I blame Derek Jeter and his suspect defense.

What you guys need is a Prison Fence -- an electric Prison Fence, at that. I'll get my instruments.

Hey, Doc, what do you do in the off season, anyways? There's no one around to steal your game notes.

To combat the problem, our current best option seems to be to migrate to other software with more anti-spam options.

New software that doesn't allow anonymous users to post would probably solve most of the problem, but that would require additional upkeep.

Maybe you should create a log-in in order for people to post messages?

Hey guys how is the spam policing going? And what is the sign showing we're being spammed?

I once got around an automated spamming problem by simply moving the cgi script to a new folder and changing my "submit" button... the spamming program couldn't find it..

P.S. I'm mostly checking to see if I can post.

DeMarco, that idea's come up and will probably be what we do, but we'll have to move to different software.

Pete, we jump on the spam pretty quick, but when old old threads show up in the Hot Topics list, check 'em out -- if we haven't deleted the spam yet, you'll see it.

I'd like to see a log in system anyway, and really that's the only way you will be able to address the spam problem.

See the recent York Report?

Marty says Carlos would accept a multi-year deal with $9 million per season. Godfrey is doing the negotiating, and apparantly J.P. wants Carlos gone for the extra dough.

I saw york on sportsnet last night saying the same thing. I really wonder what his sources are though. From his delivery it sounded like it was from a personal conversation he and Delgado had had or something. Somehow i doubt that's the case though. At any rate, i'd certainly like to see Delgado back, and 9 million seems in the ballpark to me.

/me resumes waiting to see.

If spammers are using Da Box for their advantage it's like a back handed compliment. At least someone out besides us die hard Jays Fanatics thinks you're special!

I also like the idea of a login because it discourages people from posting under various names. Unless they want to go as far as creating several log-in identities.

I'm all for the log in. Also we could have post counts to tell the experienced from the inexperience users. And icon's to remember the consistant post'rs.

Just some idea's. It would be easy on the regulars as well so you don't have to type your username every post, you can just log in and post away.

Anyone have a link to the York Report?

http://me.woot.net
Da Box is not going to be moving to 'forum' software which allow avatars and keep track of post counts. (At least not while I'm in the engine room.) Forums are the worst places on the Internet; they bring out the worst in humanity. They're so tailored to instant gratification that nobody stops to think about what they're saying—not even to consider that there are other people on the other side of the screen. My experiences on forums are almost universally awful.

Batter's Box is not a forum, and it never will be.

This may fall into the 'change software' category, but instead of requiring a login, try doing what Yahoo/Paypal are doing to prevent automated account signups.

On the posting page, display a graphic - series of letters etc.. and require that the person use that as the 'authentication key' to post. You can cycle thru graphics either manually or automatically to make sure that the bots dont catch on.

Yeah. It'd be a pain in the ass, but 'tis the price you pay when there are so many people intent on defouling the commons.

I was listening to the radio last night (forgot if it was Sporting News or ESPN) and they said the Yanks have dangled Posada for either Big-Unit or Tim Hudson. I assume the Yanks would also pick up some of the salary.

Either trade would be a blockbuster.

ya I see your point Joe. Just a suggestion.

But things like being able to stay logged in so you don't have to retype your name whenever you want to post would surely be a feature of any kind of software that involves registration. We can do that without sinking into the Swampy Morass of Forumitude, eh Joe?

the Yanks have dangled Posada for either Big-Unit or Tim Hudson.

Actually, the New York press (the only city in the entire world where the press is more conservative than the populace) is reporting the offer is/needs to tbe Posada and Vazquez for Johnson or Hudson. That deal thrills me far less; I know JV fell off the radar inthe post-season, but I think he's still a building block for a long time. Maybe the Yanks could play Posada's high OBP for a C to Beane, keep Vazquez and come away with Zito. Need a lefty in the rotation.

http://me.woot.net
You forgot fetid and stinking, but yes, staying-logged-in is a necessary feature of any software we'd use.

Silly question, but it lets me test my posting ability - is there no roundup today?

the New York press (the only city in the entire world where the press is more conservative than the populace)

Wow! Maureen Dowd is conservative? The City of N.Y. and the State both went for Kerry, didn't they; but the press is still "conservative"? Care to elaborate? A genuine question, by the way: I don't know the NY press except for the internet NYT. (Are Toronto citizens *more* conservative than the Globe?) And how do you tell, anyway?

