…about 50 times now, give or take a few dozen. He simply sets up a new name and uses a new IP. Anybody know how to make the ban permanent in Word Press?
I’ve tried to allow him to stay and participate; I even told him he could post at the Pub, hoping that he’d tone down the rhetoric out of deference to my past generosities toward him. Clearly, that didn’t work — nor (from my end) does spending hours every day tracking down his various comments and deleting them. It’s difficult enough to provide content; having to play hallway monitor on top of that is not something I relish doing, and is partially responsible for my periodic burnouts.
The only other option I have is to go to moderated comments or some such, and I haven’t the inclination to do so: pw has never had them, and I don’t want to start now.
If you have reasonable solutions, let me know. Because I don’t.
— Other than to suggest that thor go bother Karl and Dan for a spell. You know — for the nostalgia.
I believe that Techie has previously offered such assistance. I’m no so much help w’ such technical problems.
“thor go bother Karl and Dan for a spell. For the nostalgia.”
Indeed – Dan even has a site, so I am led to believe. And Karl is somewhere in the PJM realm, yes?
I’d rather this place remain what Jeff has intended.
What if we all posted as thor?
Oh, and feed the tuna fish mayonnaise.
Seconded Colonel,
Regardless of how I’ve tried to reason with him in the past, I must admit that especially of late he has been extra nasty with those here whom with he normally quarreled. It’s a shame that Jeff has had to invoke the nuclear option; one which he never wanted to use.
For the record, Karl is at Patterico, I know that from his cross-posted stuff at Cap’n Ed’s “green room”. And Dan’s site can be found by googling powip…
But, while I’ve never hung at Patterico, If he banned Jeff, I don’t think thor has much of a chance there. Maybe Dan will tolerate it, but again, I don’t think so. Nobody can tolerate stuff like the vitriolic pub post he leveled at Darleen from last night…
It’s a shame that thor, from what I gather once a valued member of the PW community, has gone so far over the edge. As the commercial cliche goes, “A mind is a terrible thing to waste”. I hope that he sees the error of his ways, and I’ll pray for him to do so as that is my God-bothering way…
All the best Jeff G, to you and yours, and to our entire PW community.
Totally ignore him. Do not engage him. Never. Under no circumstances should any poster ever reply to any of his shit.
Maybe that will encourage him to FOAD.
Engage meya and Ric and even Semantic but never, ever, reply to Thor.
Allow a few trusted regulars the ability to clean up his poo. I’m sure you’d get many, many volunteers should you ask for them. He uses proxies, and you should too.
Another option would be to require registration to comment, though that would only suck slightly less than moderation. Superior firepower is a better solution, as it usually is.
Oh, I forgot. Maybe you should ask SBP if there’s a way to ban him effectively Jeff G. He’s a whiz at this stuff, and after all, cooked up the whole trollhammer program; although I realize the name changing and proxies present a challenge.
Perhaps there’s a way we could all register legitimate e-mail addresses; but that’s too much admin work maybe, and restricts freewheeling discussion with longtime lurkers and infrequent commenters…
Drat!
What it boils down to is personal honor, respronsibility, and respect for others wishes. I’m sad to say that thor seems to have chosen to discard all three virtues in favor of the vice of false pride and who knows what else…
What if thor’s day job is as a waiter at one of those restaurants where the waiters insult the customers? Aren’t you talking about suppressing his gift?
I get more of an Andy Kaufmann vibe off of thor. He’s an example of something.
I’m not sure how giving the town drunk the spare key to the liquor store was intended to teach him the values of moderation.
I believe Kevin B has the right answer, but some people will never be able to resist the temptation. Giving certain members the ability to delete comments is useful, assuming a very strict definition of what constitutes a deletable offense. Like, for example, posts by someone you’ve already made persona non gratia.
If you’re going to do it, don’t leave it open for interpretation, confusion, dispute, and butthurt.
comment registration is probably your best bet, either with typeky or something of that nature. IP banning has its limits, and savvy trolls will just use a proxy. if you have a comment registration either tied to email or something of that nature, it will make it just that more difficult to create the new troll account.
He is an example of a cockandballz licking felcher, al.
Comment registration, as unpleasant as it may seem, is probably the only way to keep the little creep out for good.
The problem with suggesting comment registration is that recently Jeff seems right on the edge of saying “fuck it all” anyway, and might conclude the whole blog thing is more trouble than it’s worth.
At least giving his regulars – people allowed to post on the front page – the ability to clean up messes has the benefit of not increasing his workload.
How about finding out where he lives, physically, and hunting him down? Apparently, that happened to one troll in Silicon Valley (perhaps this is apocryphal, but as I recall the story was that the troll began noticing his front windows broken and his car vandalized).
He is an example of a cockandballz licking felcher, al.
Almost too good of an example.
When Tim Blair added registration to his old site, it was a breath of fresh air, because the place had become infested with at least a dozen “thors”, and every single thread would almost immediate go off topic and become a argument with an idiot.
Tim’s new Daily Telegraph / News Limited website is moderated (since it’s a newspaper blog) and comments can take anywhere from a few minutes to a few hours to appear.
Much as I hate the idea, registration-to-comment is probably the best approximation of a solution.
Moderating comments is labor-intensive. Ban-by-username is useless, and ban-by-IP equally so. thor himself is as good a refutation of the notion that appeasing a bullying thug works as you will find outside the Middle East.
Regards,
Ric
Jeff, I am amazed at your forebearance, and that you still wish to refrain from moderation or registration speaks volumes. I can’t, however, suggest any alternative. Sorry.
#13 apotheosis
Adding registration would certainly be a pain in the ass at first, but would require little policing afterward. From what Jeff wrote in this post, it seems to me to be the “policing” part that he’s had enough of.
It’s really a shame that a couple of juvenile internet vandals have ruined it for everone else.
thor was, at least at first, semi-tolerable. His descent was very severe lately. Almost like watching him go mad before our eyes. He’s not a happy person, I think.
You should just ask Thor. He knows everything about everything and always seems willing to share his knowledge, experience and opinions.
He’s not a happy person, I think.
Happiness is the most precious resource there is. Those who have it, are hated by those who don’t.
Feast your eyes on who Obama is married to and tell me he doesn’t loathe happy people.
comment registration
alp, being married to Lt Worf does have security benefits.
Or, just thor under whatever guise he happens to be using at the moment.
F* that. I’m not a happy person, either.
thor is a thug, a pixelated version of the kind of bully who beats people up because he enjoys the rush of being in charge. I don’t want people like that to be happy, because their definition of happiness is making other people miserable.
Regards,
Ric
#19: Even with a registration system, though, trolls are capable of registering, and someone’s going to have to police them. Assuming Jeff doesn’t want to hang around doing that anymore than he wants to hang around wiping out individual posts, you’re talking about giving someone the power to delete entire user profiles.
Which, from a delegation-of-authority standpoint, seems like a way bigger stick to hand out than just the ability to delete a given post.
Comment by Ric Locke on 7/13 @ 9:08 am #
Yup. Just go to registration for comments Jeff. It’s no big deal. It won’t lose you readers.
If you have the power to delete comments on every post, you have a lot of power in wordpress. However, as others have said, either having a team of people who will watch for and delete comments or adding comment moderation (which adds to the time one must spend with the blog) are really the only options that will work.
Registration would only lower the amount of work required to keep the boi at bay. It would not eliminate it, as throwaway email addys are a dime a million. It would also eliminate celebrity/gag sockpuppets and that wouldn’t be any fun at all.
#27 apotheosis
If registration is always open, yeah, it could be some work. Registration need not be always open.
thor’s rage amplifier is always set to eleven. Every thread devolves into an insult fest. It’s a shame.
#31 Pablo
Blame thor for that one.
Yeah, but then you’re closing off the freewheeling, take-all-comers nature of pw. And when that happens, the terrorists have won.
I’d rather squash him than watch him cause more and more damage.
#35 Pablo
All it takes is for a couple of morons to shit in the pool to ruin the party for everyone.
Ric, I think there is a difference between unhappy types who like to spread their misery,and unhappy folk who see know benfit in such an endevor.
Matter of fact … unhappy folk often find that small acts of kindess can actually have a rebound effect.
Nothing feeds the soul like a random act of kindness.
I’m with the ignore folk, ’cause I sorta of enjoy the random drive-by commenters we occasionally get.
But, ignoring is hard. I don’t think WordPress would allow, but I volunteer for pooper-scooper duty.
know=no
I registered on PW back when the site was powered by ExpressionEngine rather than WordPress, and wouldn’t have any objection, FWIW, to doing so again. Of course, back then if I wanted to sockpuppet I could simply log out, post the comment, and log back in again — because registration wasn’t required. That might be a workable compromise, at least worth trying.
If WordPress allows the site owner to browse comments posted only by those who are not logged in, it could make finding and eliminating trollish comments a little bit easier.
It is pretty sad that it is trolling a thread about how it was banned. The psychology of this one, to a clinical observer, has to be fascinating.
Well, sure. But to a close first approximation, that’s the point.
Jeff’s attempts to ban thor make thor happy… because he can register another IP, come back with no problem, and giggle delightedly. Ahm teh thor! Yew cain’t ban me ’cause ahm smahtah then yew! HAW HAW HAW HAW HAW!
One of the reasons I’m conflicted over abortion is the dim hope that someday it might be possible to identify that personality type, preferably at the blastocyst stage.
Regards,
Ric
#35 – I thought there was ‘how your name will appear’ option in addition to your login and password. I don’t know if Word Press supports it, though.
I just wish a blog as smart as PW could have a worthy foil. I think thor could have been that guy but the dude obviously has issues much bigger than trolling an internet blog. I didn’t realize that you had banned him that many times, wow. BTW, I would have no problem with registration. I, maybe naively, think that trolls like thor, meya, rd, ric caric, etc…may happen to keep legitimate worthy counterpoints away. Would you want to be seen as in the same ideological camp as those bunch of assholes (thor/the rest) and complete fucking idiots (the rest)? For someone with an ounce of honesty, I think the answer is no.
