We need to do a little maintenance on our vast database of User accounts. It will happen overnight early in the morning (Eastern) of May 13.

You don’t need to register as a User (“Subscribe”) to read the website. You only need to register to comment or to use the Thumbs Up/Down on comments.

For the first couple of years after moving to a self-hosted WordPress site (from Google Blogger) in June 2011, we did not have a “Captcha” screen when signing up for User accounts.

Hence, we have hundreds of thousands of “fake” User accounts established by robots that never have commented. That huge database is causing us some server problems.

One solution is to ditch hosting our own Users and Comments, and move to a third party solution like Disqus. That would be the commercially smart thing to do.

But, it would increase the drive-by commenters who have no interest other than in throwing hand grenades into a crowded comment section. Someday we may have to do that, but we’re trying to hold off the incoming tide as long as possible.

So we are eliminating User accounts which never have commented.

So, if you ever have commented, even once, you are fine and don’t need to do anything.

If you never have commented, and your User account is eliminated, you can sign up again.

Or if you never have commented, you can preempt the problem now, by commenting on this post, even just a “Yes” or “Save Me” or “WTF?” You have until midnight Tuesday night, May 12, to do so.