2nd comment: I'm with Joe as to Forums.

Good luck keeping up with the spam fight. The problem is they are now using lots of different IP addresses from different ranges and thus they become unblockable. My blog software (b2evolution) gets hit literally hundreds, sometimes thousands of times a day by robots trying for comment spam or referer spam. It has a central abuse mechanism which allows users to collectively filter out the garbage, but it's a hassle continually updating that, and in between time you get indexed as linking to all sorts of distasteful sites.

I would recommend a very simple login, even one as simple as the system on fark, where there are no avatars, searches, post counts, self-congratulatory karma nonsense, etc. I don't see how that would be so radically different as the system right now on Batter's Box. I agree that some of the forum software is massive overkill at times and can lead to idiocy (although I've seen it work extremely well for certain focussed communities like at civfanatics.com), and plus, they seem very slow to load.

Marty says Carlos would accept a multi-year deal with $9 million per season

Was that just on-air? Can't find a link on Sportnset.

Willy, that's because the people in NYC are so democratic, it's simply impossible for a "supposed" neutral forum to be more democratic. For example, if the media is 65% liberal, it is more liberal than most places, but if NYC's people are 75% liberal, the press looks like right wingers.

Yes, that 9M/year is right at the upper limit of a good deal for the Jays. I said a few days ago 8.5M would be as high as I was willing to go, but 9M wouldn't kill me. I'd like to see Marty be telling the truth.

Something interesting I picked up from Rotoworld (courtesy of Washington Post). I haven't seen anyone mention it, but I'm a bit behind on a few threads, so apologies if it was mentioned

Free agent Carlos Delgado would like to play for the Orioles, his agent said.
"Baltimore, we are most significantly interested in," said agent David Sloane. "It's a great place to hit. Hitting in that batting order is very interesting to us." The Orioles are expected to make one of the top bids for Delgado. The Mets also figure to be in the running.

(Also, just making sure I can post, being such an important contributer)

the New York press (the only city in the entire world where the press is more conservative than the populace)

Are Toronto citizens *more* conservative than the Globe?

The Toronto Star kind of balances out the conservativeness of the Sun and Globe.

I'd suggest that Ottawa's press, though, is far more conservative than the populace, at least as far as newspapers are concerned. All four papers available here (the Citizen, Sun, Globe, and Post) are conservative, at least to some extent. (This was especially pronounced when Conrad Black was running both the Citizen and Post).

I don't know much about computers and MUCH less about blogs and forums (for example I don't even know the difference between those)so feel free to flame me down for the following ignorant idea:

But if we HAVE to go to some kind of registration, why not go to a full out selection/screening process a la SOSH? There are clear downsides such as (probably) being more work to up keep, seeming like elitest bastards, and not letting Joe off the street share random comments (the freedom of the site is what first drew me to post), but the upside seems discussion worthy as well.

Most obviously going full out SOSH would keep out spammers, but it might also add an even higher aura of credibility to the site. We wouldn't have to worry about people from the ESPN blogs comming over here and saying stuff like "I would like to see Hinske and Bautista traded for Jason Bay and the budget raised to 70 million to sign Radke, Glaus, Valentin, Delgato and Peter Zezel". The reduction in signal/noise ratio of posts in a controled environment could also lure out people even higher up in the Jays organization to post without worrying about flame attacks. Even blue jays themselves might become frequent posters without having to read "OMG!! REED UR 2 CUL! CAN I PLZ HAVE UR MSN??".

Meh, just a thought. There's probably some big obvious problem to that I don't even know about.

Party on bauxites.

Mel Stottlemyre will not return as the Yankee pitching coach next year , maybe Gil Patterson?

While I have sympathy for the Jays not wanting to pay up to $9 million for Delgado, that is quite frankly what it's going to take to keep him. I think Baltimore and other teams would drop that money on him without thinking and if you stick him at cleanup with Roberts, Mora, Tejada, Lopez, Palmeiro, etc around him, it doesn't look good for the Jays to finish any higher than 4th in 2005. Delgado would have a field day there. Even if you got Baltimore's 2nd round pick it would be cold comfort seeing Delgado drive in 150 runs for a divisional opponent.

