Say Anything Blog

I would say the 2nd and 4th ones would be my priority.  In the case of the 2nd one (ignore I’d hope it would not send me an email.)

Speaking of emailing, it’d be nice if the program would email the comment text so you could decidie if it was worth responding to.

If this calls for spending some money, you can take some of the money you pay me for guest bloggingn.  I’m having a hard time spending it all as it is.

Rob,

Keyword and Link triggers for comment hold pending moderation/approval.  I’d recommend delegating that to the author of the original post.

Out Here
Rodney Graves

And if the comment comes from someone on my ignore list.....

No on one and two, yes on three and four.

I’d say registered users get a pass on the moderation?

No on one and two, yes on three and four.

#2 that comment.

How about a mandatory IQ test?

That would eliminate most of the problems around here.

I’d say you should live blog Taking Back North Dakota 24/7… so I can get some of your readership!

We don’t want kooks like Don Meyers.

Brenarlo, when you meantion Taking Back ND, link it.

Just one of those little tricks.

Revenue Sharing.

I have no idea.  You are all smart folks. 

I just think this is a great blog. 

So, whatever you decide will be reversable no?  If it’s wrong It’s easily fixed.

I’m not sure I want to moderate my own posts.  But it doesn’t seem fair for Rob to do it either.

I like the preview thing. I’m really bad at spelling.  And, How bout some function that lets me go back and erase or fix a stupid comment of which I have many.

I don’t understand #3.

Last, the if it ain’t real broke don’t fix it.

I think too I am quite capable of ignoring other commenters.  Some actually become quite civil and a great participant.

Remember the early days of Reality Based Bob? 

I always read his comments now. 

I might have offed him earlier.

Bout all I can think of.  The beauty of all this is as a friend of mine said:
No trees were consumed in the presentation of this message, but a rather large number of electrons were substantially inconvenienced.

Even though it’s unpleasant to hear some of the unthinking hatespew that passes for debate on this blog, I think it is valuable to the rest of us.  Here’s why: We get to sharpen our arguments in dealing with those people.  We will never convince them, so the utility comes with making our reasoned arguments airtight, then watching them melt down in an orgy of bad language and hate spewing.  This prepares us for real life.  Real life is unmoderated, and the public argument needs to be won, every day.  Protectionism will weaken us, just at the time when we need to be strong.

The problem with comment spam is that Movable Type (the blog platform SA runs on) sucks at handling spam.  I’ve got some plugins that work, but it means that comments to old posts automatically get moderated.

If we move to a new platform (which looks likely at this point) the spam filters will probably be better.

I’d say registered users get a pass on the moderation?

I did that for a while once already back when SA was still on Wordpress.  Problem is that the spam bots can actually register themselves and then flood threads with spam.

Speaking of emailing, it’d be nice if the program would email the comment text so you could decidie if it was worth responding to.

Well, I’ll go ahead and admit that I’d just as soon have you guys come here and read the comment on the blog.  That way you all have to look at the advertising again.  But, one thing I’m considering is having the blog send just one email to let you know that a thread has been updated rather than an email for each individual comment.

I’d say you should live blog Taking Back North Dakota 24/7… so I can get some of your readership!

Hey!  I link to you!  I even advtertise on your site!

When the people fear their government, there is tyranny; when the government fears the people, there is liberty.

-- Thomas Jefferson

Rob’s recently listened-to songs:

Well, I’ll go ahead and admit that I’d just as soon have you guys come here and read the comment on the blog

As if I don’t waste I mean spend enough time here as it is?  I would like that to keep track of old threads.

I’m not really trying to impact comment freedom.  It’s just that I get emails all the time asking to ban so and so or complaining about how nasty the comment sections get.  I don’t want to act as referee, so this would allow you all to serve as your own referees.  If you want to read allt he comments, you can.  If a certain person is annoying you to the point where you can’t take it, block ‘em.

When the people fear their government, there is tyranny; when the government fears the people, there is liberty.

-- Thomas Jefferson

Rob’s recently listened-to songs:

Of course it will be impossible to block me, right?

Sorry Whistler.  I’m a good capitalist.  I need the page views so I can keep making that crazy blog money.