The Make Capitalism Work for You option: charge by the comment.
Pleasant and insightful comments get a refund.
Full fee for Ad hominem, Begging the question, or Moving the goalpost.
Triple the fee for Rick Rolling
.
.
.
and Sylvester Stallone soundbites…
before I bgin, I’d like to say a priori that I’m not putting words in Jeff’s mouth nor second guessing his intent.
I always envisioned PW as the electronic version of the villiage square, where sometimes heated discussions could take place regaring just about any issue. And just likein the square, ideas would be criticized or agreed with purely on their merits…
While it’s true that, “…a couple of morons shitting in the pool ruins the party for everyone”, as Spiny Norman opined, I also believe that, in the tradition of the villiage square, Jeff G. probably thought, correctly, that moronic comments would be proven false by the rejection, criticism, of ridicule of those assembled in the same. I tend to agree, and want to be clear that I’m not trying to put words in Jeff’s mouth nor motivations behind what’s gone on here at PW…
As I mentioned at the end of #7, the system relies on an individuals honor. But where that honor and goodwill is not present, or evaporates, and the entire compact of trust breaks down, It becomes the responsibility of the assembled crowd to not engage those who don’t actually want to partake of the discussion…
It’s not really fair to base the deletions on simply off-topic comments or other non-sequitors; because we’re all guilty of that to some extent-at least I am. It’s when the behavior becomes malicious, or even pathological, that it in fact becomes un-acceptable…
I’m guilty of trying to engage thor, probably more than most others; it’s in my nature to try and get at the good in folks by appealing to reason and their better nauture. And while I won’t admit that strategy completed flawed, I’m more than happy to not continue that practice if the majority here would wish it not to be so…
We can’t let a few morons ruin the good thing we have here, just as we can’t let the terrorists substantially change our way of life…
Perhaps pattern recognition software to detect that particular style of Thor’s?
Or registration.
Whichever. Me, I just ignore the lamprous one.
A cadre of troll busters is something that has worked over at ASHQ, you have a few regulars on at various times who can clean up messing troll spill with extreme discretion. Advantage – not thor-sepcific, you have commenters happy to do it with some sense of discretion, and the ability to revoke the super-sekrit credentials of anyone who became drunk with power.
At Ace’s the rules are – use with extreme prejudice, use a place holder for the deleted comment, (obvious and clever if you can, or as simple as “troll cleanup” if you can’t) so as not to mess up a comment thread. The troll-cleaners are given a password and the ability to modify the content of comments.
It might not be for you, but it works well over there.
OI makes a good point,
HuffPo, DU, and Kos ban folks and delete comments at will, to protect their echo chambers. Is that what we really want here? I’m with OI and Carin on the ignore option…
And as I’ve said, if that’s how most here want it, I’ll stop trying to “turn” the rogue, and go with the program…
But let us not transform in those whom we despise, so easily, based on inconvenience, andger, or even indignation-no matter how righteous! There are large principles in the offing here…
I say nuke ‘im. ITOWTBS.
True, but when you’ve got a citizen that insists on continually trying to give himself a blumpkin in the village square, you let the Sheriff deal with that one via shackles and cages.
#49 – Unpleasant arguments or even illogical/uninformed ones are very different than venom spewing at specific, individual posters (or commentators).
I hear you Pablo. Like I said, I’ll abide by the decision of the majority, in conjunction with Jeff G of course…
In that respect it’s like all those who profess to Hate America! and all it’s founded on and stands for, but come here for a piece of the economic pie…
It’s better for the whole if such parasitic malcontents leave; especially if they hate everything we discuss and everybody here…
Believe me, I would do so if I were so dissatisfied…But this isn’t about me…
Bob:
Deleting all of thor’s comments will not turn PW into an echo chamber; it will remove the cat doots from the sandbox. Thor has proved himself beyond redemption: he gets off on outdoing his previous nastiness, and he’s determined to ruin every single thread.
I also recommend relegating deletion power to trusted regulars and turning them loose: all thor comments are summarily deleted, regardless of content. He’s much, MUCH nastier than any of the other ignoramuses who frequent the place, and getting rid of his excrement will only elevate the tone of the discourse.
Not at all. “Dissent” or disagreement is not the problem we’re having here. There’s a big difference between those who simply disagree (even if their position is idiotic), but with genuine trollish behavior intended solely to disrupt and antagonize everyone else.
Go with registration, Jeff. It’s not overly onerous to people who read here regularly, and the best flavor of the site comes from the regulars.
Thor is a digital cretin. To somewhat disagree with Bob in #46, most people feel it’s ok to run someone out of the public square when they start masturbating and eating their own feces…which, really, isn’t that about all thor does, figuratively speaking? He starts at strident and escalates from there. He brings nothing.
Anyone who doesn’t like registration can thank thor and those of his ilk. It’s a sad testament to human nature: some people are just bastards.
Like I’ve said, and will repeat for one last time, I’ll abide by the rules-that’s another part of my make up. My prior comments have merely been to provoke thought, and ensure that the proper consideration is given to the slippery slope-so to speak…
Sorry for all the cliches!
From there it’s a short trip to “open threads” featuring photographs of bicycle parts rendered in loving, near-pornographic detail.
I’ll certainly register if registration is the solution, though I’m not much of a commenter around here. I’m just pointing out that any decision is going to come with its own set of pros and cons, and banning users represents a lot more power than deleting individual posts.
Troll cleaners might work as well. Or troll cleaners and registration. It’s Jeff’s yard, we’re just playing in it.
And, I’d be happy to volunteer to seek out and splash trolls where necessary, if that becomes the policy here. But perhaps that distinction should go to more long time members of the commentariat…
Everyone’s aware of my position, and whatever Jeff G decides is good with me…
Thought provoked, and am fully concerned about those slopes as well. But if Jeff’s really at the end of his rope because of principally one guy, then changes are in order.
I don’t love the idea of registration, nor of deleting comments. That said, there does come a point when the noise to signal ratio gets all out of whack, no?
Agreed Seth, when noise/signal get’s to unity, there’s no way understandable communication can go on…
Much better if that number is as small as possible…
Yeah, Bob. I don’t think banning thor, for good, will send a message such as dissent will not be tolerated. He doesn’t quite dissent as much as explode and incinerate. Again, I would love for there to be an articulate, reasoned counterpoint delivered by a statist. There never is. I’m not saying they would move me as my fondness for classical liberal values and tenets is much too strong. However, intelligent dialogues may help a fence sitter happening to read realize what values this country was built upon and what made the United States of America unique and wonderful. This site is a teaching site. Or rather that’s the way I saw it when it hooked me in.
Those were around long before registration… besides, open threads here more often involve conversations with Billy Jack.
Oh, it has indeed, sadly enough.
In a free-market blog such as PW, to have one poster dominate the discussion and turn it into a “it’s all about me” site, and Thor does that all the time, tends to get irritating. Not to mention defeats the purpose of civil discussion. He tends not to put forth ideas that make you think, but rather is there to irritate only. To put it mildly. He should have his own site, and let the dozens and dozens of people with similar viewpoints come to it.
Forget registration. Too much ongoing overhead.
You could use something like Comments Vote to allow people to vote comments up or down; “down” comments don’t have to be displayed.
Forget registration. Too much ongoing overhead.
You could use something like Comments Vote to allow people to vote comments up or down; “down” comments don’t have to be displayed.
…by the way, it’s nice to see Jeff is around and hale enough to spill some pixels. Even if on such an unfortunate topic.
Put another way, I’d like to read more of Jeff, and less of Thor.
“However, intelligent dialogues may help a fence sitter happening to read realize what values this country was built upon and what made the United States of America unique and wonderful. This site is a teaching site. Or rather that’s the way I saw it when it hooked me in.”
Agreed OI,
I started coming here around the end of 2007. I can’t recall whether it was due to “Liberal Fascism” pieces or Provacateurism stuff, but I came here due to a link from Dr. Sanity, and have been here since. And while there has been a circadian rhythm to the place, there is to everything. I still think we have some of the best discussions here, notwithstanding any “distractions” among the comments, that occur on the web. Personally, I wish Jeff were more into it, but undestand that he has other irons in the fire and as well as interests…
All the best
I agree with Sarah W. Ace’s system works well — with trusted troll-cleaners.
Thor is beyond the pale.
“First they came for the commentator who wished death on my Mother only after she was continually raped by the L.A. Lakers, then they……”
…and he said, “YOU’RE Thor? I’M tho Thor I can hardly pith!”
too soon?
Hmm. Any web site implementers out there?
Suppose one comment was free — anonymous or otherwise. A second comment from the same IP would dump the commenter into the registration screen and require completion of the registration form to continue.
So: drive-bys welcome (I think some interesting threads come from drive-bys; this may be a minority opinion) but persisting costs a little effort.
Can this be implemented under the existing regime?
Regards,
Ric
apotheosis, I denounce you.
PITHIST!!!!11!!11!1!one!!
And then you can have private threads that only logged in registered users can see!
Well…
Since the best way to get rid of a troll is to ignore them, and you *know* people won’t ignore Thor on their own…
You could “moderate” Thor’s comments (as in, have the system detect when it’s Thor), and *secretly hide* those comments from everyone…except for Thor. What will happen, is that Thor thinks he’s posting and not banned, everyone else thinks Thor is banned. Everyone is happy! Hell, Thor probably wouldn’t even change ips anymore, because he wouldn’t think he’s banned.
I’ll reiterate my support for an incremental move to simplify the trollage-policing: voluntary registration.
It’s not simple to re-register after being banned, if the system requires a valid e-mail address to activate a membersship.
