Technical changes

I've been overrun with spambot comments to the point where it was so irritating I was considering shutting down comments altogether. I couldn't figure out how to delete them with this platform, although I'm sure there must be a way, but the sheer number made that impractical.

However, thanks to No Blood for Hubris for pointing out that Blogger has installed a new comment filter to help deal with this plague. You now have to do the word verification thing to leave a comment, which is a bother I know, but I'm hoping it will eliminate the tiresome bots which should make it more pleasant to read them. I don't really get a lot of human spammers or trolls, so the people who do comment tend to be interesting, often more so than me.

And while I'm talking about No Blood for Hubris, let me offer an overdue thanks for the pithy comments you've been leaving over the last few weeks. I didn't realize you were a Baystater, or are you an ex-pat like myself?