When the people fear their government, there is tyranny; when the government fears the people, there is liberty.

-- Thomas Jefferson

Rob’s recently listened-to songs:

Well, I was assuming that everyone would want you blocked by default.

When the people fear their government, there is tyranny; when the government fears the people, there is liberty.

-- Thomas Jefferson

Rob’s recently listened-to songs:

Come-on Rob, you can only drive one car a day.  You can only live in so many homes.

What’s the point of having more than one private jet?

What’s the point of having more than one private jet?

Besides, I would have figured that those massive kickbacks from Walmart would have covered the cost of the second and third yachts.

The argument against any sort of rules, or “comment protocol” is the limit that imposes on the person making the comment, and the incongruity with a blog named “Say Anything.”

But it should be easy enough for an adult to voice their displeasure and disagreement without the need to be a fucking asshole about it.

I am more bothered by the mindless tedium and intellectual vaucuity of certain comments offered here, night after night, day after, day, than I am with who is a prick and who is a cunt.  Those who spend all their electrons on name-calling and insults are not going to convince anyone of anything more than their own empty-headed partisanship.

If there is to be some sort of protocol, perhaps a simple sliding scale of sanctions would be appropriate.

Rob, do you have the yachts on the Souris River or do you take it down to Sacajawea?

threading

Whistler, I don’t fool around with the small water around here.  I have my personal aircraft (Blog 1) fly me down to my private island off the coast of Florida.

When the people fear their government, there is tyranny; when the government fears the people, there is liberty.

-- Thomas Jefferson

Rob’s recently listened-to songs:

Just so you can play Pirate I’m sure.

Having a “Next” button at the bottom of the main page which lets me go back to previous (recent) posts more easily (an alternative to using the archive)

Rob,

Rob said

I don’t fool around with the small water around here. I have my personal aircraft (Blog 1) fly me down to my private island off the coast of Florida.

Does this mean you are either Fidel or his brother with a beard dye job?

Out Here
Rodney Graves

Rodney, I’m no commie.  Me and Rush have a private villa down there.  Every couple of weeks we meet up to pop illegal viagra and have our way with pretty pretty politicaly asylum-seeker girls who wash up on our shores.

And we make fun of poor people, naturally.  I mean, we are evil conservatives after all.

When the people fear their government, there is tyranny; when the government fears the people, there is liberty.

-- Thomas Jefferson

Rob’s recently listened-to songs:

Everytime I try to get myself invited Rob makes me stay here and keep his readership down.

Greg: Fantastic idea.  That one will get done.

When the people fear their government, there is tyranny; when the government fears the people, there is liberty.

-- Thomas Jefferson

Rob’s recently listened-to songs:

Whistler: You haven’t proven to me that you hate poor people enough.

When you do then you can come down and hang out with the conservative big-wigs.

When the people fear their government, there is tyranny; when the government fears the people, there is liberty.

-- Thomas Jefferson

Rob’s recently listened-to songs:

Hate no, but I do get kinda annoyed when I get stuck in line behind the foodstamp bunch at the grocery store after work. 

Can’t they shop during the daytime?

Besides comment preview… the only other thing that I thought would be really useful would be a comment search option.

This used to be present for registered users and was a pretty nice feature to have.

Regarding #1: Having registered users is good, if you provided a reason for them to register.

Regarding #2: I don’t know how you would implement this without turning SA into another popularity contest site.  Perhaps allow them to ignore comments from a user for a period of time, say a week? 

Other than that, I would prefer that you implement sanctions against people who are trolling over individuals selecting out commenters to ignore.

Everything that Gene said, except the fix it part...I would say make it better step by step.

What are the benefits of registration?

Building a case, huh?

Two words: Beer wenches.

Other than that a preview option would be great for us “hukt awn fonix” types

Say Anything is such a great blog as is. It is interesting how sometimes non regular’s converge on SA on certain topics… You the man, Rob!

How do I get links for some of my old posts?

Doc, if you log in you should be able to search the entires and find all of your old posts.  Links to those posts on SA are on the edit pages.  I keep every comment (that’s not spam) and every published post forever.

