He could charge the cardholder/user a nominal amount like paypal does to verify their identity and then refund it to them. A forum owner who then uses Truyoo pays out to Truyoo 25c for every new member who signs up under the system and goes on to make a certain number of posts, say for instance at least fifteen. The new member will by that stage have added value to the forum and is worth the cost, as they haven shown not to be a one-question drive-by costing the forum owner.

The system would have benefits for forum owners as it prevents both spammers and trolls and makes it harder for people to make shill posts using aliases thus increasing the signal to noise ratio. I don't agree that one mark against a Truyoo member should disqualify them from ever entering any other Truyoo enabled forum, as arguments arise on forums readily. Moderators can be punch-drunk on power and ban users flippantly even though they might have been in the right.

Rather, it should go on their record like a credit rating. Other forums can choose whether to accept or deny them entrance. Truyoo users should be allowed to explain themselves too in comments on their profile against any mark. They should also be able to choose to set different user names for each forum for privacy. Their true identity and aliases should also be kept secret from forum owners. Perhaps they could pay a premium for this - the $2 or you could add a zero.

1. Few people are using their real names

2. karma largely solves this

3. Publishers want as low a barrier to commenting as possible- even a captcha is too high for some. Lots of comments creates the impression of lots of readers which brings in lots of advertising.

4. No one is going to pay to comment.

It's a dead duck. Look at making karma portable between sites - HN, SO etc.

I think you're just not using sites where this is a problem. Any site that currently pre-moderates comments is a potential customer to a service such as this. For instance, websites of dead tree media must defend their brand vigorously, as it's all they've got left. So the quality of their comments matters a lot.

It's a lot simpler than that: Truyoo just didn't identify the right customer!

The commenter is not the customer. The website owner is. While the commenter is not going to pay anything, the website owner will (or rather, might), because it's in their interest to keep their website clean and tidy.

There has got to be some connection to the true customer there that would keep the sign-up limited in hurdles...

BTW: Why Credit card? Why not something else that offers enough of a catch but isn't subject to such scrutiny? Phone number, perhaps? Maybe references (I.E. you'r comments are "approved" manually until you establish enough of a "rep")...

This is such a huge issue that I really think it is worth you perusing more... you're basically doing the one thing that disqus avoids/is not.

I think an opportunity was missed here. Instead of pitching publishers, he should have taken some time out to pitch a politician or two. What? Yes, that's right. Nobody hates anonymous commenting more than politicians, and every now and again, one tries to force registrations for comments. If you laid the groundwork (assuming the service is still around), at the right moment (say, when an anonymous commenter really does something to inflame opinions) you could pitch a politician to try and get the idea legislated into existence for certain types of publishing.

Granted it's not an easy strategy or a usual one, but corporations have been legislating themselves into business for years, so it would be worth a try.

I would love to be able to do something like that -- grabbing their credit card details and only charging them if they run afoul of the rules -- but I haven't found a credit card processing service that would give me that flexibility.

The only problem, I guess, is what if you have someone who has a dozen credit cards. Or, more problematic, what if their credit card company offers "throwaway" credit card numbers (as mine does) that you can use for one-of purchases? That would give them unlimited attempts to game the system.

It would still be useful, even if 100% free.

Its the hurdle or having to keep setting up accounts with different credit cards. And the very strong psychological aspect of having to fork over some real, identifying information to a website in order to comment.

I think this would really make people behave much better.

Its a good idea. I'd encourage you to look into it more.

Agree that you should pursue this one harder...

You have a nice "inside track" by already being in the industry... and it's quite likely that you're very passionate about this topic, which will come through once you...

...Consolidate your pitch to more tightly communicate the opportunity, the problem in solving the opportunity, and how your product fixes that problem. (Preferably in a way that works better than existing solutions/semi-solutions. ;)

Remember, you've got to put your salesman hat on when making your case for a product like this. What was the principle objection your potential customers raised when declining your proposed solution? ie: Why didn't they like the fact that the end-user has to pay?

Is there a way to shift that cost elsewhere while maintaining the integrity of the system?

Have you listed all of your assumptions with that solution and thought of ways to test and prove/disprove each one?

Could you do something like Amazon, where they preauthorize the charges before the ship, and then actually bill when the items arrive? This may be something you want to specify this with processors before you get a merchant account.

Running a preauth that you don't intend to capture (or won't capture in a reasonable time frame) is a violation of the card association operating regulations and will result in abuse fees, and if continued, loss of your merchant account.

I agree that Truyoo has potential. Similar ideas have come up in brainstorming with others and I think something like this will catch on. I'm not sure payment is necessary to do this. Facebook Connect solves this problem to some extent, as you have a much better identity check than just an email (although not as good as a credit card.)