I'm all for enhanced interactivity (especially if it leads to more female contributions!), but I'm somewhat reluctant to register for yet another online thing. But it's probably a good idea to implement.

btw- How you going to pass around that bottle o' bubbly?

Derek, I can see you really been spending a bunch of time with "Das Boot."

Afraid that bottle is getting smashed to shards across the Bags bow, but it doesn’t mean we can’t all hoist simultaneous cyber carafes in her honor come that christening day. I hear you on the registration willies. I can promise that the process will be as painless & minimally invasive as possible.

Walt, don’t recall any diving helmets in Das Boot, just lots of well-greased torpedo tubes & a fair number of soggy Nazis. What say you though? Will you add your name to the Bags registry & be counted amongst her loyal conscripts?

If anybody hasn't seen it yet, I recommend Buster Keaton's "The Navigator" for some of the merriest diving-suit sequences ever filmed.

cyber carafes? soggy nazis?

Sure. If you have to register here, I'd register. Why not? I give my email address every time I post anyhow.

W

Derek, I am shocked, SHOCKED to learn that you are seriously considering adding "a further retardant to interpersonal flammability" to your redesigned site. As one of those most thoroughly scorched by Bags' interpersonal flammability, both here
(http://www.bagatellen.com/archives/frontpage/001887.html)
and via migration on Jazz.com
(http://www.jazz.com/jazz-blog/2008/5/19/how-bass-solos-ruined-jazz),
I had no inkling you had any such retardant in place.

But even accepting said unlikely proposition in arguendo, I urge you to not apply further retardant. Interpersonal flammability is what makes Bagatellen special, and what keeps me coming back. I loved, for example, the recent five-alarm conflagration sparked by Phil Freeman's interview with Bill Dixon, which has to date inflamed over 100 comments. In particular, after nearly a dozen posts from firebrand Timothy Johnson, the June 26 follow-up by Cindy W. Johnson MLIS is a fall-on-the-floor classic. Trying to determine if it was genuine, I found an Internet listing for Cindy Johnson, Librarian, Central Valley High School, Shasta Lake, CA
(http://cvhs.gwusd.org/user_profile_view.aspx?id=fd6ccbaa-f3d3-438d-9b43-2802f8d8).
So I'm prepared to accept her post at face value. But if it's a put-on, even better; that would make it the finest piece of parody I've read in ages.

Please keep up the good work, Derek. And remember, the firemen in Fahrenheit 451 didn't retard fire; they set it. As far as I'm concerned, nobody adds fuel to the flames better than the Baganaut brigade.

But the anonymous and fictitious commenters can be so entertaining! The latest flame war was pretty polite and articulate for a flame war. It stayed more or less on topic, if one agrees that "Phil Freeman" was part of the topic, which I think is fair. It's not like people were making nasty swipes at Phil's wife ... only his writing.

I wouldn't have a problem if moderators deleted comments that were mere exchanges of juvenile profanity or delved into disparaging comments about individual's mothers or spouses that had no ... er redeeming social value. But I think that there isn't much of that here.

ah, but that has happened. And comments were thus deleted and threads locked. There were quite a few who were furious about the response, others agreed, and so you have it.

Registration at the new site would be quick and easy, and participants would not have to repeatedly log in - so long as cookies are enabled. It's an extra layer of security/integrity, I think, but I'd like to hear more from users about this move.

Additionally, I'm probably going to be getting rid of the pop-up comment box. Embedded just feels nicer.

Welcome back, Alan! As a veteran firebug yourself, you’re no doubt well aware of the adage: “play with fire and you’re likely to be burned.” Hopefully the superficial scaldings you incurred here have healed without leaving lasting scars.

It is true that certain posters like to mess with matches, but with our running aquatic theme there’s also plenty of water on hand to douse bourgeoning blazes. As Sarah notes, the Phil thread was really more of a two-alarm flare-up. For the truly acreage-razing infernos one needs to search the archives back several years.

The registration function probably won’t eliminate anonymous posting. Why, I myself have several aliases that I regularly operate under when whims of whimsy visit. It will be a hoop (however minor) that trolls will need to hurdle. I’ve found that most have fairly stubby legs and are averse to expending even minor effort in leaving their excrement.

I think having the option to view comments or not would be cool for reviews and articles, however. Those like the Pill on Bill excepted, of course, as that was designed to get the comments rolling...