disabling anonymous comments?

[xela]

A discussion on a friend's journal just convinced me that I want to entirely disable anonymous comments in my journal*. And I cannot find any way to set such an option. Am I just missing it, or does it really not exist?

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* My friend posted to congratulate one of her friends on an accomplishment; an anonymous troll hijacked the discussion by attacking her friend's achievement. It's hardly the first time I've seen that kind of thing in LJ, and the vast majority of anonymous posting I see here is either that or someone forgetting to log in. I would just as lief have neither in my LJ.

Comments

[frolain.livejournal.com]

I think the best you can do is log IP addresses, but I'm not an expert.

[ken_r]

Looks like http://www.livejournal.com/support/faqbrowse.bml?faqid=23 covers it...

Manage Account -> Comment Settings -> Enable commenting from: Registered Users

... excludes anonymous and OpenID.

I haven't tried it though.

[cfox.livejournal.com]

Consider screening, rather than disabling the comments you don't want. (I screen anonymous comments, then delete or unscreen them as I see fit when I get the notification email). It's roughly equivalent to maintaining a moderated mailing list.

If you allow comments from only a subset of readers, all readers will see the comment link and get a text entry box to type in; those you've disabled comments from will only be told about it when they click "post comment". I find it truly infuriating to type a comment, only to have it completely rejected, unread.

[yakshaver.livejournal.com]

Screening is certainly a smaller hammer, and there's merit in that.

[jdulac.livejournal.com]

I have turned off anonymous comments after anonymous troll attacks (which I believe came from the same exact person who trolled a mutual friend of our recently). And then I screen comments from folks I haven't personally friended.

I don't think you lose anything from disallowing anonymous comments. If it is an accident where a friend has not logged in, they will have a chance to log in when they post the comment. If it is someone deliberately seeking anonymity (using a network anonymizer, so it truly is not an accident), then they only being malicious and you don't need it.

[motodraconis.livejournal.com]

I'd say setting anon comments to screened might be best. Trolls thrive on attention, and screening denies them that.
At the same time, I've seen useful or friendly stuff left by anons, generally by friends or friends-of-friends without LJ's, it would seem a shame to miss out on that sort of dialogue.

I've never disabled anon comments, and get them very rarely it has to be said. One or 2 troll comments in the past 4 years (and they were from LJ troll accounts.) I ignore them and it goes no further, if anything, I like to leave the comments visible as they can be often so foolish as to amuse me wryly.

It sounds like your friend was a victim of a malicious person who knows her or the girl she was speaking of. I'm sorry to hear that. Perhaps if it happens again, there are options of screening/freezing or even deleting a nasty comment after it has been made. If the commenter is ignored or brushed aside by screening that tends to both get rid of them and annoy them too.

[siderea]

http://www.livejournal.com/manage/comments/

I prefer to allow all comments, but screen anonymous. Note the dynamic at play in the situation you observed: X placed a comment in A's journal to attack B before an audience of Cs like you and I. The point of the exercise was not to address A. (It was not even to insult B to her face, but to insult her in public, to shame her.) Thus screening comments from anonymous commenters is perfectly discriminating between those who wish to say something anonymously to the journal owner, and those looking for a public place to anonymously shame guests of the journal owner (or the journal owner).