I don't understand JP wanting him gone for that amount of money. If it's a matter of payroll room then request an appropriate increase if ownership is interested in holding on to the franchise player. We can't be talking about more than a $2 million difference between what the team would pay and what Delgado wants. Ask Rogers to kick in that extra $2 million to the budget and fill the other holes as you normally would had you signed that big bat you'll need to sign anyway.

http://www.hardballtimes.com/main/article/who-hit-what/
Since there is no roundup posted yet, I would like to point out the Hardball Times comments on Eric Hinske (COMN). I never would have figured that Hinske's hitting distribution would be 'typical' for a major league hitter. Perhaps he really was just terribly unlucky this year.

It certainly seems to me that Eric Hinske should have a better year next year; maybe a much better year.

Studes, from the article mentioned by Brian W above.

I've sent studes an e-mail about the pop-up/fly-ball ratio for hitters. We've got it for pitchers, but it is relevant for hitters, particularly ones whose BABIP is significantly different from average, bearing in mind speed, power and line-drive percentage (e.g. Hinske).

The problem is that pop-ups are outs 97% of the time and fly-balls are so much less frequently. If a batter pops up a disproportionate number of times for the number of balls in the air he hits, his batting average will be affected. The converse of this is Wade Boggs, mid-80s version, who perfected the art of not hitting pop-ups. Ideally, no. of pop-ups would appear right next to Ks in pitcher's and batter's lines.

The Toronto Star kind of balances out the conservativeness of the Sun and Globe.

If you guys think the Globe is a conservative newspaper, all I can say is wow! That was the house organ of Red Tories, when there still was such a thing - and is doing its best to compensate for their political extinction. Take the Report on Business out of that newspaper, and you're left with an upmarket Toronto Star.

If you guys think the Globe is a conservative newspaper, all I can say is wow! That was the house organ of Red Tories, when there still was such a thing

... and "Red Tories" weren't more conservative than the general Canadian population? It's all relative.

Nobody said that, say, Texans would consider any of the Canadian papers conservative.

As I recall it, the Globe supported Brian Mulroney's election in 1984 and 1988. If Mulroney qualifies as a "Red Tory", I guess all I can say is that the Canadian and American political spectra are way, way different. When I think Red Tory, I think Stanfield, Clark, Flora McDonald, Bill Davis...

You may not have noticed this but prominent Reform/Alliance backer Rick Anderson (weakly) supported Kerry in his op-ed article in the Star. I guess that supports the view that things are just different here.

I don't like the idea of registration, because I like the openness of the forum. I like it when non-regular contributers come in and share their insight. Like when Scott Carson posted a couple times a few months ago. I doubt he'd do that if he had to go through a registration/screening process.

"I would like to see Hinske and Bautista traded for Jason Bay and the budget raised to 70 million to sign Radke, Glaus, Valentin, Delgato and Peter Zezel".

LOL Peter Zezel. When did Mike Keenan take over the Blue Jays?

Joe, can you elaborate on how this isn't a forum?
It certainly seems like a forum to me.

How is this different then primer?

I understand not wanting to go to avatars, but post counts and registration? I don't see the harm.

Even realgm, which has avatars, and raptorblog, which also has avatars, are pretty good sites with decent discussion.

Sorry about the lack of Roundup today, guys. It was a combination of me not having too much time and the major story (Wells getting a GG) already covered.

I might be scarce for the next little while but I'll try to get a Roundup on when there's an article to discuss.

RE: Spammers and Registration. Ryan Lind has a very good point, but I think it's a fair trade-off for cutting down on the amount of spam we've been getting lately. Unfortunately every system has drawbacks, so it's all about find the 'best' system not a 'perfect' one.

Partially a test post... on what I experience at other sites.

I have several sites where I had to fill out a registration form to be able to log in: newspapers, especially - I read the NY Times, LA Times, Wash Post and Tor Star online. The computer afterwards remembers my name and password, and afterwards its just a normal link.

I do get daily news summaries from the Post and the NY Times, which can pile up...

The All Music Guide (allmusic.com) works the same way - I filled out some stuff, and now it remembers me.

The user experience at these sites is pretty nice and seamless. Of course, none of these are sites where you do anything - they're all places where you go to read.

I have no idea how any of these things work from the operational end. And of course every time I reformat my hard drive (I do this every few months, its the best I way I know to truly clean up a computer. Raze the land and build the property again) I have to re-establish my log-ins because the cookies are gone.

I once got around an automated spamming problem by simply moving the cgi script to a new folder and changing my "submit" button.

