Comment of the day: The comments czarina speaks to the unhappy campers

I take as my text today Isaiah 19:9’s crack about IT departments: "they that weave networks shall be confounded."

I have decided to leave the country until the comments mess is sorted out. Meantime, here is an explanation from Cara Parks, czarina of the Foreign Policy comments department:

Hello BD commenters! I can see here that there are some concerns about the new commenting system, so I wanted to jump in and add a few comments myself.

First, I want to emphasize that you DO NOT have to sign into Facebook, Twitter, or any other social network, in order to comment. While we wanted to emphasize the option of using those accounts to our readers who already have them, doing so is not mandatory.

Here’s how you can create an anonymous commenting account through the new system: Click on the LiveFyre logo below the gray box of text in any post created from Tuesday, March 27 onward. A pop-up screen will appear; click on "LiveFyre" on the left hand side of that screen. The system will prompt you to create a new account if you do not have one — put in any user ID you’d like, and any email address that works for you. You will then be able to comment as normal on the site.

This account login is encrypted to protect your identity, making it even more secure than the FP login (one of our reasons for changing the system). LiveFyre asks only for your email account and a login ID, which can be whatever you choose in order to protect your anonymity. Adding your actual name to a LiveFyre account is optional.

While there is an option to post your comments to Facebook or Twitter, you do not have to do so. The default setting will not post your comments anywhere but on this site.

We at FP really appreciate the input that our commenting community provides, and are attempting to make commenting easier. We are trying to cut back on the spam and inappropriate comments that have been able to infiltrate our site, not to alienate valued readers such as the ones on this blog. We really want to keep your insights coming, which is why we left all existing comments on the site intact. Please ask me any questions or share any concerns you still have here, and I will do the best I can to answer.

TR: Clearly, she comes in peace. In a note to me, she adds:

There’s no need to sign in using Facebook if he wants that information to remain private. If he creates a LiveFyre account, it will be completely anonymous — just like the old Foreign Policy login. Does that help?

TR: I see a ray of light on yonder horizon. RVN SF VET, one of the skeptics, filed this report:

OK, I DID AS CARA SUGGESTED

It works! And this time it didn’t try to invade my privacy. Has anyone else noticed that the new system no longer offers to correct your spelling when you right-click on a misspelled word. I think that it is a missing link to the Word spell checker on my PC.

TR: If you have a big problem, please post about it or e-mail me, and I will forward to Cara and her team of hard-working IT dweebs.