The time to eliminate anonymous comments from OilersNation has finally arrived, and it’s nobody’s fault but your own. As Justin Bieber once wondered, “Is it too late now to say sorry?” Yes. Yes it is. 

Before I get started into explaining why I made the call to jettison anonymous commenters, I want to apologize to those of you that do comment without being complete ass hats. Most of you didn’t earn this punishment and I am sorry (but really, it takes two seconds to sign up for a citizen account). Most of you don’t need me to hold your hand and tell you what is and is not appropriate to post on a hockey blog, but lately the amount of bullshit that I have to get rid of on a daily basis is ridiculous. Think what you see is bad? Imagine the stuff you’re not seeing.

Anyone that comments on OilersNation since I started managing the website knows that I allow more stuff to fly than most people (probably too much on occasion), but some of you clowns have taken that freedom way too far. If you want to tell me that I’m the worst writer alive? Fine. I don’t care (and probably agree on some level). I put my thoughts out to the public and I expect to have my opinions questioned. It comes with the territory and it’s understandable. It’s the racism/anti-semitism/bigotry that I’m deleting on a daily basis that some of you should be embarrassed about. It’s for this reason that we will now require EVERYONE that wants to comment on OilersNation to have a Citizen’s account.

Requiring a citizen’s account will give the moderators more control over the dumbasses that spew hate-filled nonsense and have the ability to roll their IP address. It’s a small (and admittedly specific) fraction of readers, but they’ve truly become an issue and we’re taking care of it. We’re tired of banning IP addresses, and we’ve wasted more than enough time trying to weed out the absurdity. Again, I want to reiterate that this is not meant to be a punishment for the 95% of you that make up this community that we’ve created, but a means of saving the other 5% from themselves. 

I understand that removing anonymous comments will initially reduce the number of comments that we see, but I don’t necessarily see that as a bad thing. Maybe we’ll get more quality over quantity? Dare to dream! Will there still be trolling? Of course. At least this way we’ll be able to make sure that things don’t get thrown completely off the rails. We’re not trying to stop the arguments, we’re just trying to keep things a little bit more civil. Put it this way: We don’t want the animals to stop fighting, we just want them to stop throwing shit at each other. Someone has to clean that up, you know!

To start off this new era I want to thank everyone that can (and will continue) to talk about hockey without turning into a caveman. Without you fine gents and ladies there is no point in having a hockey blog, and making this move is us trying to make the experience a little bit more pleasant. I also want to thank everyone who has taken the time to email and DM me whenever something inappropriate went up on the site before we saw it. You guys have been our eyes for so long that you should take a minute out of your day and pat yourself on the back at your leisure. Know that we appreciate the help.

For those of you that are pissed off about the need to sign up to be a registered user before you’re able to comment, I suggest that you direct the frustration towards yourself because this is likely/partly/probably your fault. This change has been a long time coming, but it was today that I was finally able to convince the higher ups that this needed to be done. I never wanted to have a role of parenting some of you, but you put me here and daddy is putting his foot down.

If you don’t have a citizen account, and need one, you can click the link at the top of this page to get started. Signing up is free and will literally take you 30 seconds. From there you’ll be back in the game and annoying your fellow readers before you know it. Happy trolling, Nation!