From what I'm seeing while browsing around JU this morning, Star Dock is being responsive to the users (and their bandwidth bill) by dealing with the spambots that have been plaquing us recently.
From what I've seen, the route they've chosen is to completely disable anonymous comments. While this might appear to just be the simplest solution, I believe that it's also the most effective solution, because it also eliminates OTHER problems that have been creeping up in the JU community.
This move removes the obnoxious anon posters that come in and spew all kinds of idiocy without any accountability. This, IMO, is a Good Thing (TM). It will force any, and all, that wish to participate in a discussion to step forward and become identified with their stances.
It also removes the capability for existing users to use anonymous sock puppets to drop nasty little comments on others articles. If you have to sink to the level of using a sock to be nasty to a person, then why say it? If you really think that poorly of a person or their ideas, be man (or woman) enough to step forward and SAY IT!
The only drawback that I see to removing anonymous comments - occasionally we get some nice, polite debaters that get addicted to JU while participating in a discussion as an anonymous user. These users then go and create their own blog and become part of the community that drew them in. I've seen this happen several times (though I'm having extreme difficulty bringing a particular user to mind) over the last year and more that I've been here at JU.
Now, there are a few ... hiccups ... involved in using JU this morning, but I can understand that. I've introduced more than a few of my own hiccups into an application after adding new functionality. So, I can live with them while the geniuses that are programming behind the scenes get the tweaks in place to make it even better.
Thank you, Star Dock, for improving on an already well designed (and maintained) community site. Keep up the good work!