I wish I knew what that means... :-(

'forum' software which allow avatars

What are 'avatars' in this context?

I'd like to see a log in system anyway, and really that's the only way you will be able to address the spam problem.

If that would truly be a fix, go for it. I'm assuming of course that once you log in, it knows who you are, and if you send off a post it identifies you to everyone else. Which would be cool with me. I'm sure I'm not the only one who has typed away for half an hour on something deep and profound, clicked on "post this comment", and got the dreaded grey-purple screen of disappointment. And clicking on Back from there doesn't always save the situation. It should, it usually does, it doesn't always...

what Yahoo/Paypal are doing to prevent automated account signups...On the posting page, display a graphic - series of letters etc.. and require that the person use that as the 'authentication key' to post.

I believe Yahoo makes you go through this just once - when you sign up. Not every time you post. I'm not sure. I've done the sign-up for a Yahoo group, but I never posted anything.

I think I may get tons of spam e-mail as a result, but my e-mail is on yahoo. So I don't have to download the spam and delete. Yahoo tosses all the spam and mass e-mails into a Bulk folder, which I can either look at or just toss in the trash unread.

why not go to a full out selection/screening process a la SOSH

Which if I'm correct allows anyone to read, but restricts those who can post. I can read SoSH, and I have a log-in identity over there, but I can't post. They've got a long, long lineup.

OK, Baseball. No politics, like a lot of my American friends, I'm slowing moving from Denial to Anger. Next, I know, comes Bargaining, Depression, and Acceptance.

the Hardball Times comments on Eric Hinske. I never would have figured that Hinske's hitting distribution would be 'typical' for a major league hitter.

One would think this is awfully good news. It suggests that Hinske's 2004 was kind of a reverse image of Hentgen's 2003.

If Delgado can be had for $ 9 million - well, gosh, folks. That's a bargain. And that's what Moneyball's really all about - finding bargains!

The Angels and Troy Percival have parted ways, rather amicably, with mutual expressions of it's time to give K-Rod the ball. On the one hand, Percival is probably too rich for the Jays blood, and his arrival could very well be Randy Myers Part Two - his strikeout rate went down rather dramatically this year.

And I know that the way modern closers are used makes no sense. A tie game in the 8th is a more crucial situation than a three run lead in the 9th. Its irrational to use your best relief pitcher in the second situation.

Which is way the Anaheim bullpen worked so well. K-Rod, the best pitcher there, was the guy who got the tough assignments. Percival just closed out the games.

But modern closers seems to be one of those intangible "chemistry" issues. When Terry Adams blows a lead in the 9th, it sucks the heart right out of the ball club. When Troy Percival does it, the team doesn't get rattled. They regard it as one of those weird and inexplicable things that happens from time to time, and just move on. It seems to me that this effect is part of the value of a celebrated closer, and you have to pay for it.

OK, I better stop sometime.

http://me.woot.net
It's not just the software, though that's part of it. It's the culture. Forums are about volume of discussion. They're about expressing your opinion as loudly and as often as possible.

We don't have cute little smilies that people use as punctuation, and in lieu of real communication. We don't break up discussions into pages, and we don't jam those pages with differentiating boxes for each poster. We aren't about the poster, we're about the thread of discussion.

Most of all, we generate a lot of excellent unique content. Forums are about a conversation, at best. We're a pena, and we have a discussion about particular issues.

It's about expectations. People come to forums and expect them to be like other forums, which are rife with misguided assumption, dangerous suppositions, and extensions of one's own experience and expectations to the world at large. In other words, forums are for the everyman who doesn't know shit. Batter's Box is most definitely not.

I might be scarce for the next little while but I'll try to get a Roundup on when there's an article to discuss.

Yeah, there's probably no need for a Roundup every day in the offseason. Whatever is the newest thread is the one we'll all flock to. And yes, a sentence horrible that was.

It suggests that Hinske's 2004 was kind of a reverse image of Hentgen's 2003.

Perfectly stated. I hope it's true...

For those of you not watching the Raptors tonight, TSN is showing the famous Central Red Army-Montreal New Year's Eve game from 1975 at 730 tonight. The legend of Vladislav Tretiak....

Joe, I guess I just don't see the distinction between here and primer. There's alot of excellent discussion going on at each place.

