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by edanm 5851 days ago
As I understand it, they send you a mail telling you about the post and letting you remove it. Not perfect, but probably works 99% of the time.
2 comments

99% of the time? So if someone decides to trash my reputation they can just post a bunch of stupid blog entries as me and it is on me to (a) detect that this even happened by checking my mail, (b) go do whatever work needed to remove the post and (c) try to explain to everyone what happened (likely causing even more people to do it when they realize how ridiculous the system I'm using is) and salvage my reputation?

That doesn't sound like "works 99% of the time" to me, that sounds like an epic fail.

EDIT: It appears that this was more of a configuration issue, so the above only applies if you set up your account this way.

You can already post a bunch of stupid blog comments as someone else, as long as people realize Posterous has a similar problem, it's not going to ruin your life. (Plus, (a) doesn't seem to be that big of a problem for a service you're using your email to access.)
Commenting on someone's site using a different name is pretty different from being able to fake a post. I have no expectation that comments are written by who they say they are, but I do expect all the posts to be written by the same person.
Clarification: by 99%, I meant it works for 99% of users, whom no one will ever try and attack. Obviously it's just my opinion.
Shouldn't it work oppositely? Prevent the post from appearing until you explicitly approve it from a link in an email.
Sort of defeats the purpose of Posterous though. It's nice to be able to send an email and be done with it. Though for an account coming under constant attack, it'd be nice to have the option though.

Edit: What they should really do is obfuscate the posting email addresses a little. Make my posting email 1234randomwords@posterous.com, and give me the option to change it to something else if I am coming under attack.

I don't think it defeats the purpose, so to speak, since it's verified by another email. You never have to leave your email client.

It's certainly and extra step that takes away from the smooth flowing process already set in place, though.

Yes, and unless I'm missing something I don't see a way to turn this type of confirmation-before-posting functionality on.