NOW HEAR THIS!

We are going to try an experiment and allow open comments from anyone. We may have to shut it down again if we are overloaded with spam. But as of a few minutes ago, you do not have to provide even a name or e-mail address to post a comment.

It would help if you had some knowledge of how to use a Web browser and a computer. We’ve received a number of e-mails of late from folks who seem to have trouble with the Type Key sign in. After a bit of experimentation, we believe it was because users had their Cookies turned off in their browser “preferences.”

We understand why people do not want to accept cookies, with the worries about bugs, spies and identity thieves and all. But we learned a long time ago that you can quickly “allow” cookies briefly to get to sites that require them. Sites you are choosing to go to.

Accept just the cookie that lets you in there, and then turn them back off. Once you have that cookie, such as the Newhouse-Advent-Birmingham News-al.com cookie, you can read the articles in the newspaper online for free – at least for seven days until they roll into the paid archives. The News, the Huntsville Times and Mobile “Press” Register (owned by the same company) require a birth date, gender and zip code.

It’s just a bit of marketing data so they can make money by selling advertising on the site. It takes money to produce journalism. We suspect that’s what they are trying to do over there, if they don’t always come through…

So, now you can comment away on this site – as anonymously as in any AOL chat room. Does anybody actually do that any more? Chat on AOL? It’s so 1994.

Be advised, we aren’t enamored of anonymity. Journalism ethics requires that we put our names on our work and stand by it. But with the Bush NSA domestic spying program out there, we understand why some people are afraid. We just can’t live in fear. Bring ’em on….

Also be advised that we still reserve the right to edit for grammar, style and delete offensive comments. That does not necessarily mean profanity. Hell, we let one slip every now and then. Anybody who is offended by that should just get off the computer and go watch “Little House on the Prairie” anyway.

We have also turned on the Trackback function to make it easy for other bloggers to link to us. That will result in some blog spam, but we’ll deal with deleting it on a weekly basis.

On another blog education note, see the Time link after Posted by … ? That’s also what we in blogland call a “permalink,” or permanent link – in case you want to e-mail a specific post to someone on your e-mail list.

We would rather you send a link rather than the full text of a post. That’s one reason we do not provide an “e-mail this article” function. There’s no reason to provide a print option. This site is entirely printable as it is. Just hit the Print icon or word “print” in your Web browser window.

So go ahead. Hit the “comments” link. Find the empty white box and type away…

© 2006, Glynn Wilson. All rights reserved.