Announcing the new and improved Periodic Diversions.
I have implemented several features to the site that should improve both its presentation and ease of use for authors (you).
First and foremost, the spam you have been receiving in both your PD entries and your e-mail inboxes should be greatly reduced going forward. First, some background to the problem: spammers have discovered that they can manipulate their sites' ranks in search engines by posting spam on various community websites such as this one. By posting comments containing links to the sites they promote, those sites are featured higher in search engine results. Of course, PD was never intended to create a forum for cheap hucksters, and such spam will no longer be tolerated. I have gone back and removed all the offending comments (apologies if I removed any legitimate comments in the process) as well as installed software that should greatly reduce if not eliminate such spam in the future.
Second, I have installed this "author weblog" so that you all can be kept up to date with changes to the site or general announcements. Note that on the left side of the page, under "Author Tools," you will find links to several useful resources as a PD correspondent, including a link you can use to post new articles.
Thank you all for your continued support of the site and all the interesting stuff you have posted. I hope you will continue to do so.
If you have suggestions for improvements to the site, or if there is any way I can make your experience writing for the site a more pleasant one, please let me know.