Ladies & Gentlemen raise taxes and I stay quiet , Politics here in Canada we sometime go Liberal and sometime Conservative.

Attack my Jay's and Baseball blog and it is war. We must vanquish these bots and defend our right to blog.

SoSH works 'best'.

I've stopped reading BB as often for numerous reasons -- mostly I just don't have as much time to sit down and read a thread through but also because when I do have some time, the smoke/fire ratio is getting so bad my resources are just as well spent using those 20 minutes surfing something else.

RE Daily Round-Up Thread...
Last off season we ended up doing Rumour Central threads until the page got so long it was obviously time to begin a new thread (unofficial number might have been 125-150 posts). Might be a viable option for all involved (especially Moffat).

http://me.woot.net
Paul D,

That's because Primer isn't a forum. MacRumours has a forum. Primer is very much like Batter's Box.

People come to forums and expect them to be like other forums, which are rife with misguided assumption, dangerous suppositions, and extensions of one's own experience and expectations to the world at large

I'd disagree. I think it's the people participating in the forum/blog that determine the tone. The only forum I really read even semi-regularly is digitalhomecanada. I don't remember seeing the type of behaviour you're talking about.

I guess that might be mostly because of the type of people that would frequent such a site. (Not trying to be a snob, but I'd imagine there aren't a lot of 12-year old boys posting/reading there). I'd think that DaBox wouldn't have those kinds of problems either, for similar reasons.

It's the culture. Forums are about volume of discussion. They're about expressing your opinion as loudly and as often as possible

I'd argue that the "culture" here has already been established. I find it odd to think that people posting here would actually change their behaviour just because they've been given the ability to log in.

Ah, okay Joe. Realgm would be a forum then.

Then, implementing a registration system here, like at primer, shouldn't cause any philsophical problems, right?

In other words, forums are for the everyman who doesn't know shit. Batter's Box is most definitely not.


I completely disagree. The format does not dictate the content. The culture here is already established, changing to a forum won't fundamentally change the content. I see plenty of high quality discussion on many forums and blogs. I also see crap on both.

But modern closers seems to be one of those intangible "chemistry" issues. When Terry Adams blows a lead in the 9th, it sucks the heart right out of the ball club. When Troy Percival does it, the team doesn't get rattled. They regard it as one of those weird and inexplicable things that happens from time to time, and just move on. It seems to me that this effect is part of the value of a celebrated closer, and you have to pay for it.

I think the value of a good modern closer is that it settles down the rest of the bullpen. Everyone has a job to do, and most of the time, they know what their job is. A good closer gives your bullpen stability, something obviously lacking in Toronto.

http://www.bluejayway.ca
Thats a pretty unrealistic/insulting view of forums and the people who frequent them. As a the owner and operator of 2 popular forums I can tell you as long as the people in charge (ie admins and moderators) keep out the riff raff the level of discussion on a forum can be just as good or better than any other site.

If anything a forum provides a more controlled enviroment than a blog setup. In a blog a trouble maker can walk up post whatever they want with ease and be gone in a matter of moments. With the right forum software these people have to take the time to register, wait to be approved and then confirm their account via email. You'll find that the average trouble maker wont take the time with that type of setup.

A forum or blog is what is only as good or as civil as the people who frequent it and the rules that are enforced there.

Regarding Percival, his peripherals have certainly been mundane the last couple of years, particularly the control. He's getting older at 35. He's coming off a year where he made $7.8 million and I would be surprised if he expects less than half of that on the market. This for a guy who hasn't even pitched 50 innings the last two years.

Then again this is a guy who has been through thick and thin and a World Series Championship. He still appears to have the stuff though his K rate was a career low by a mile and his opponent's OPS against was the second highest of his career. You have to hope he will bounce back.

The worry is that you sign him for $4 million (if he settles for that) and he winds up having a year like 2000 (4.50 era, 10 blown saves). Although as long as it's just a one year deal and the salary doesn't make him untradeable it might be a worthwhile risk for his potential worth on the trade market.

I just saw one of these spam posts in another thread. Tons of links, not much text otherwise. It might be possible to reliably detect this type of post in an automated manner, and therefore to be able to delete these posts (or at least sequester them for further inspection) more easily than whatever the current manual procedure might be. Alternatively, it might be possible to rate-limit the number of posts (or posts with embedded URL's) from a given IP address. I've looked at greymatter code in the past and my recollection is that it was pretty awful. On the other hand, it might be possible to implement these ideas outside of greymatter proper, say with a cron job or something. NFH or Joe, send me an email and we can discuss further.