#75: That’s fucking diabolical, dude.
That won’t work for the same reason banning him won’t work. He keeps changing handles and IP addresses. That could only work under registration, and as soon as he figured it out, he’d start registering socks.
How would he *know* that he’s being moderated though?
As part of the registration process, Jeff could require a home address. Then, if someone gets out of line, Jeff could show up at their door and kick their ass. Then he could sell the videos online to help fund the site.
I’d pay to watch thor get pretzeled.
I vote for a troll constabulary such as that used by Ace. It’s a shame that they cannot be armed with more than a ban. I would pay a reasonable sum for the right to pelt the miscreant with loathsome refuse were he confined to stocks as any public nuisance should be.
ban thor before the Dems pass their cyber-bullying-is-a-felony-bill?
Visit with a browser with the cache cleared from a virgin IP, (or from a smartphone) so that he’s seeing the thread the same as everyone else is. When he sees his posts aren’t there, it’s not hard to figure out what’s going on.
Let me elaborate on why I think registration is the way to go:
Given the set of facts
[1]under the current set up the blog as a whole suffers as discourse is drowned out
[2]on the other end of the spectrum, full moderation takes too much administrative overhead on an already overtaxed site owner, as well as curbing spontenaity
Registration attempts to split this difference by offering some coarse control over the wholesale ability of a given commenter to comment, while preserving spontenaity on the part of non problem commenters once they’re registered with a valid email address.
Registration draws some criticism in that email addressed can be created at will just as IPs can be changed to avoid a banning. WHILE THIS IS TRUE, there are technical reasons that make getting valid emails a thornier issue than getting a new IP.
There are utilities that are expressly FOR changing your proxy (and thus your IP) at will…percisely to overcome bannings and such. Not so with email; in fact, most services will likely go to some lengths to detect and prohibit a user from creating throwaway accounts (as a part of their efforts to combat the spammers). There is also time and effort on the part of the would be troll to set up those email accounts…and for what? One throwaway troll comment? The payoff likely won’t be see as worth it in the long run.
I’m not proposing it as a magic cure all, but as the best pay-off versus effort approach. Nothing is fool-proof.
Off-topic, but you all need to be warned:
DO NOT GO TO THIS SITE! You will be trapped for hours and hours in a tab explosion, as shown here.
I barely escaped with my very life.
I’ve run my share of communities in the past, and this is a problem every community seems to go through at one time or another. You’ve discussed the most common solutions — moderation and registration — and they tend to offer some relief. Nothing is perfect, but at least it’s a start.
Another solution you might consider is requiring people to sign up with OpenID. At the very least it’ll put another hurdle in the troll’s way.
Yet another decent solution is the reputation-based rating at sites like stackoverflow.com. Basically the more you post, and the higher you’re rated, the more powers that you’re granted. I’m not sure if there are wordpress implementations of that system yet, but there may be.
One big warning, though: I’ve seen massive cultural change in communities once you start putting controls like that in. If you go with the “trusted moderator” system you can end up with a clique of the “elite” moderators, and if you go with registration you get the “old guard vs. the newbies”. I’ve seen both cause the death of online communities, so you need to be careful in implementation and management.
Pretty much everything I’d say has been covered save for one thing. I don’t think there’s any reason to be concerned that this place will turn into an echo chamber. I’m sure I’m not the only person who finds innumerable comments I disagree with in any given thread but thanks to trolls I subordinate my minor points of difference to our collective hatred of lefties. So I think its more of an echo chamber because of them than it would be otherwise. Plus I long for the day that I can yell “write in fucking English you muppet” at happyfeet. Just kidding on that last one.
I came here due to a link from Dr. Sanity, and have been here since.
Ironically, Pat is suffering from the same burn-out as Jeff is. I’d speculate about some kind of contagion, but alas, it’s just the times we’re in.
It may be possible for a type of moderation system wherein the first comment from each commenter is automatically placed into moderation, and if the commenter passes muster, the commenter can be removed from moderation status, i.e., all subsequent comments go through automatically.
I was a moderator on a Yahoo Groups that allowed us to do that. It required a team of about 20 moderators to keep up with the traffic, though we were also screening for grammatical errors, typos, formatting, and topicality. And Jeff can always delegate that responsibility to the willing.
That way, thor gets no freebies, and maybe he even gives up and goes off to troll somewhere else.
If you go with the “trusted moderator” system you can end up with a clique of the “elite” moderators
Amen to that. The aforementioned group where I moderated went through several horrific upheavals that were exacerbated by a few folks with personality disorders (some lawyers) who Could Not Be Reasoned With. Plus most of my fellow moderators were not very Mal Reynolds when it came to applying discipline. Most were lefies, see. Very touchy-feely and wishy-washy and into Consensus Whenever Possible and Not Offending. Urg.
if you go with registration you get the “old guard vs. the newbies”.
Except that here at PW, we’re exceptionally glad to get fresh blood, regardless of orientation. Remember Lisa? We liked her, despite the fact that she was a die-hard O! cheerleader and yellow-dog Democrat. And even some of the newer trolls provided some entertainment for awhile.
No, PW is not cliquish, not that I’ve seen. And we’re not overly comfortable with the crowd of regulars that we would reject newbies.
Kevin B posted the answer: don’t feed the troll.
I’ve read comments here saying that it won’t work, that people won’t ignore him, etc. Really? Because I’ve never actually seen that tried. Thor comes back because he ALWAYS gets attention. People ALWAYS engage him. Just because he pitches, you don’t have to swing at the ball. This is an awesome site for him, because he can guarantee, helped by many commenters here, that every thread ends up about him. That’s a lot of power.
Rather than asking Jeff to put forth effort to create a comment registration system, or asking Jeff to change what he does, you might want to look at what YOU do. Every single time you engage him, you become part of the problem. Whether it’s a “Don’t feed the troll” comment in response to a Thor comment, or “You’re not fit to lick the sand from my son’s combat boots,” it’s all the same: you create noise, not content. Don’t put it on Jeff. Try changing your own behavior: you might have the effect you want.
Just as an idea.
@90
What he said.
Busy as hell today, but it might be good for everybody to read this.
#90: Not workable. Think Prisoner’s Dilemma.
And of course I bollixed the HTML.
First link.
Second link.
IRT Dave D and Kevin B’s suggestion;
This post is part of implementing that strategy. Now if Jeff could create a noticeable method for reminding all of us of his intent (perhaps as an addendum at the end of all posts) we might be more disciplined at executing this approach.
A PW Comment Constabulary? That might be best – as it allows Jeff the ability to pick and remove those who can do so, at a very little effort.
I, myself, miss some of the old trolls like PIATOR – man, that was some fun crazy, not so angry crazy. Plus, people like Caric provide a valuable public service – you can point and say “see what we mean”…
“Setting up” a registration system isn’t that troublesome in most blogging platforms, I don’t think. Registration comes pre-packaged in the one I use, and I’ve seen it in use on a lot of WordPress blogs so I’m pretty sure it’s part of the package here too.
I think I’ve seen the “first comment moderated” policy in use on WordPress blogs as well so it might not be too difficult to implement it here either.
As for whether banning a troll gives him his jollies, that is of interest to the sites that ban him only if he’s able easily to get back in. People I’ve banned from my site can still be swimming in their joy over being banned for all I care — if making myself happy also makes them happy, who am I to t it?
I may need a new keyboard. Should have read, “who am I to worry about it?”
Have you asked Levi Johnston what he would do about Thor? Our policy is that whenever we need an expert’s opinion Levi’s the person we turn to.
An excellent point.
“‘Ere now – wot’s all this, then?”
It may be possible for a type of moderation system wherein the first comment from each commenter is automatically placed into moderation, and if the commenter passes muster, the commenter can be removed from moderation status, i.e., all subsequent comments go through automatically.
Wouldn’t it be nice if there was some sort of Bayesian filter plugin for WP that would recognize troll patterns and dump posts that returned a reasonable match?
Went to the site in #85. Hit the random selection and got Combat Commentator which seemed fitting with this thread.
I don’t think there’s any reason to be concerned that this place will turn into an echo chamber
What Abe said.
Yah – ditto, man.
If PW now the farm team for Paterico, then it only makes sense to give thor the tap to go to the show. nk, daleyrocks and Paterico should only have the best trolls.
Just delete those comments that respond to the thorn. People learn to stop responding and thorn gets bored. Win.
That or I vote for hunting thorn down and breaking his hands.
From the Shirky article:
Sounds like a description of the changes in American governance.
For what it’s worth coming from a lurker, I like Ace’s solution of a few anonymous moderators, too. That way, if you wanted, the mods could just paste over all of Thor’s output and turn it into something more beneficial, like a “Best of Happyfeet” or something.
He’s been using his hands?
Ew.
I’d still have kept him around despite the recent episode if he ever met any query or challenge head-on.
Alas, thor has never so much as attempted to engage a substantive challenge – if he had simply disagreed with our several political philosophies and set his objections forth, even with the personal stuff, he might have had an appeal.
I’ve been banned, secretly banned, disappeared, “bunnied,” and moderated to death on several lefty blogs, multiple times, because they were having a bit of a hard time responding to a non-cartoon with their canned responses. That kind of banning is pure cowardice, but that’s not what was done here.
Dave D, AMEN to your comment.
Hypothetical: Say you were at a party at Jeff G’s house, and another guest was obnoxious, profane, vile and generally insulting to you and the other guests. Wouldn’t you walk away from that person, ignore him or her, and engage in conversation with all of the other interesting and delightful guests?
It is that simple.
No retort will be devastating enough to stop a bad guest, and no amount of coddling and well intended discussion will bring a jerk around to decent and decorous behavior. Why not just agree to walk away from, shun, and shame by exclusion? It’s easy, it’s free, and it would show our generous host that we want to minimize the harm that is coming from the bad actor.
