Visitors who are registered and logged in can submit a comment immediately—without going through mandatory preview, using the CAPTCHA system, or waiting to go through comment moderation.

Because of these “perks,” even my humble website sometimes attracts would-be spammers to register in order to post spam or other abusive content. Therefore, I review all registrant applications. Any username or e-mail address I don’t recognize will be checked out before approval; if I find (for example) that your e-mail address is listed on sites that record addresses used by forum spammers, your application will be rejected and your address will be blacklisted.

If I do recognize your handle or e-mail address from previous encounters on this or another site, those encounters will play a role in my decision as to whether to approve your application. Fortunately, I tend to get along pretty well with most people on the internet. If you think you might be an exception, you may want to hold off on applying for a login—instead, deal with the hoops when commenting for a while until you get a better idea of whether you might be approved.

Anyone approved for a login who subsequently abuses my hospitality will be blacklisted and their comments deleted. Whatever fame you think might come to you for putting one over on me (as if anyone but me cares what happens here) will probably not last long enough even to make it into the Google cache—so you might as well just pass right on by.

If you still want to register, click here.