[Imc-tech] Temporarily Shutting Down Comments?

[Mike Lehman]

Having dealt with ever-increasing amounts of poker spam and having made 
several appeals for aid on this issue and having appealed to Steering 
for the authority to log and block this abuse, yet not having any action 
taken, I want to propose shutting down the Comment portion of the 
website temporarily to see if this will disrupt the spamming of poker 
offers to it.

I realize this is a drastic step, but I (or anyone else, for that 
matter) really can't afford to spend a half hour or more every morning 
deleting hundreds of these items in order for the editing screen to be 
useful. Until a better technical fix is available in the form of a 
software update or the previously authorized blocking of the source IPs 
can be attempted as a solution (which, AFAIK, was never actually carried 
through, even though it has been specifically authorized in this case), 
this seems to be one last thing that might be tried.

I am open to other ideas, ANY ideas, but I do not think that allowing 
the site to be taken over as an advertising medium is at all consistent 
with Indymedia principles. It has reached this point -- where drastic 
action is required.
Mike Lehman