SINCE THE INCEPTION of the new Online Gargoyle, on Aug. 18, we have received a total of 3,121 spam comments. In 59 days, we've received a total of 3,121 spam comments. That's an average of 53 spam comments per day, or about two per hour.

But some days are more vicious than others. In a 50-minute period, the Gargoyle got 73 spam comments. The content of the spam includes ads for "Nissan Altima at below MSRP!," pyramid schemes of some Himalayan prince, diamond jewelry, stalking Paris Hilton and Lindsay Lohan, female and male enhancement ointments and pills, insurance rates, and need I say it? Porn.

Although the Online Gargoyle spam filters catch most of all the spam, a number of comments evade the spam filters. Luckily, however, we review all comments posted while logged out, so we have a 100 percent accuracy rate so that no spam comment ever gets published. But regardless, it gets very annoying sifting through spam, checking for false positives, and deleting the spam.

So effective today, Oct. 15, all users will be required to submit to CAPTCHA tests when posting comments while logged out, or signing up for an Online Gargoyle account. CAPTCHA stands for Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart. And all of that nonsense means essentially that you have to translate a picture of text into typed text to prove that you're not a spambot, robot, computer, or fembot.

Remember, you can always bypass the CAPTCHA test by signing up for an Online Gargoyle account (if you haven't already done so), and logging in while posting comments. Plus, when you log in, your comments will appear with a photo of yourself if you choose (you don't have to have a photo if you don't want), and your comments will be posted immediately! Instant gratification!

I made the font in the CAPTCHA Harry Potter font, mainly because computers can't read that font very well, but also because it looks awesome.