What are the benefits of registration?

Being able to ignore certain commenters for one (I’m still leaning towards that option).  I’m also looking at profile pages for registered users that would include volunteered information about the user (biographical stuff, favorite links, etc.) as well as a personal blog/diary where every registered user can post their own stuff.  I’d be able to keep track of what is posted on the diaries and highlight what I think are good posts on the front page.  This would allow users to be able to publish posts without me having to approve them or me having to worry about crappy posts showing up on the main page.

I don’t know how you would implement this without turning SA into another popularity contest site. Perhaps allow them to ignore comments from a user for a period of time, say a week?

Other than that, I would prefer that you implement sanctions against people who are trolling over individuals selecting out commenters to ignore.

I understand your thinking, but I’m just hesitant about putting myself in the referee role.

The way I see the “ignore user” feature working is that once you’ve blocked someone you’ll still see their comments in threads (this is to avoid confusion) but the text of their comment will be replaced with something like “This user’s comment blocked as per your request.”

When the people fear their government, there is tyranny; when the government fears the people, there is liberty.

-- Thomas Jefferson

Rob’s recently listened-to songs:

Where is likwidshoe?

You’ll also see quotes of that certain persons in the good guys posts. 

I’m sure it’ll be easy enough to view those ignored comments.

Rob: The only sort of “filtering” I would support is perhaps something to eliminate no-content posts which simply repeat previous talking points.  Comments that only contain namecalling and that have no substantive content, maybe.  I don’t know how that would be accomplished without a fulltime moderator or moderators, but that might be worthwhile.

I would like to see more name calling.

Where is likwidshoe?

On the ignore list?

Really?

I would like to see more name calling.

Cop-slapper.

Ya! I would like to see more of that too.

Last in the Dictionary.

I second the beer wenches.

And Zsa Zsa, you’re a big poopyhead.

The only sort of “filtering” I would support is perhaps something to eliminate no-content posts which simply repeat previous talking points. Comments that only contain namecalling and that have no substantive content, maybe. I don’t know how that would be accomplished without a fulltime moderator or moderators, but that might be worthwhile.

The problem is that things like namecalling and what is and is not substantive content can be very subjective.  Again, I’m not really interested in becoming a referee.

I want to give this “ignore” feature a shot.  If it doesn’t work, we’ll junk it.

Where is likwidshoe?

He’s around, just been really busy.  He IM’d me earlier today.  I know he had a wedding in the family recently and has also been busy doing other things as well.

When the people fear their government, there is tyranny; when the government fears the people, there is liberty.

-- Thomas Jefferson

Rob’s recently listened-to songs:

One thing that is bothersome is when certain people copy word for word other articles, and take up so much space.

My comment ignore feature will fix that right up.

rob, what I’m looking for is a search by author since I don’t always remember the titles or content.

Doc, I don’t have that feature right now.  I’ll see about adding it when we move.

When the people fear their government, there is tyranny; when the government fears the people, there is liberty.

-- Thomas Jefferson

Rob’s recently listened-to songs:

Ken...You are in Big Trouble, Mister!

Doc...I will try real hard not to do that anymore.

Doc...Not yet. The movers come to pack us up on july7,8 and deliver it to Midland on the 15th. We have a contract on our house. Thursday night we had a storm and lightning hit our phone lines and cracked a water pipe. It got water all over the carpet and the ceiling is cracked in a few places! My husband took the carpet out from those rooms and put a fan in ther so it wouldn’t mold before our insurance people get here tomorrow.

Suggestions:

No need for 2, 3, 4, 5 threads on basically the same subject.

No personal insults.  Period.  Ever.  Criticize what is said, not who said it.  No name-calling.
Yes, I do it but it’s usually in response. 

Ignore Feature:  Good idea.  I would have most on ignore and if those who really don’t like me put me there, this should end 99.99999% of problems.

Require links.  If you give stats or ‘facts’, support them with a LEGITIMATE source.

Thanks, rob, for the freedom to speak even though you are ignoring me.  Thanks anyway.

Hey Rob: If you do infact implement a comment ignore feature is it also possiable to include a list of the names of the people who have you on ignore? or just maybe just a simple counter (you are being ignored by X amount of people)?

