Mine has been set up that way since the beginning. I couldn't see any reason to let people comment anonymously, and a lot of reasons not to.

*grin* I know I've been in a postition where I want to say something, but don't really want to open myself up half the world telling me I'm wrong -- or knowing more about me than I really want to share. (Not in a trollish way, just in a "have you thought of it from the other side: here's my experience" sort of way.) And I wouldn't want to take that away from a friend should the situation warrant. I don't usually get too political here, so I'm less worried of trolls.

Taking those two steps worked for me. Unfortunately, there's no way to block individuals from friending you and adding you to their reading list, which is kind of creepy and encourages things like stalking. I've seen a number of people who actually were being stalked revert to 100% friends-only posting.

One of the things I actually like on facebook is it doesn't show you on someone else's friends list if you haven't friended them back. Also, the friending system on FB is way more accessible in terms of not having to make an effort to know whether others have friended you.

Well, as a person who is following more people than are following me, I guess I'm not upset that I can add someone to my reading list without them agreeing. (If I care that much, I can post things to friends only, and trust that LJ security will be honest.) There are 4 Russian photographers I follow -- Mostly I just look at the pictures, but sometimes I try to follow the words. Occasionally I even comment.

I like to think that I'm not just a crazy stalker chick. I've been lucky that I've not (as far as I know) been "stalked" -- although I too have seen folks go "friends only". That makes me sad (especially when I get booted from that "friends" list.) :-)

Since I think I have friended back everyone in LJ who has friended me (except for the occasional Russian Spammer) it's extremely easy for me to see who is following me in their stream -- the "also followed by" or some such on my profile will have just a couple of folks. Of course, I can't tell if someone just types my journal in and reads... or spams.

On my journal I have a Spam Trap Post. It is postdated to 2020 so it stays at the top of my journal. Anonymous posting is enabled, but notifications are tuned off, and all comments are screened.

So if a spambot is programed to respond to the "most recent post" they post there, it is not visible (or searchable), and it does not show up in my e-mail.

I check and delete the messages occasionally, I find it captures about a dozen spam messages a month.

Edited at 2012-02-18 12:36 am (UTC)

It's never the most recent post that I get hit on. The most recent one was a 2007 entry. And this post was by a "real" person who posted a comment in Russian. Mutter. Nothing offensive at all, but it's blog has many links, and I'm not going to follow them to verify their safety. Don't want to take the step of saying "only friends", but that's next if this becomes common.