Spam Attack! And a solution.

We've been hit by some spambots in recent weeks, and they set up a lot of bogus user accounts. There was no damage done, aside from a blog comment and some emails sent through our contact form, which probably never made it to Aaron's inbox.

However, our user rolls were cluttered with bogus identities like "metleethik," so called on my Inner Stalin and ruthlessly purged them. I don't think any legitimate users were caught up in the virtual bloodbath, but if your username doesn't work anymore, um, sorry. It doesn't mean I think you're an un-person, but you will have to re-register.

To prevent this sort of silliness in the future, I've added a service called "Mollom," a spam prevention and reporting service set up by Dries Buytaert, the lovely and talented gentleman who brought us Drupal, the content management system used on this very Web site.

From now on, when you start a new account or request a new password, you'll be asked to type in a "CAPTCHA," a brief, temporary password represented in graphic form. For those with visual impairments, audio CAPTCHAs are provided, where the letters are read off military alphabet–style: "Whiskey, tango, foxtrot, six."

The purpose is to prove you're a human, not a computer program.

Yes, it's annoying, but less so than ads for "male enhancement" pills and dirty Japanese cartoons.

Comments are open, so fire away with questions and suggestions.