Just a thought from a frustrated lurker who could do without a lot of the nonsense that develops when commenters engage the bad guest.
#14: My own personal plan is to put together enough of his misogynist crap to convince folks like BellSouth that they are aiding and abetting felonies, and use the discovery process for that to get the bastard’s actual physical address. At that point, it’s leaving the pool, one way or another.
TX law (at least) allows me to use deadly force to defend my own OR another person’s property. If cyber / intellectual property is enough like physical property to let the RIAA grab millions, I figure it’s enough like physical property to make an interesting case that I can defend it for someone else.
Jeff, have you ever seen The Pope of Greenwich Village?
“If PW now the farm team for Paterico,”
Joe, Joe, Joe….
PW is the big leagues we are trying to cut a disruptive member of the team. This is not a promotion.
And I am fairly certain no one would be interested in a trade.
Thor has some serious whack he has to do deal with. If you wanted to punish him, then him being Thor is enough. I doubt if he sleeps much; his synapses fire in crazy ways too much for him to chill. He’s got issues that make yours and mine look micro. That’s why I’ve never felt like I had to go after him except for some mock here and there. I always picture some dude I’ve met somewhere along the line when I realized the guy was smart enough but was cursed with all that crap in his head. If we were cavemen, he’d be the guy who couldn’t keep quiet during a mammoth hunt. He’d be kicked out of the cave clan to wander alone. But if you’re Thor, you’re never alone. He’s got too many personalities to ever be alone.
All that, and the picture of Thor reading this stuff and not being able to do anything about it! Whoa yeahh.
Worse punishment than being Thor: being denied response.
That’s just sooooo good.
Wouldn’t you walk away from that person, ignore him or her
No. If he was saying the sorts of things about my wife that thor has said here, I’d take him outside and curb-stomp his ass.
But that’s just me.
Also: see the link about the Prisoner’s Dilemma. With a site this large it only takes one or two defectors to blow the agreement, and thor can always get one or two.
I second the idea of using the AOSHQ type designated moderator model. The troll posts that have been edited are often quite funny. Plus, something as power-mad as Thor will find it intolerable to have its work modified.
Bob Reed mentioned the phrase nuclear option IRT banning someone but wouldn’t the real nuclear option involve disclosing the identity of someone.
I know it is a controversial subject and don’t know if using it or the threat of using it would yield the results we are looking for but I think that it is worth discussing.
Please chime in if you have thoughts.
Danger I was kidding with the “farm team” comment. Sending thor to nk, daleycocks, and Paterico would be karmic justice (I will not put Karl in that trifecta of shame). If only we could technically over come Charles Johnson’s defenses and send thor there things would be perfect. Of course thor would probably fit in just fine at LGF.
What SBP said: simply ignoring him only works if EVERYONE does it. There will always be someone to snap and forget to shun. Besides, why should I have to wade through dung to get to the good stuff? Nothing is quite so irritating as a troll who thinks they deserve the attention and aren’t getting it.
“Sending thor to nk, daleycocks, and Paterico would be karmic justice (I will not put Karl in that trifecta of shame). If only we could technically over come Charles Johnson’s defenses and send thor there things would be perfect. Of course thor would probably fit in just fine at LGF.”
Agreed
thor could be the new shamuta
I think there is a way to wrap comments in html hidden tags so the text is never displayed or visible. The wrappers could be placed by name or IP. This way you would see Comment by Thor and then nothing in the comment threads.
I think Jeff should give selected regulars the ability to mark posts like Thor’s as “invisible”, i.e. only the person who made the comment would be able to see them. Should drive Thor crazy.
There was a ‘sphere-wide round of “Why are they all still so angry? It doesn’t make sense!” pieces after the election, when leftoids met their victory (“victory”) with an explosion of fury, rather than with the re-civilization you’d expect after a win in a controlled competition, like an election in a constitutional republic — a contest with rules and an end.
I said, as usual, “You don’t get it.”
These analogies to rude guests, bullies, the “unhappy,” etc., and advices re: the proper sociological (or techno-ersatz-sociological) responses to such analogy-beings, are the same kind of wrong.
There are uninhibitably id-ful things. How you stimulate them doesn’t matter. They have one reaction: Yes. They want everything.
…
I have no lawful advice.
Except for the “Comment by…” part, you’ve just described TrollHammer.
Actually, ignoring him will still work if those one or two people who do reply to him don’t get joined by the rest, who throw up their hands and say, “Well, if A responded, I might as well respond, too. The whole experiment’s broken.” You can’t say it won’t work; you haven’t tried it. A gentle reminder, given JUST ONCE per thread, to the individuals feeding the troll might actually have an effect.
Alternatively, you can huck a clot of horse shit at the local drunk and bitch about how the whole town smells.
I think Russ. Just Russ. has the best idea. Rather than registration or an elite group of moderators, go with the democratic approach and install a button that asks “Is this comment abusive, stupid, off-topic, or just plain vile?” If, say, five people click the button the comment is hidden. I doubt the present company would click on a comment that was abusive, stupid, off-topic, or vile, so long as it was also amusing or informative (at least I’m counting on that for my future comments!). Best, everyone gets to play and even thor can comment so long as he’s at least a little bit amusing.
I’d suggest a thumbs-up button for comments that are just endearing as all hell, but we all know happyfeet would win that one!
You can’t say it won’t work; you haven’t tried it.
Yes we can, and yes we have.
yep, the Talking Telephone Pole warning. funny, but ineffective. :(
Good! Better him than you Jeff. F*** Thor and his hammer. He was an asshole and we’re better off without him. Letting him rant didn’t prove anything. I say let the left be tolerant of things that are intolerable. That’s not our job.
As an avid reader but rare commentor, I’m baffled by the widespread assumption that Thor is a mighty, rather than flyspeck, irritant. “Bullying” & “thug?”
Anyone have a link to a thread wherein he got the better of an argument or insult? Never happened. The servile nature of his politics neuters him here. As for insulting, well, hey, this is the internet for you.
Cordially…
Swen,
The only problem with that approach is that someone utilizing multiple IP’s may be able to outvote everyone else and in essence create his own echo chamber, or at the very least hide everyone’s post out of spite.
I say nuke ‘im. ITOWTBS.
You rang?
Anyone have a link to a thread wherein he got the better of an argument or insult?
This is where you’re wrong.
thor isn’t out to “get the better of an argument”.
He’s out to get people to pay attention to him and waste everyone’s time.
As for insulting, well, hey, this is the internet for you.
Go fuck yourself.
what’s kind of sad is that I don’t think Mr. thor has been helpful for the blog sometimes. I miss people that used to come here and now they don’t anymore and I think sometimes it might be at least partly cause of thor. Also, twitter.
#2
2.Comment by Idea Man on 7/13 @ 8:37 am #
What if we all posted as thor?
Oh, and feed the tuna fish mayonnaise.
Your Fired! Clean out your desk and leave the building.
Inauiring mind: Where’s Thor? Walking his pet rat. Sorry, couldn’t resist
bastard.
i know maggie but twitter is less relaxed somehow than bloggings… it’s like having adderall and extreme doritos for dinner. I’m trying.
oh shoosh. say no more.
So,
Does any one have thoughts on the disclosure threat vs effect I asked about in #119?
um, I don’t know that that’s possible in all cases. particularly this one.
As for insulting, well, hey, this is the internet for you.
Go fuck yourself.
LOL! Good one!
Cordially…
Danger,
I don’t know what there would be to disclose besides IP addresses and e-mail addresses-which could be fake X@Y.com constructs.
I can see a trend here, and as someone who has engaged thor often I stand guilty, regrdless of my good intentions. If the order of the day from Jeff G is to ignore him, I will comply…
Maggie,
Jeff says that our troll is friends with Dan Collins which leads me to believe that Jeff probably knows something about him.
But from a theoretical perspective would disclosure or the threat of disclosure likely yield the results we are hoping for?
hf,
I’m hesitant to ask, but what would be the result of a combination of adderall and extreme doritos?
Does any one have thoughts on the disclosure threat vs effect I asked about in #119?
Even though he could, it probably isn’t in Jeff’s best interest to engage in that. But thor has left ample bread crumbs here for someone to do so independently if they had the time and inclination.
Go fuck yourself.
I didn’t come here to be verbally abused; I wanted an argument.
I don’t think so. well, okay Timb has said that it worked, claims he will not comment here anymore for fear of being outed. But if someone’s not completely coo-coo-crazy they’ll be able to cover their tracks a bit.
LOL! Good one!
Oh. You thought that was a joke.
Not one of the brighter lurkers, are you?
I mean it: go fuck yourself, asswipe. Sideways.
Also your spouse, children, parents, heirs, assigns, successors, agents, devisees, and legatees.
“Oh, it’s just the Internet”?
Bullshit.
Bob,
I’d have to plead guilty as well.
I believe that Dan Collins probably has the most information about thor. As Abe points out, there is a lot of clues that he’s dropped here along the way that might allow digging him up with a little sleuth work…
Is it worth it? Who knows…
you mean the fact that he’s a financial jeenius, flying with Russians when not screwing them or Michael Vick, name dropping, musician extrodinaire? oh and he claims to live in Florida.
True enough. However, thor thrives on attention and I’m trying to think of a way to rob him of that as painlessly as possible that’s also flexible enough to deal with other idiots who happen by. That’s one reason I’d suggest a down vote only, rather than voting comments up or down. That way he can’t use multiple IPs to keep his comments visible. Five votes, or three, or whatever, and he’s gone from the thread.
I’d also suggest hiding rather than deleting so we can see why any particular post was voted out. Then if the system is being abused we can complain to the host. I’m also trying to think of a way to avoid “the moderators don’t like me” and “this is an echo chamber” complaints. If everyone can vote and it requires several votes, then no one — other than Jeff — can simply silence someone (and we know how painful this is to Jeff, so I don’t think we have to worry about that).
