It may well be true that most of the spam is coming in when I am asleep ... in which case I for one am most-grateful to those of you out there who laboriously “deal with it.”

If we are going to come up with some “user-response based” treatment for spam, then I definitely think that this response should include at least these three features:

1. Get rid of Anonymous Monk.   Maybe there are those who think that the ability to comment and to vote anonymously is a fabulous freedom, but this is the only forum-site that I am aware of which allows it.   It lets someone lurk around the corner and shoot spitballs.
2. Expand the idea of “up/down voting” (and “consideration”) to include categorized reasons.   A mere number does not say diddly-squat.   Whereas ratings or tags, which can be tabulated, could be very useful indeed, even for years to come.
3. Consider the utility of allowing the votes of certain users to count many-times more than others.   For instance, Popes such as yourself could nary-well be gods.   Perhaps even with the power to permanently excommunicate pesky fellow Monks with whom Your Eminences simply do not see eye-to-eye?   (It occurs to me that this thought might have for you a certain appeal ...)