this issue was raised by a couple of anonymous comments, and was discussed on the about anonymous comments topic in the forums.

anonymous comments are comments posted by visitors who did not login (or don't have eglug accounts at all).

anyone can have an EGLUG account, you are not required to reveal any information to get one (only requirement is a valid email address or a previous account on any drupal website), nothing is stopping people from having multiple accounts (but it is not encouraged).

the reason why anonymous comments had to go through moderation was to enforce the AUP more strongly.

since then comment spam became a real problem on the web, most comment spam is done by automated scripts that do not login.

requiring moderation approval effectivly stops comment spam, but there are other methods.

• spam filtering means a software module tries to guess if the comment is spam or not
• captcha - means all anonymous posters will be required to answer a question (in simple arithmetics) to make sure they're actual human beings

cheers, Alaa

http://www.manalaa.net "i`m feeling for the 2nd time like alice in wonderland reading el wafd"

The "and AUP violations" phrase in the third option is kind of confusing, removing AUP violations should be common in the three options.

Does requiring a moderator's approval (first option) mean that moderators would only remove spam and won't remove AUP violations?

Does passing anonymous posts through spam filtering or captcha (second option) means that non-spam AUP violations that passes the filters won't be removed later?

We have another potential situation here.

The poll is pretty close, so the closing is very sensitive. How long does the poll last?

-- Panem et *burp* circenses

I'd go for spam filtering

captcha might discourage people from commenting afaik it generates an image, you have to type what is in the image

I used to be indecisive .. but now I'm not so sure

Just because I remain associated, does not mean I approve, an abstain vote should always be present, to seperate the apathetic from ... people like myself, and to allow polls revocation.