Styles of 5GW
by tdaxp ~ May 23rd, 2007
Over at Dreaming 5GW, Purpleslog imagines a staccato 5GW:
Where it different from the fictional portrayals, is that I think they will want to make many small actions instead of a big attention generating move. This will allow a bit of a feedback on the techniques used. Also, small actions will get noticed less and are easier to conceal.<
I like the post a lot, and woudl commet if D5GW’s spam filtering system would allow me to. So instead I’ll give props from this blog, and note with pleasure how this is a true variation on a concept originally written about at tdaxp (see Section VI: A Dream of 5GW.
The blogosphere has been incredibly kind to 5GW theory — perhaps the greatest burst of work on the “generations of warfare” framework since 4GW theory was introduced more than a decade ago.
May 23rd, 2007 at 12:00 am
Dan,
You must be the visitor from China I just spotted in our stat logs. I wonder what exactly in the spam filtering software of D5GW is not allowing you to post a comment. No attempt to login for you appears in our activity logs. Hmmm.
I'm glad you highlighted the one point I meant to comment on but forgot when I left my comment at the post.
May 23rd, 2007 at 12:00 am
“You must be the visitor from China I just spotted in our stat logs.”
Yup!
“I wonder what exactly in the spam filtering software of D5GW is not allowing you to post a comment. No attempt to login for you appears in our activity logs. Hmmm.”
I'm not sure. I don't think I attempted a login this time, though since the new system came up I've never been able to comment.
This is why I keep blogspirit, in spite of the craziness (such as the new, slow-loading pages [1]): someone else handles the worst of the spam. It's too much of a job.
[1] http://www.tdaxp.com/archive/2007/05/18/wired-minds-is-very-slow.html
May 23rd, 2007 at 12:00 am
Have you ever registered an account with the new system? Until a few days ago, every login or registration redirected the user back to the main page; a small fix in the login form now redirects correctly to the post page. The former problem may have made logins appear to not work (although they did.)
In truth, the commenting problems alone have me leaning toward running the D5GW blog entirely as a blorum; i.e., with the forum software. Typekey logins were fine, except some IE users could not log in that way — including one of the D5GW contributors; so I've gone with the three-pronged approach, or allowing three types of logins. I've registered and logged in with the new on-site registration, through three or four different username/password combos, without a single problem; but if others are having difficulty using this method, I may need to rethink things.
May 23rd, 2007 at 12:00 am
“tdaxp” is already taken — can the password be reset? Otherwise, can that account be killed so I can do a new login?
Again: spam sucks.
May 23rd, 2007 at 12:00 am
Yes, spam sucks. More and more lately, when these commenting (or trackback) bugaboos occur, I think about shutting down D5GW. That, of course, may be the point behind some pseudo-4GW spamming that is really 5GW.
Unfortunately, I can't delete usernames without deleting the old comments. So I'd need to delete every comment you left under your TypeKey username “tdaxp.” Here's the way it's set up in the system already:
Identity: “tdaxp”
Commenter (display name): “Dan tdaxp”
As long as you use a new identity — it can be “tdksldjfldj” for all it matters — you can still use “Dan tdaxp” under the **nickname** field in the registration. The nickname is what gets displayed for every comment. The only place “tdksldjfldj” would appear, besides the MT backend, is in the link on the little symbol beside your display name; that link will not work to actually link to anything. (That's a problem with the plugin, which will hopefully be fixed.) However, your display name, “Dan tdaxp” will still link to your site if you enter your site address and click, Remember Me, when leaving a comment.
I need to confirm that this will still work for you; and then I need to leave detailed info at the blog for everyone having problems. (You're not the only one; a few others have had problems with the new system, although I think it's a matter of the newness and the peculiarities of the on-site registration system.)
May 23rd, 2007 at 12:00 am
Curtis,
I can log in fine – it recognizes me. But when I try to comment, I get what looks like a misformatted page with the message:
“Comment Submission Error
Your comment submission failed for the following reasons:
Registration is required.
Return to the comment page”
Again, I hate spam. I don't know if I'd object to the death penalty for spammers. Probably not.
May 23rd, 2007 at 12:00 am
Dan,
Did you register a new account before attempting a login? I wonder if old Typekey cookies on your computer are allowing you to be recognized but not comment. You can register however many accounts you like, but your former username cannot be used in the new accounts. (Each account must have a unique user name.) Since the blog ran on Typekey for a time, you already have a username “Dan tdaxp” in the system. You can, however, pick a new username and use the same display name in the “nickname” field.
May 23rd, 2007 at 12:00 am
Curtis,
The D5GW comment system is complex. It's harder to work with than any other site I know of. It's easier to make new blog posts on other sites than it is to work with. Certainly that's not a bad thing for D5GW's google standings, but I don't have a unique login for any other specific blog… and I think I will maintain that policy.
May 23rd, 2007 at 12:00 am
I've had some troubles commenting on 5GW too (which I believe Curtis kindly resolved for me last week). Hmmmm… Maybe this is the newest front in the 5GW battlespace? If so, well done Purpleslog et al.!
May 23rd, 2007 at 12:00 am
“I don't have a unique login for any other specific blog”
Technically, the OpenID and LiveJournal logins are cross-blog, cross-domain capable logins.
Since I seem to be able to create multiple accounts using the on-site registration and login, all of which work for me when I leave test comments, perhaps I should just create a dummy account or a set of generic accounts and post the usernames/passwords so that anyone not able to create their own account can still comment.
