One thing which perhaps isn't widely known about Newsbytes is that, while any registered user can post there, the automatic syndication to our Twitter feed and FB/LJ/etc. (via the Newsbytes RSS feed) only happens if you've already been marked as a significant Flayrah contributor. So it isn't as effective as some people hope in spreading their views.
It's possible to ban people outright - in implementation terms, it's just a chat room with a few special posting hooks - but as with comments, I'd prefer not to do so if I don't have to. Over the past six years, it's worked remarkably well for its original purpose of letting people post a link to something interesting which isn't necessarily worth writing a story about.
One thing which perhaps isn't widely known about Newsbytes is that, while any registered user can post there, the automatic syndication to our Twitter feed and FB/LJ/etc. (via the Newsbytes RSS feed) only happens if you've already been marked as a significant Flayrah contributor. So it isn't as effective as some people hope in spreading their views.
It's possible to ban people outright - in implementation terms, it's just a chat room with a few special posting hooks - but as with comments, I'd prefer not to do so if I don't have to. Over the past six years, it's worked remarkably well for its original purpose of letting people post a link to something interesting which isn't necessarily worth writing a story about.