The general problem here is obviously similar to detecting spam email, but my guess is these web site spammers are not encountering the level of fairly sophisticated resistance that email spammers are now encountering. Getting ahead of the curve in terms of being able to detect and delete bogus posts automatically might not be that hard.

For those of you not watching the Raptors tonight, TSN is showing the famous Central Red Army-Montreal New Year's Eve game from 1975 at 730 tonight. The legend of Vladislav Tretiak....

For those who were watching the Raptors tonight, great game!

Uptempo... 95 points vs. a Jeff Van Gundy coached team... the prized FA goes off... we rub it in Tracy McGrady's face... Loren Woods holds his own against Yao Ming...

Fun Fun Fun...

Just a note to remind all Bauxites to vote for Tom Cheek's inclusion on the ballot for the Hall of Fame's Ford C. Frick award (and to make sure I can still post)

Gabe White's option not picked up

Maybe Gabe White a Blue Jay?

No offense jobu but this is a hilarious bit of Pot-Kettle-Black:

The reduction in signal/noise ratio of posts in a controled environment could also lure out people even higher up in the Jays organization to post without worrying about flame attacks. Even blue jays themselves might become frequent posters without having to read "OMG!! REED UR 2 CUL! CAN I PLZ HAVE UR MSN??".

If this place was tightened up for S-N Ratio reasons, you would have been gonzo (and I don't mean the shortstop) many moons ago. YOU are the 'REED UR 2 CUL' poster boy.

Not really. I just say I like the guy in legible text. Try reading again.

http://www.sonsofsamhorn.com
While the topic has come up again, COMN for those unaware of the SOSH method discussed earlier. Then again how someone who visits hear can't be familiar with the SOSH already, baffles me.

PS. NFH asked me for more Molina! pictures. Judging by that, and the amount of time it's taking, this title graphic will be SPECATACULAR. Or he's just lazy.....either or.

Then again how someone who visits hear can't be familiar with the SOSH already, baffles me.

/raises hand

(really just seeing if I can post; worried I might secretly be the spam king of the northeast while in my sleep)

If you were the spam king in your sleep Dan, I'd like to think you would have noticed a change in your bank account by now.

And enjoy the flavours of SOSH while you're at it. A tad elitest but always entertaining. You know, like star trek fans.

I might be sleep spending too; might explain all those porn bills on my Visa. At least it might be worth trying that line on my wife.

At least it might be worth trying that line on my wife.

*rimshot* ZING!

That's Dan H everyone! He'll be here alnight and I want to thank you all for coming to Batter's Box Late Night Stand Up Night. Take my blog! Please!

Ha ha...no seriously folks.

And now the musical stylings of Magpie and the Pipettes!!!

Or more Dan H. Whatever comes first.

"I also like the idea of a login because it discourages people from posting under various names. Unless they want to go as far as creating several log-in identities."

I was kinda hoping too. I though J.P. Bacardi was quite clever. Not really the proper audience for it. My buddies would liek it, if they knew who the original J.P. was...

AAAAAAAAAAAHAHAHAHAHA Caino, your the funniest. J.P. Bacardi... Priceless.

Give it up for the comedy stylings of Caino everyone!! Wasn't that special?

You know I was in a bar the other day, and Jay Gibbons walks in! So the bartender goes to him "hey.... why the long face?"

*rimshot*

*tumbleweed*

Okay, little over your heads there. Alright please give a nice warm Batter's Box welcome too....well, whoever knows a baseball related joke.

I don't, but try the veal. And remember to tip your waiters and waitresses. You've been wonderful, good night!

I am in support of registration system like Primer's. I think it's mostly because in banning trolls an IP my computer has used is sometimes a banned one. I doubt too many of the past trolls we've had here would go to the trouble or re-registering to get around a banning.

I doubt too many of the past trolls we've had here would go to the trouble or re-registering to get around a banning.

Tragically, thats never been an impediment to trolls before.

I doubt too many of the past trolls we've had here would go to the trouble or re-registering to get around a banning.

Tragically, thats never been an impediment to trolls before.

I agree about the trolls; if they really want to annoy you they can. It's easy to post via proxy if you're motivated.

A log in would be more helpful against bots than trolls.