'm a contributing editor, so that one was worth it. But for a little blog like this? I don't know.

Here's what I'd like: audio Captchas for the blind. It'd would be the same as a regular Captcha but with an audio component so sight-impaired users could hear and then type in the letter/number sequence. That's my idea -- now somebody run with it and make me happy.

On a related matter ... if you are in any way involved in the programming, marketing or sale of Movable Type, can you tell me why Blogger and WordPress work with an easy-to-modify database and don't require minutes-long waits every time an entry is modified but Movable Type sticks with a technology that leaves bloggers screaming "WHY, for the love of God, WHY???" several times a day. Thanks for that.