It might also be interesting if it were a public vote. Certainly wouldn’t hurt my feelings if everyone knew I’d voted thor down and that might minimize down-voting someone simply because you disagree with them or they’ve attached you personally.
Bottom line, I’m just trying to come up with alternatives to the usual comment registration/moderation/banning schemes. Perhaps just a button that says “shut the fuck up, thor”? Simple, satisfying, less filling and tastes great!
It also seems a whole lot less final. As hard as it sometimes is to believe, thor does occasionally have something intelligent to say. Not often mind you, but it has happened. I’d rather he modified his behavior than simply cast him into the outer dorkness.
Do what needs to be done. It’s just that for some reasons, registration around here has been a problem for me in the past. Or something was just ticked at Verizon.
As for disclosing someone’s identity, I think that’s probably a bad idea. Thor will inevitably wake up in an alley someday with a 2×4 up his ass and I don’t want him blaming present company.
I hear ya Swen,
And I don’t want to discourage anyones ideas because someone will likely suggest a modification to your ideas or similar idea that yields the results we are looking for.
So keep firing people;)
Yes, Verizon EVDO cards present a problem for registration that depends on an IP address, as they seem to generate a different IP each time you log on, with wildly various locations. I’ve been accused of chicanery because my IP put me in San Fran one day and in Delaware the next. Not my fault, it’s an artifact of their system. Does make it a nuissance commenting some places though.
Thor will inevitably…
It’s not prolepsis if it has already happened. Probably more than once.
“Oh. You thought that was a joke.
Not one of the brighter lurkers, are you?
I mean it: go fuck yourself, asswipe. Sideways.
Also your spouse, children, parents, heirs, assigns, successors, agents, devisees, and legatees.
“Oh, it’s just the Internet”?
Bullshit.”
Still bringing the irony–res ipsa loquitur
Cordially…
I have a question about the IP address thingy. Is that something anyone can check? Or just the blog owner? I’ve seen so many people mention tracking down someone’s IP address, and I have no earthly idea how they do that.
I mean, aside from magic or something.
I gotta admit, SBP, I thought the “go f* yourself” comment was a joke, too.
Rick,
People are a little agitated right now please try not to elevate the situation any further. If you have something constructive to add fire away otherwise save the counterpunches for another day.
Thanks
IP addresses are recorded for each post, but are generally only visible to the blog owner, and whoever he chooses to make them visible to.
They’re not generally posted openly for privacy reasons, though Ace’s place has a nice way around that with the hash codes on the post – it’s unique to a given IP, but other than identifying multiple posts as coming from the same IP, it’s useless to outsiders.
Counterpunches? Jeepers, I was just pointing out that Thor is a gnat, not a man-eater. I can sure chill; perhaps if others would they’d be able to take Thor’s true measure.
Cordially…
Still bringing the irony–res ipsa loquitur
Still bringing the stupidity.
Chinga tu madre, maricon.
um, Rick, would you please email me? gwynnifer at gmail
If the decision is to use the thumbs-up or thumbs-down system, I would suggest calling it the “Seagull Rating.”
As in, how much the poster flies in and just shits on the conversation, as opposed to being, you know, actually constructive.
As for function, a post that receives more than five “down” votes merely gets collapsed, with only the rating and poster’s name visible. Oh, and a nice graphic next to the doody score. That’s be sweet.
You could also call it the “Train-Wreck Factor.” For obvious reasons.
“but other than identifying multiple posts as coming from the same IP, it’s useless to outsiders.”
apotheosis
Is there a way for readers to see if a person is utilizing multiple IP’s? Dorothy has provided such information on occasion but it would not be reasonable to have a full time moderator patrolling every post.
“You can’t say it won’t work; you haven’t tried it.”
“Yes we can, and yes we have.”
Hey, mind showing me the evidence of that? Just for my own edification.
You know, when I was about 8 years old there was a kid a couple of grades older who was much like thor.
He used to pick on me on the school bus every day. I mean constantly.
“Just ignore it and he’ll leave you alone”, everyone said.
Didn’t work.
You know what worked?
When I got a big rock in my hand and clobbered him in the back of the head. Hard.
He didn’t fuck with me after that.
So, there’s that.
Hey, mind showing me the evidence of that? Just for my own edification
Try any thread where thor and one other person (it only takes one) have managed to completely derail the conversation.
Like, for instance, ALL OF THEM.
You’re not very bright either, are you?
No, you don’t know. So why don’t you piss off?
169 — dunnit.
Cordially…
169 — dunnit.
Buh-bye, fuckwit.
Not really. And even that, in and of itself, doesn’t mean much…I use multiple IPs myself, because I post some from work and some from home. And some people (those using dialup, etc) are going to have different IPs every time they connect.
Encontado.
Cordially…
um, can anyone remind me how I’m supposed to make my laptop quit doing the “tap=click” thing? I can’t seem to find it and I have no idea why it started doing it, but I’m going to set this thing on fire soon.
Dave D,
I would be willing to try it and with something near 100% enforcement/discipline it would likely work in time.
It’s the enforcement part that is the long pole in the tent though. Especially considering the use of multiple usernames by some of the trolls which makes identification tough and is a prerequisite for enforcement/discipline.
Comment by SBP on 7/13 @ 4:58 pm #
Which is exactly what I realized the other day, that thor was a schoolyard bully.
but you can just file a subpoena if you have a case.
Another cowardly fuckwit heard from.
#182 – mac or pc?
pc, and I looked at the mouse setting thinger in the control panel, but didn’t see anything about the touchpad. and RTO’s not here to look at it and make it behave.
sorry. mac person. but try looking for “sound” on the user interface. there should be a toggle list of alert, mail, fail, all of which can have a sound associated with it.
“I just love Trollblocker…………”
Wouldn’t that stop you from screaming on the street corner to yourself?
oh, it’s not a sound, it’s my comp is opening up links because the mouse pointer happens to be over it and I touch the little pad. some people like doing that rather than using the buttons. me, my hands are too out of control.
Trollhammer doesn’t do a lot when someone goes to the Pub and writes an entire piece of garbage about you.
No, this “issue” has gone beyond trollhammer.
maggie: what manufacturer/model do you have?
The basic concept is actually quite simple. The back-end, not so much.
On the bright side, it uses all kinds of “sciency” things that you traditionally love to hate and fear.
mille pardons. I though you were getting an audible click for every keystroke.
Restart might help to restore initial settings.
Can anyone identify a particular harm that might arise from the proprietor appointing a constabulary for a two week trial period? There is the possibility that another of the common idiots who wander in may lower (or elevate) themselves to raw sewage status in the interim but the value of the property is not being preserved at the moment at any rate.
dell e1505. it just does this occasionally, and seriously it takes me asking RTO to look at it for the right tab to magically appear. heh. I gots to go to rehearsal anyway, so I’ll try just rebooting.
I think an issue is that as things are set now, only the author of a post can delete comments.
I don’t know if or how easy it is it get around this. Or, if Jeff feels comfortable giving away the keys.
Really? Then just tell us the basics of how banning a person 9and only that person) with ever changing IP’s and nics works.
Come on, genius. Shine for us.
Maggie, check this out>.
If you don’t have the Synaptics driver they’re talking about, you should be able to find it on the Dell support site (I’d be wary of downloading drivers from third-party sites).
rantings from lunatics are certainly opposing views. but the left is good at projecting their delusions on the rest of us. sortof like gitmo guys slinging feces
“On the bright side, it uses all kinds of “sciency” things that you traditionally love to hate and fear.”
Gee, moron, stereotype much?
Comment by Semanticleo on 7/13 @ 5:37 pm #
Do you speak English?
Spika da Angleite?
“They seldom come back after a few hours.”
Well RD,
It’s probably because it’s really a lost cause, considering the gangs of Soros underwritten moderating help won’t allow any Dissent! to harsh the mellow of the echo chamber…
I registered long ago at HuffPo and Kos, so as to engage in meaningful debate about the issues, “in the belly of the beast” so to speak. But I quickly discovered that HuffPo didn’t publish 3/4 of my comments. And Kos? Well that bastion of intellectual honesty, reinforced by the unshakeable courage of their convictions, banned me within 2 weeks…
The folks here will vouch for the fact that I don’t generally sink to profanity, and generally comment somewhat thoughtfully on the topic in question; or you can google my name and this site name if you wish to investigate yourself…
The fact is that the ideology of Tolerance! is, in fact, intolerant of Dissent!, and most left-wing blogsites won’t generally publish opposing points of view that can’t be easily answered or refuted…
Verum est volatilis , simulator est eternus , singulariter pro Democrats
Res ipsa loquitur.
“And Kos? Well that bastion of intellectual honesty, reinforced by the unshakeable courage of their convictions, banned me within 2 weeks…”
I lasted one post at DU.
Rick,
I think Jeff would be willing to try it, Bob Reed might be a good nominee (assuming you are interested Bob)
there’s a left mag called Dissent i think. they’re against non groupthink
No effing way. Lift your own bootstraps, you commie socialist whiner.
Bob,
Man you are scary, Skip the assistant head stock clerk promotion. You sir are going right to Store manager;)
The folks here will vouch for the fact that I don’t generally sink to profanity, and generally comment somewhat thoughtfully on the topic in question; or you can google my name and this site name if you wish to investigate yourself…
That’s for damn sure. I on the other hand am surrounded by lefties a hell of a lot smarter than our trolls on a daily basis and pull my punches as a matter of routine for the sake of maintaining friendships with the emotionally fragile. No interest in doing it here.
In other words, “I didn’t understand the problem, I made an ass of myself claiming to have a solution and I’d rather not admit that I’ve got nuthin’.”
I’m impressed.
Bullshit.
Argument is an intellectual process. Contradiction is just the automatic gainsaying of any statement the other person makes.
“The reason Goldbrick….”
