robert hahn

a darn good web developer

April 05, 2007

The Web Needs Killlfiles

Nico: “In the days of Usenet you could use a killfile.”

You can do that on the web too. Imagine a killfile service, to be set up beside OpenID services. This service will accept as input the OpenID of anyone needing to be put in the killfile, and will output, on demand, an JSON string of the contents.

Sites wishing to take advantage of that service must do a couple of things. First, allow comment posting only by people with OpenID accounts. Second, fetch the authenticated person’s killfile with JavaScript and use it to conceal from view any comment posted by persons in the killfile. The only thing you’d need to agree upon is a comment microformat.

If you want to set up a server-based filtering system, it’ll require more work, but it can be done.

Stupid idea?

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