I dish it out, so I guess I can take it

A reader recently took me to task for not allowing comments on blog posts by unregistered users. My initial reaction was “Too bad — if you want to post something on my site, at least have the decency to tell me who you are and prove to me that you have a valid e-mail address.” But perhaps having that extra step involved was stifling some good conversation, and the fact of the matter is that I was approving subscriptions for just about everybody anyway.

So now all you have to do to comment on The Schlog is enter your name and e-mail address. And yes, you can put in “George Bush” and “president@whitehouse.gov” if you really want to. I do ask that you provide real information, though. I also reserve the right to start moderating or even to reverse this policy completely at any time if I feel that having open commenting is ultimately detrimental to what I’m trying to do here (whatever that is).

But for now the gate is unlocked, so fire away.