Classy, real classy.
For an asshelmet.
An entire thread, about thor, without thor writing a single post.
Five bucks says he’s buying himself celebratory shots as we speak.
Go with the Ace model. It will solve the problem. The trick will be in establishing a line between dissent and pure trollery, and picking mods who can understand that difference and act accordingly.
SBP is right, when someone is absolutely determined to be an asshole, only hitting him on the head several times until he stops is a solution. This is the internet, so you can’t hit him on the head several times, but you can engage a anonymous posse to remove his posts, or edit them to say “I love the taste of feces in the morning. It tastes like me,” or some such. At the very least, it will make his comments entertaining, which they are now not.
“…it uses all kinds of “sciency” things that you traditionally love to hate and fear.”
RD,
Are you trying to be ironic, attempting to simply stir the pot, insult the PW commentariat, and derail a thread where we are determining what to do about a commenter who did this same things? Or are you simply being mean spirited?
I am the one most guilty of engaging the one we are talking about on this thread. And when it comes to you, I won’t be guilty of the same…
Quoniam res ipsa loquitur…
The reason Goldbrick doesn’t moderate or register comments is he’s too busy. It has nothing to do with his self-proclaimed, 1st amendment affectation. You New Whigs will have to do better than that.
What’s with you, Cleo? You think Thor’s demise means there’s an opening in the Asshole Pack?
seman,
A consequence of your approach is that the descriptive power of the base component raises serious doubts about an important distinction in language use. It must be emphasized, once again, that relational information is not quite equivalent to irrelevant intervening contexts in selectional rules. In the discussion of resumptive pronouns following, the appearance of parasitic gaps in domains relatively inaccessible to ordinary extraction does not affect the structure of the levels of acceptability from fairly high to virtual gibberish.
Bob,
Of course by scary I mean James Taylor song come to life scary.
You just call out my name…
come on people you know the words
Danger,
See my #59 regarding your question
Mostly, the trolls aren’t a big problem. It’s just the one coprophiliac with delusions of grandeur that needs dealing with. A group of mods could be tasked with a singular objective: remove anything thor posts ASAP, period. And even that could be temporary, terminated and reinstated as needed.
Got any actual proof of that Soros underwriting, treasure?
That’s probably why they kicked your ass out. Repeatedly.
Bob,
I figured that you would be willing but I didn’t want to put words in your mouth.
That plus I wanted to test my Bob Reed summoning power ;-)
“I on the other hand am surrounded by lefties a hell of a lot smarter than our trolls on a daily basis…”
All conservatives who live near NYC are Abe…
Most of my wife’s friends and colleagues at the DA’s office are essentially far-left liberals; she’s been a Democrat all her life, just more conservative than most-at least since she turned 30…
Best Wishes
#205
I think he’s confusing science with technical wizardry. HTML ain’t science. Now anthropomorphic global warming…..now that’s scienc………..Oh. wait. Phrenology. Now that’s a science I can get my head around! No. That’s not it. Ah. I’ve got it. The forbidden science of Transmorgafication!
All conservatives who live near NYC are Abe…
I briefly forgot we share the same goldfish bowl. It makes your patience here all the more saintly.
Wrong again! You suck at this intertubes debate thing, RD.
Furthermore, it would be easier to convince people not to reply to him if they know his excretions are going to be cleaned up.
Who’s thor?
RD, there is a prodigious amount of documentation pointing to where Soros has given his money.
You know this.
My question is why are you making an issue of it? Are you denying his financial support for the aggressive
On the broader issue of Thor and the Thorettes, I have no solution or opinion.
Thor Simply is.
Having posted here awhile, I can say definitively that you know you have Thor nailed when he tries to distract you with allusions to sex and (his) sexual prowess. Recall his prodigious posting on Russian/Salvic vaginal superiority last week, over his inability to defend assertions on the US’ many diplomatic failures with regard to our warm and open friends in Muscovy. [NB-He was also spectactularly inept on understanding WW II, primary sources and historiography.]
Soon enough, we were all either gay or impotent next to his epic pleasure-provision capacities. The fact of the matter here, as all from Carin to Maggie to Bob R. and JD know, is that the more an adult male has to assert his sexual dominance and competence, it should be clear that he is anything but.
I think we can also assume that Thor’s vaunted financial resources and multi-national business experience are on a par with his real-life G-spot locative record.
Money and sex, comments and glory. Protein Wisdom and Jeff’s indulgence are what keeps Thor from drinking himself to sleep by the close of the stock market.
apologies for the incomplete assertion in 234.
It should read: My question is why are you making an issue of it? Are you denying his financial support for the aggressive growth of once narrowly cast groups like MoveOn? Or things like the Tides Foundation?
Comment by mcgruder on 7/13 @ 6:47 pm #
That was a thing of beauty.
I should add that the purest sign that Thor has tied the proverbial Gordian Knot in a thread is when he trots out the old “Retard/Waterhead” meme.
Check it. 100% true.
Rusty,
O/T but I left you this message in the Direct from god/Gaia thread. There was a second part but the first part was the only thing that was important.
#86
No.’Protein’
Bye
Sorry Rusty,
I didn’t meen to be insulting when I brought up the spelling thing (Lord knows I should talk) I was just stuck on the irony meme at the time.
Regards,
Soros is the Blofield of the reactionary fascsit left.
I really do know how to spell…….
Bad keyboard, BAD!
….but you can engage a anonymous posse to remove his posts, or edit them to say “I love the taste of feces in the morning. It tastes like me,” or some such.
Sounds great! When does it start?
Night all,
Cause early has already arrived in these parts.
Be safe, Danger.
Well RD,
Income may be fungible, but considering that Media Matters, Capital Researh Center, and People for the American Way all advertise on HuffPo, that’s a revunue trail from Soros to them right there.
Mr. Soros discretion when it comes to financial investing and altruistic donations is well documented; he has been known on more than one occasion to keep his involvement in projects secret. And he has done more than one deal with Oak investment partners, the original underwriters of the Huffington Post…
And, As far as I know, Arianna Huffington has not disclosed the the identity of the investors who put up 15 million in late 2008. Of couse, being a private company, they’re allowed to keep their biiks secret…
Commodo grow sursum RD , quod subsisto trying ut satus perturbo hic procul PW…
0-dark-30 already Danger? I hope the “powers that be” aren’t also talkin’ about banning coffee in the Military too?
That would be a total disaster…
Be Cool!
In other words, you’re a complete loon and you have no actual proof.
Bonus rides in black helicopters are also fungible.
Hows about this? All the regulars commit to ignoring thor. Full stop.
Hang on, there’s more. I agree with SBP, and his point about the prisoners dilemma. So here’s the solution.
Instead of Jeff deleting thors comments, an arduous task for any mortal man, he deletes any comments responding to him, and bans the offending regular for a week.
You know, for not honoring their commitment.
I think that would be a more manageable task for Jeff, and thor would soon get bored with talking to himself.
What do you think?
Wow, I guess I closed up shop too early last night (stepson arrived from Oregon for summer visit. Damn, he’s 14 and already taller than I am and I’m not short!) and missed some fireworks.
I’ve not had a problem with cleaning up Walthor’s scat … which I can/could do only on my threads here in this place. All Walthor has is words and a dysfunctional life that fires his perversity.
If JeffG wants to give some of us the ability to clean up on threads not our own, I’d be happy to be on KP detail.
RD/meya/whatever
Big courageous fella, you there behind a proxy, changing IPs every few comments.
rd
yea and you’re the type who proclaims any DISSENT from agw as shills for the oil industry minus the links
I think women that don’t wear burkhas are asking for it.
I’m sure that was profound, and likely a slam, but I don’t get it.
Huh?
More snark than slam, lee. It’s just that the notion of punishing regulars for vocally objecting to the real problem, versus addressing the real problem seems a bit off.
RD,
You are being willfully obstinate; I’ve outlined a sure revenue trail, and pointed out that as a private company HuffPo doesn’t have to open it’s books to the public…
Your response is drivel regarding black helicopter squads and insults…
So, see #234 by mcgruder…
And since this thread is about banning commenters exhibiting boorish and self-servingly contrarian behavior, well, I guess…
I’m perfectus vobis RD take a porro ingredior off a brevis pier…
Darleen,
As one who tried in vain to reach out to thor, and bring him back to reality based discussion, I often “spoke” with him after others had decided to ignore him. I’d just like to say for the record that I hope you realize I wasn’t showing you any disrespect by doing so.
And, as I sense that RD is simply a less flamboyant version of thor I’ll be the first to implement the apparent new PW troll policy by ignoring him…
Especially in light of the “shifting IP over a short period of time dodge”, most likely an unspoken dead giveaway of trollish intent.
Take it easy
OK,
This is off topic, but hilarious; especially the map…
http://ace.mu.nu/archives/289621.php
No matter how much things change, they still remain the same…
Enjoy all!
Show me yours first. I promise I won’t run and tell….
The fact of the matter here, as all from Carin to Maggie to Bob R. and JD know, is that the more an adult male has to assert his sexual dominance and competence, it should be clear that he is anything but.
Word. I’m guessing we have a size issue.
Cool Pablo, but I think you are taking the suggestion to seriously. It’s not meant to be a hateful thing, more like a lighthearted reminder.
When I golf with my brother, we have a silly thing where when a shot is muffed because the head wasn’t kept down, we will stroll over, and bend down to receive the ceremonial flick to the forehead, a painful yet harmless reminder that we screwed up when we know better.
It would be like that.
After the offending regular (just so you know, I love you guys) returns from purgatory, there would be guffawing and merciless teasing for the poor sap that slipped and fell in the steaming pile of thor.
I thought it sounded fun and effective, but it could just be me…
Bob Reed
Of course I don’t take it any disrespect. I think we all at one time or another attempted to get Walthor to at least engage in actual discourse, but it was for naught. Quixotic.
