COMMENTS NOT QUITE OFF: A REPORT FROM A FUGITIVE.

Spammers are annoying. Really annoying spammers take the time to dive past basic anti-spam defences.

   I picked up a few digital fleas - they never made it onto the live blog. The steam-heat blitzed them.

   What to do?

   I could've turned comments off. Instead, I chose to make comments open to members of this blog. Want to post a comment? Join up.

   Since instituting the construction of this mighty barrier, I've had no spam.

   Well. Damn.

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What do they gain from spamming? Nothing. They are bots. Even the hidden human hands behind those bots gain nothing. No one comes to this blog to read spam boasts about high-powered financial services in your area.

   Or in anyone's area, come to that.

   So.

   Do I spam?

   Not really, no. Twitter is all about that coffee - with the spelling #coffee - and other topics of a serious nature. I'll Tweet that I've published a blog post, and I'll Tweet that I've published a book. But that's A TWEET.

   I don't Tweet BUY MY BOOK, BUY MY BOOK, BUY MY BOOK, BUY MY BOOK. Cut yourself a slice of that action and you'll see the word SPAM all the way through it.

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Quirkily, I was irritated at Blogger. The system gave me the option of diverting spammers, and that system failed me. This is why I took the next step up.

   Blogger e-mails me to inform me of a comment's arrival. Seeing a spam notification in my in-box was as bad as seeing the spam on the original blogging site.

   I've had moderation switched on, since, oh, third and fourth and eighth parties came in to extol the supposed virtues of genuine headphones by the even-more-genuine Dr Dre.

   It's so nice of tenth parties to come in and raise awareness of the issues surrounding headphones.

   The Dre counterfeiters didn't stop by for long. It's the stock market goons who set up camp on random blog posts and commented about the deep abiding need to invest in a thing that may resemble a pyramid scheme on the surface.

   Just couldn't shake these fools, no matter how I tinkered with the blog. And so. Here we are, with the lesser solution - comments are now from members of the blog only.

   If that didn't work, I'd have gone in for COMMENTS OFF. Anyone who really wanted to say something then would still have the public e-mail address available to them.

   This is the same public e-mail address that brings me news: my Bank of Ireland account has been hacked AGAIN. Shocking security, over there. In this past year alone, I must have lost all of Sani Abacha's missing millions, by my reckoning.

   I'll check down the back of my digital sofa. See if I can rustle up loose change, edible biscuits, or a hefty dose of insider trading info. Sounds legit.