Maybe you can include a I LOVE BUSH button, and when pressed it would restore all ignores.

just kidding around.

The only thing I can think of is a search a word feature so I can see how many times and where the words Wetback and Hitler was used.

Hey I just thought of this one, how about a mouseover option where when one puts the arrow over a users name they can E-mail them, this way one can send their comments to those who have them on ignore

Zsa Zsa asked, Where is likwidshoe?

Hi!

diane says, No personal insults. Period. Ever. Criticize what is said, not who said it. No name-calling.

So I suppose you will be leaving?

Yes, I do it but it’s usually in response.

Stop lying.

Imageshack upload option.

Images without using SA Bandwidth?

Hard on dial up folks.

http://load.imageshack.us/

Are friday lap dances out of the question? Yes? Darn.

The comment preview should be nice, but I’m not so certain that the ability to ignore certain users is all that great of an idea as it may seem at first blush.

Likwidshoe...Where have you been? I really kind of enjoy the brattiness of Say Anything comments. IF, I were to change anything it would be those long copy comment things.

I agree, zz; let them speak their own words, instead of someone else’s.  Let’s see what happens when they have to come up with their own ideas.  Might be interesting, if somewhat boring.

By the way, that last idea by WOOF was a real good one.

I’ll see what can be done about integrating images into comments.  That might be tricky though because, let’s face it, some of the commenters here are stymied by the blockquote tag.

Seth, what are your thoughts on the ignore feature?  Care to expand?

When the people fear their government, there is tyranny; when the government fears the people, there is liberty.

-- Thomas Jefferson

Rob’s recently listened-to songs:

Rob...You are really a brat!

You all are brats!

"Yes, I do it but it’s usually in response.” Even if true(which it isn’t), that one only works for 10 year olds.  For adults, it’s no excuse.

Frankly I ignore certain posters.  I can do that with my mark 1 Mod 1 brain.  At some point I quit even looking at the threads because there’s been so much bickering going on.

I think the ignore feature would keep some threads productive, longer.

JMHO

Welcome back, lik.  We missed your gentle spirit and class.

Rob: I’ve found that if you end up filtering out certain people, you still are just as likely to have other people who are responding to them. So threads don’t make that much sense to those who choose to filter. I realize that that is the result of the choice to filter (and why I wouldn’t do it), but why put in the effort on your end?

But much more than that, it cuts against the value of an open dialog. Everyone can be irritating once in awhile, and everyone can have a fit of pique. What happens to the free exchange of ideas if we all stop listening and talking just because someone pisses us off? Like a thousand little candles snuffing out one by one, a blog slowly dies.

We’re all already blessed with the ability to filter out things we don’t want: simply don’t read comments by people who irritate us, and don’t respond. The only opinion on who should be ignored is yours.

Oops, that last line should have been: “The only opinion on who should be ignored that really counts here is yours.”

Seth, the way I’m planning to set it up you would still see that people you’re ignoring are posting, you just wouldn’t see the text of their comments.

I’m still up in the air on this...I just can’t help but see it as a way for people who are upset by other commenters to solve the problem themselves instead of expecting me to solve it for them.

When the people fear their government, there is tyranny; when the government fears the people, there is liberty.

-- Thomas Jefferson

Rob’s recently listened-to songs:

I understand, especially as your blog grows I don’t doubt that management of commenters is more problematic. I just hope that a feature like that doesn’t take the blog in an unintended direction.

How about putting the person’s name at the top of the comment, instead of the end? That way we know right away to turn our brains off if it’s someone with a proven track record of saying nothing useful.

Diane offers,

Welcome back, lik. We missed your gentle spirit and class.

We????  After excoriating me for saying that I do not speak for anyone but myself ("BatOne saying he doesn’t try to speak for anyone else is one of the funnier posts I’ve read here."), you now presume to speak for others?  Strikes me as well above even your usual level of hypocrisy, Diane.

I don’t see making it quicker to ignore those idiots we ignore anyway is going to have a downside.

It will in fact keep me coming back to certain threads for a longer time.