Never thought about the Google standing, heh.
May 23rd, 2007 at 12:00 am
BTW:
http://www.fifthgeneration.phaticcommunion.com/archives/2007/05/problems_commenting.php
May 23rd, 2007 at 12:00 am
Curtis,
I saw the post.
D5GW is a great community I am proud to be a part of. However, I think it's fair to say it's sign-up procedure is the most complicated around — certainly in my neck of the woods. Unless the current system is replaced by a catcha or something similar, I think it's easier just to make a new post with ScribeFire [1] (which you introduced me to!) than spend even more time on just a comment.
[1] https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/1730
May 23rd, 2007 at 12:00 am
PS: I hold a graduate degree in computer science, spend a fair amount of time blogging, and am one of the contributors to D5GW… If the system is too stressful for me to navigate, chances are more casual readers are being scared away as well!
May 23rd, 2007 at 12:00 am
Hey…it scared me away for sometime!
I never got my userid to work there either.
I have been able to use the OpenID (cross blog authentication as Identity). Since the change, that is the only way I can comment (even on my own posts).
I blog at wordpress.com because I did n't want to do more IT stuff as a hobby. They use Akismet for anti-spam and it works real well.
May 24th, 2007 at 12:00 am
Dan,
I honestly don't know what is so difficult. There are two pages: 1) a simple form to register, with simple fields to fill, and 2) a login page with only two fields to fill. If cookies are enabled, then return visits will automatically sign the user in for a period of days — at least? — saving the hassle of logging in. The same username/account can be used into perpetuity as long as the visitor remembers his password; so it's not “register & login with a new account for every comment made.” Typekey authentication requires logging in through Typekey, after registering at a different site altogether, which is just as difficult. (Incidentally, registering on-site actually logs the visitor in, under the new account, automatically.)
My worry is that something in the backend script, or specific browser settings, are causing the method to fail. Since I've had absolutely no problem with it, and Arherring has been able to create a new account and leave a comment with that account, I have no way of isolating any such problem if it exists.
Dan, PurpleSlog, everyone wanting to give it a try:
Use the following account, just created, to log in and leave a comment. (You may want to add your unique name within the body of the comment.)
Username: D5GW Commenter
Password: D5GW
They'll need to be entered exactly as above.
I've been able to use it, just now.
I will not be opening up D5GW to any spammer who wants to trash the blog; two previous authentication methods — including TypeKey — failed some visitors; one of those previous methods, for filtering all open commenting, actually caused the site to be shut down by the host for excessive server load after a spammer started hitting the site repeatedly for over 2 days.
Dan,
I'm not a computer genius, or I'd just write my own scripts for handling all of this backend stuff. Some blogs, like Kent's Imperative and Steve DeAngelis' blog, don't even allow commenting, which is something I'd choose before committing to wasted time sorting through pages of spam. I suppose I could transfer the blog to blogspirit if I didn't mind losing legitimate comments from time to time along with the spam — Wordpress is more likely, though, or, as I said, just going with the blorum format. (But then I'd run into the same on-site registration hassles! )
May 24th, 2007 at 12:00 am
I think if I was going to start from scratch I would use wordpress, as PurpleSlog suggested. Blogspirit's system rejects too many long comments as “spam” while letting too many short-spams through. Curtis' heroic efforts show how hard it is for one person to combat spam on his own. And while I understand Steve's no-comment policy, that's not social enough for me — comments are the best part of blogging.
Thanks for setting up the Dummy Account! (But how about resetting “tdaxp” so I can comment under my own name? Or even automating the password-reset feature? :-p )
May 24th, 2007 at 12:00 am
Dan,
I'd definitely go with Wordpress, if I could reset things. I don't think MT has anything recommending it over Wordpress — although, I've not used Wordpress to blog, so I don't know what sort of problems I'd experience if I did. I might find out; I've been considering installing WP on the site and transferring the blog over to it.
I can't reset “tdaxp” as your username, but that can be used as your nickname (display name). As long as a new, unique username is chosen, anything can be entered as the nickname for new accounts. So far, I also have no way of resetting passwords.
I did send out an email explaining the fact that I've set up OpenID accounts for the D5GW contributors. If you add a little code between the **< head > ** elements to your main page at tdaxp, you should be able to use "tdaxp.com" to login through OpenID -- give or take some tweaking to the way that address is set up in the MT interface.
May 24th, 2007 at 12:00 am
I was able to do the test.
Also, the OpenID stuff works real well for me.
May 25th, 2007 at 12:00 am
Er…BREAKING NEWS!
I just discovered, through reading various comments on blogs discussing OpenID, that your TypeKey profile URL can be used in the OpenID field to login!
So for instance, I can log in through TypeKey with:
http://profile.typekey.com/cgaleweeks/
IF you are already logged in to your account with TypeKey, you're authenticated and can leave a comment. If not, then the TypeKey login screen appears, and you just log in; after logging in to TypeKey, you are redirected back to the post page to leave a comment.
So, Dan, you can type the following into the OpenID field, hit “Login via OpenID” and you'll be able to leave a comment:
http://profile.typekey.com/tdaxp/
This goes for everyone with a TypeKey account, whether they've used it to comment on D5GW in the past or not.
May 26th, 2007 at 12:00 am
TypeKey / OpenID authentication works! Brilliant!