#239
” I know the divil grins,
as seas of ink I splatter.
God forgive my literary sins,
the other kind don’t matter.”
Danger. You’ll never go broke if you can convince someone to pay you to correct my spelling.
I was saddened yesterday because this place had become all about thor, all the time. He’s very boring and not at all smart and witty like a whole lot of people here. So yeah. We’re good.
About damn time.
lee, it could also be that I’m seeing a practical, obvious solution.
I am collecting the great trolls of rhe world so we can breed them, enhance their mendoucheness, and weaponize them. thor is not the worse, by far, but he has a alot of potential.
Rusty, I was hoping you were just having a moment there yesterday.
I think the thing that is so frustrating, is that NO liberals seem to want to discuss any issues. And thor takes that strategy to eleven. But he is often the only punching bag around.
I’ve come to the conclusion (despite all his protestations that I’m simply to stupid to understand what he writes) that he doesn’t defend … well anything, because he simply can’t.
Can’t defend the spending policy of Obama.
Or Cap and Trade.
Or healthcare.
He’s got nothing. Nada. Zilch. And that so frustrates him, that he’s reducing to naming calling. Well, he can just fucking do that somewhere else.
Bravo jeff. If Thor had occasionally addressed the issues, he wouldn’t have the throngs arguing for his removal.
Bob, here’s a hint. RD is an asshole without the smarts. He’s not even thor-light. He is as categorically worthless as a troll can be. We’re all anti-science, anti-poor, anti-muslim, anti-whatever fills his little cartoon mind in that particular instance. With thor it’s a needle in a haystack. With this dumbshit, it’s there is no needle. You will never find what you are looking for. It is not possible. Ignore the dumbshit. Because to do otherwise, is a lesson in futility.
Oh, and it’s kind of obvious, at least to me. Thor isn’t as big a gulper as he seems to be in regards to O!bama. He hates the commentariat, here. So, the over the edge affectations for O!bama are his MO. The hate for all things Palin is part of that, too. All which kind of cements the need for his to find a new hobby. That’s some fucked up shit, right there. To engage yourself to that much hate, real or feigned, in a never ending manner is muy loco.
This word “potential”…I do not think it means what you think it means.
In keeping with the outlaw theme, I suppose “bouncers” might be substituted for constabulary. Think of a C&W bar (one with chicken wire in front of the stage) and a $10 cover. What does the owner do about obnoxious low class drunks?
I’m guilty of responding to thor’s taunts. There’s no reason for it; other than giving in to that immediate flash of anger that should’ve been quickly doused, had I been possessing better self-control. I can blame a bit a misplaced sense of chivalry that should’ve been left at the curb along with yesteryear’s mid-Victorian trash bins.
Registration, forced ignoring, those approaches are fine; but please, not the ‘dingbat’ system such as LGF uses. You get up-dings or down-dings; the Shamutas (not that there’s any here! ) would form the inner-circles and there would be no spontaneity, just a Pavlovian desire to get a ratings boost.
As a matter of fact, if LFG is doing it, then don’t. That place just isn’t right.
I agree that the Obama apologetics and conservative-bashing on Thor’s part do not seem to be terribly genuine, just means to an end. It comes across as shit-kicking for the sake of shit-kicking.
You be nice.
Until it’s time to not be nice…
was thor part of the problem population ms. gingsberg was talking about in her swank nyt profile. hiss roosevelt.
is jeff a thorbot?
Indeed, LGF wouldn’t be the first site harmed because of such a system. It encourages pettiness. It’s like Miracle-Gro for butthurt.
The simple reason ignoring it won’t work is that it is going to sling shit whether addressed or not. Any time Jeff / Darleen / whoever writes a post. Any time we leave a comment responding to the post. Any time we leave a comment to each other. That’s why ignoring thor fails.
Jeez Pablo, what you call “practical”, I call a menace to my boys.
I don’t think I could concentrate with that contraption threatening my fun.
My head would be down, but I wouldn’t be thinking about the ball on the tee!
How long did you spend coming to that conclusion, RD?
I’m Pablo. We’re all Pablo. My wife is Pablo, too. I’m a Pablo, you’re a Pablo, we’re a Pablo, wouldn’t you like to be a Pablo, too?
and as 276 and 277 show, it’s hard to stop it with tech.
SDN: I see no 276 or 277.
No comments on the delicious irony of someone who repeatedly goes to great lengths to weasel back into a place he’s clearly unwelcome and unwanted admonishing others to “get a life?”
Slackers.
I see no 286 or 287, either.
I hate to burst your bubble but I’m not RD or thor or whomever.
If you aren’t RD or thor then you clearly are a whomever. Dumbfuck.
At pure rage, please.
How long did you spend coming to that conclusion, RD?
Remember, this is the paranoid fascist fuckstain who thinks we’re all going to come over and throw rocks through his window in the middle of the night.
Yo, RD: if I ever looked you up, it’d be in daylight, and my discussion would be with you, directly, not with your window.
But then I’m not a cowardly little fascist fuckstain, am I?
I think the best solution would be to put trollhammer functionality on the server side. Give every commenter an internal id tied to (but not based on) their IP, and give users a link next to every comment where they can click to ignore all comments by that commenter. Give admins the ability to see when a commenter is being ignored by many users, to review all of that person’s comments at once, and to decide then whether to ban that commenter or not.
Wow, thor get a devoted thread of 280+ all to himself. It’s a beautiful thing.
And the best part? No lillehammer.
No, cynn, Jeff did. No offense to Darleen or any of the other guest posters.
You can feel his eyes, though.
Drink deep, my children. I mean, assholes.
Gin gimlet, please.
Disclaimer: At the moment, I am drunk. J&B Scotch, if you must know — but at least I’m not being obnoxious. Am I?
Anyway…
Could you repeat the question, please?
[…]
I spell better drunk than sober, don’t I?
Well, you could start by not posting batshit insane ramblings and discouraging the pathetic whining of your followers. Or you could just shut this shit-stain of a website down and finally end its horrible irrelevance. Just a thought. Or two thoughts.
Maybe even three.
Blast, real life’s at the door.
brb
Somehow this article from Pravda seems appropriate in this thread. (Via Baldilocks)
Oh, and be sure to visit Baldilocks to see the video of Russian officials refusing to shake Obamas hand. the look on his face after the third one is priceless…
DAMN, lee, that’s freakin’ cold.
Maybe they didn’t like those gift iPods loaded with “The Best of Boris and Natasha”?
Speaking of the boy du jour — I wonder how he’s going to handle this blatant disrespect of his Personal Savior by the representatives of TEH GREATEST COUNTRY IN THE WORLD.
Andrew the Noisy wrote:
An entire thread, about thor, without thor writing a single post.
Five bucks says he’s buying himself celebratory shots as we speak.
Or he clicked on dicentra’s link to TV Tropes and is trapped there.
Darn that free speech. In China, they can just employ enough censors to keep deleting… deleting… deleting… If only we were more like them.
Darn that free speech.
When this becomes part of the government you’ll have a point, liebot.
Hint:
“Congress shall make no law..”
Did this become Congress when I wasn’t looking, Sambot?
Or are you just an idiot?
Or maybe I’ll come over to your house with a bullhorn at 4:00 AM, Sambot. You won’t mind. It’s “free speech”, right?
BTW, Sambot: back in the troll bin you go. See you in a week.
Darn that free speech. In China, they can just employ enough censors to keep deleting… deleting… deleting… If only we were more like them.
Fear not Sammy. Thor is smart but fucked up and creepy and occasionally evil. You’re just stupid and harmless. Nobody censors stupid and harmless. Stupid and harmless is teh funny!!!!
Did this become Congress when I wasn’t looking, Sambot?
Sweet! I vote myself a pay raise!
thor felches goats and does the dirty cowboy with Michael Moore.
Life is short, there is thor and then there is this. The choice is yours. Choose wisely.
Yea!
With Moore’s feelings about guns at least he would be safe from this type of thing.
Thanks JD! A great time, and Pizza!
Hey! Who deleted Sammy’s comment where he called Obama a n_gg_r and said that he wanted to ass_ss_nate Michelle, and have sex with S_sh_ and M_li_? That was Sammy’s free speech and you took it from him!
FREE SPEECH!!
FREE SPEECH!!
Oh my, That Baldi video was … rather … amazing.
I would have commented, but you have to be registered over there. So I didn’t comment.
See the problem with comment registration?
I agree Carin,
I would have commented too, but as you say…
But that video was arresting. And even though I don’t agree with Obama’s politics, I find myself a bit insulted by the treatment he got! Not so much because he is the President, but that kind of thing is offensive to me, as I’m sure it is most Americans these days…
Like Juliette says, maybe it’s because he’s too much of a Marxist for their taste!
Wow, if thor saw that film his head might explode; the thought of the noble Russians snubbing a black man, not just any man, but O!…
Sammy, when I can come over to your house, cuss out you and your friends, then shit on the rug, and you can’t call the cops or throw me out yourself, you might be within parsecs of a point.
Unfortunately for you, this blog is Jeff’s private property, and he has the right to ban / delete anyone he chooses there. What he can’t do is stake out a public park and only let his friends in.
This has NOTHING to do with either free speech or the First Amendment.
You know what this thread needs? More Pablos. I love you guys.
And more gin gim *hic*
zzzzz…
Straight up, or on the rocks, Senator?
This video is priceless.
I wonder why it isn’t showing up on MSNBC or CNN or … ?
/s
Hey, if we are Congress – can I promote myself to Elventy Star General?!
That’s what “Cowgirl Diplomacy” gets you?
With apologies to cowgirls.
Is Eleventy Star higher or lower than Generalissimo?
I’ll take my cue from Jimmy Carter’s smarter brother: I want to be in charge of alcohol, tobacco, and firearms.
The Mighty Thor, Lord of Thunder, BANNED?!!
