Thursday, April 29, 2010        A reddit experiment: Help us
catch spammers by verifying your email address (please?)  One of
the most powerful tools for fighting spam is the humble
verification email: If you force all new users to specify an
email address, and then verify it by sending a test message, it
makes the spammers' job dramatically harder.  However, reddit's
always been about openness and privacy. I remember the day I
created my account, back in 2005, and how impressed I was that
all I had to do was type in a username and a password -- three
tenths of a second later, my account had been created and I was
logged into it. No annoying, "You must click the link in your
email before you can do anything fun" message.  Further, there
are plenty of occasions when reddit users wish to remain
anonymous -- they're publishing controversial words, or sharing
deeply personal stories on IAmA, or posting a photo of their...
well, you get the point. It's a fine line to walk, crushing
spammers without hurting our com