Comment policy change

A number of readers have complained that verification on comments (at present, Google uses image recognition) has become ridiculously onerous.  That's outside my control, unless I stop using it;  so let's run an experiment.

I've switched off verification for comments, but also switched off anonymous comments.  That means, if you want to leave a comment, you'll have to be signed in with a Google account or OpenID.  I hope that will prevent a surge of spam comments (which is why I implemented verification in the first place;  however, a few still got through, even with verification enabled).

Let's try it that way for a few days.  If it works, great.  If not, or if spam comments become too much, then I'll have to think of something else.

Peter