WordPress.com Changes to Commenting is an Attempt to Combat Fake Comments? FAIL

As more and more WordPress.com bloggers (like here and the DoD) begin to realize that their commenting system has had a surprise and unwelcome shot to the foot, the confusion and discontent is spreading rapidly. For the moment, we sit here at the mercy of the top folks at WP.com, hoping that my instruction thread has limited the damage, and alleviated a lot of the confusion for our readers.

While we wait and see if they’ll realize their mistake and/or change this, I believe I’ve stumbled upon what prompted this sudden move:

@nikcub @mattcutts @sarahcuda as of 3 PM today deployed a stop for anon comments using registered emails, v1 but functional.

— Matt Mullenweg (@photomatt) March 15, 2012

@photomatt this–this is why everyone loves you. Thank you. 🙂 cc @nikcub @sarahcuda

— Matt Cutts (@mattcutts) March 15, 2012

@photomatt @nikcub you do realize that U hosed countless http://t.co/7Wa6hmVA bloggers and #gravatar users, right? http://t.co/Sb2ZP988

— Bert Elert (@ChenZhen) March 16, 2012

If I’m reading that right, it looks like my theory that this was intended to be a solution to nefarious gravatar/nic-jacking was correct, as this appears to have been done as a reaction to one case involving a victim of above-average influence on the net? Wow.

Even if it was properly executed (which it isn’t even close), it’s a boneheaded sledgehammer solution to a fly-sized problem. The thinking is still flawed, since anyone can still simply steal an image and apply it to their own gravatar account, if they really wanted to impersonate another netizen. Like with an IP, only the webmaster or admin would be able to tell the difference, and even they would not be able to verify which email addy what the legit one, right? To the rest of the world, the commenter is successfully impersonated. For example <—simple demonstration, with one of my other accounts.

Hopefully they're smarter than this, and switch it back…soon.

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