Oh. Well, ok then.
<hung over>
Y’all wanna keep it down in here? Whoever’s buttering toast, STOP IT!
Ow.
Eleventy Star General is just above Generalissimo, but still below “Doctor Professor Field Marshal President for Life Idi Amin Dada”.
I hate Illinois Dadaists!
Don’t forget “King of Scotland”, LTC.
Check out this WordPress code that should help you effectively ban Thor.
Check out this WordPress code that should help you effectively ban Thor.
Does that work better than Bulldozer?
Straight up, or on the rocks, Senator?
Yezzzzz…
*urrrp*
Double !!
I vote registration.
More importantly: Funniest thing I’ve read on the internet in weeks:
versus
Well, yeah, apparently, you are and you just admitted it a few hours earlier. A coward with an admitted liking to hitting people from behind with weapons and the curious inability to distinguish Jonah Goldberg’s illogic from objective history. RD was right to be nervous.
In fact, on a thread with more brimming html testosterone than usual, only that SDN wacko stands out from SBP’s typical blubbering insanity. Cognitive dissonance = SBP
So striking down a bully needs to be done face to face, Eh josh? Just who make the rules in these encounters? Are you willing to play by someone else’s rules josh? Or is everything expected to meet your standards?
FOAD loser.
I vote we all stand around and point at Josh. Because of the idiocy.
Well, yeah, apparently, you are and you just admitted it a few hours earlier. A coward with an admitted liking to hitting people from behind with weapons and the curious inability to distinguish Jonah Goldberg’s illogic from objective history. RD was right to be nervous.
He gives an account of an 8 year old child’s defense from a bully.
versus.
He says he’d have a discussion with him in person like a man rather than throw rocks at his windows like, say, a 8 year old child.
Most people would say that is growing up. But because lefties are perpetual infants, you think it’s some sort of gotcha moment. Do you have any idea what a faggot you sound like?
We can giggle, right?
My rules: Hit ’em first, then kick ’em while they’re down. This ain’t a fuckin’ dance.
A quick trousers-down as well wouldn’t go amiss, Pablo.
Soon 8-year-olds will be paying taxes.
Point and laugh at joshie. That is all that little shit is worth.
Ferris Bueller was on the other day. Hadn’t seen it in awhile…I forgot the part where Abe Froman, the sausage king of Chicago, was also a homophobic douche. I guess that’s what you meant by wantiong to be able to write freely?
Also, who knew that it is “teh gays” who don’t like being brained. It’s Thunderdome, eh Abe-y?
Strange, on a site where the proprietor goes to great lengths to talk about the rules of his MMA craft and a bunch of yutzes all stand around agog at the masculinity, NOT being hit in the back of the head is “faggot” sounding. Wow
Oh, and Abe, as tommy point out, who the fuck are you to make the rules. In tom’s world, apparently, I made the rule against the use of deadly force when someone’s back is turned, thus I get to interpret it. And, that fact that a frothing nazi like spies is still bragging about it would indicate he still espouses it. So, sausage king, learn the rules of polite society, no matter how they conflict with your homophobia.
As for the rest, I get it, you’re either a Shark or a Jet, and you chose your side. Never admit when someone’s wrong fer God’s sake, because that’s the sort of weakness that emboldens a prick like SBP to brain you and brag about it 11 years later on the internet.
This whole logic thing is new to you, isn’t it, Josh?
Really? Where’s the category for that? Where’s all the MMA links? Are you sure you’re on the right site, josh? Maybe that’s why you’re confused.
Sitting through Ferris Bueller would be like standing at an intersection with a “Homeless, need food, might work, but really just need food. God Bless” sign. Only the sign guy might make some scratch.
Easy on Josh, guys. You have to remember that what you’re dealing with is a person of strong religious convictions.
Somewhere around Commandment III or IV of Josh’s religion is “Give the bully what he wants, he’ll be satisfied and go away.” The fact that that doesn’t work, has never worked, and will never work simply identifies it as a tenet of religious faith rather than anything based on the objective Universe or anything perceptible in it.
The first two commandments are, of course, “Anybody with money is a sinner, so you can do what you like to take the money away” and “Hitting anybody for any reason is and can only be the work of a demon.” A moment’s thought will yield the corollary that demons may do as they please, but thought isn’t part of the process; we’re dealing with Faith, here.
So fighting back against a bully is a mortal sin. Doing so effectively makes you a Demon of the Seventh Hell. It’s all very convenient, because it means Josh can recruit the bullies to help with the enforcement of Commandment I while still bleating that his hands are clean — it’s not him doing the violence.
Regards,
Ric
So fighting back against a bully is a mortal sin. Doing so effectively makes you a Demon of the Seventh Hell.
Unless, of course, that bully is Sarah Palin, and the fighter is her 8-year-old daughter who was denied an abortion. Then it’s “just slip the 12-gauge into her mouth while she sleeps little girl.”
So, Ric, by that reasoning then Commandment IV would have to be “Oh, and by the way, it’s your fault that the bully is bullying you and you need to spend some time contemplating what you have done to force him to be a bully.”
Do you think we can develop and quantify all Ten Commandments of Josh’s faith?
ric, how’s the cartoon in your head? Did the strawman catch fire after you attacked it?
regardless,
–J
Point and laugh, point and laugh.
Commandment V: “When challenged, strawmen and cartoons.”
I like this game!
I. The path to heaven is lined with benevolent feelings.
RACIST!!!
I have armpit hairs that have more functioning grey matter than josh.
OK, josh, help me out here. Clearly I have insufficient imagination.
Just what rule of behavior drives you to characterize SBP’s actions as those of a “…coward with an admitted liking to hitting people from behind with weapons”?
Regards,
Ric
Sorry Joshie but I’m not homophobic in the least. Just insensitive. Fond of colorful synonyms for pussy. And fairy didn’t seem to hit the right note. But really, you can take your pick. You exude the whole bloody thesaurus entry.
Careful, Ric, you’re straying into ‘Logic Country’. I don’t think Josh’s GPS covers that area.
Oh, I know, Silver Whistle. I just enjoy poking people with those attitudes.
What josh is actually concerned about is that SBP might, err, overgeneralize when the IRS (or Inland Revenue, as applicable) come ’round to enforce Commandment I.
Regards,
Ric
the curious inability to distinguish Jonah Goldberg’s illogic from objective history.
Oh, damned witty, Wilde. Only, do you ever notice how only those who share your
prejudicesopinions laugh? Rather limits the audience, eh wot?And since when is history objective? Written by the winner and all that, right?
A coward with an admitted liking to hitting people from behind with weapons and the curious inability
Of course, you completely ignore the fact that the kid was two years older than me, and had been bullying me for weeks.
Bye, “josh”. See you in a week.
Watching Josh flail about is certainly entertaining but has their been any resolution to the buisness at hand
I tried to catch up but may have missed something.
Who dipped “josh”‘s Tampax in the sandbox, anyway?
Did the “missus” suddenly realize that he wasn’t planning to ever get a job or somepin’?
Considering #335 was all about movie refrences- apparently where josh learns his morals- and then claiming strawmen and cartoons, well, that’s just rich in the irony.
who is the josh one? Hi josh. You’re sort of not making a point. Also I’m sorry about the sausage king what hurt your feelings. That never should have happened. John Hughes is a big hater and I hope your next sausage king is benevolent and kind.
Hmm. You should look up the word “ambush”. Favorite engagement of armies the world around.
Or as Uncle Fester would say, “Shoot ’em in the back!”
Sadly, people like Josh are in charge of the world these days.
Society was founded to help protect the weak from the strong. Governments were founded to make the strong victims of the weak.
I think Josh smells of Sadly, No!, just in the way he hoists his jib. A shame that such a jib is out of place at the Indy 500.
Oh…
Seems he’s taken you up on that; posting as ‘edgellrickwood2’ at Dan’s. Blogger requires one to have some sort of lasting identification at sign-in, so ‘thor’ had to get a blogger account.
The biggest thing now is the “OpenID“, a large-scale digital identity manager. A plug in for WP is available, but I don’t know if it will work well with such a large-scale platform as you have here.
I suggest you get with Pixy. He prolly has answers for questions you haven’t thought of yet.
It figures you guys wamt to track people down.
It figures you’d want to snark from the shadows.
It figures you guys wamt to track people down.
It figures that you are a drunken, illiterate liar, because that’s the only way you could possibly have arrived at that interpretation of what was said here.
No, not really, and I’d appreciate it if you didn’t either. Thanks in advance.
Josh has a problem with Combat Pragmatists.
Maybe you should hit her with a rock too? That’d show her. After all, you display the wit and maturity of an 15 year old, so maybe she’s two year’s older too?
Let’s assume that Spies displays the wit and maturity of an [sic] 15 year old, for the sake of argument. That would make you about 4 months old.
Point and laugh, people. Mock and scorn.
Click the link, Josh. Use a browser that supports tabs. Doooooo eeeeeeeeeet….
JD: Aren’t you being rather unfair? To four-month-olds?
Yes, Patrick. I just realized that. I am a meanie sometimes.
The really amusing thing is that in a thread dedicated to discussing how to make these people go away, they’re claiming that we want to meet them in person.
The idea that I’d seek out a Wernicke’s sufferer like cynn, an ODD serial failure like thor, a lazy-assed unemployable dole bludger like “josh” or SemanticLoser, or textbook cases of Pseudologia fantastica like meya and RD simply boggles the mind.
I mean, talk about ego issues.
Hey, guys: no one here wants to meet you. No one here wants to talk to you. We simply want you to go away.
You bring nothing to the table. You produce nothing of value for society. You’ve never done anything of note in your entire miserable lives, nor will you ever.
Sorry.
The left is the Party of the bullies and their toadies. The biggest bullies run things there for now.
#371 – Indeed. For people who have been told to go away and speak to us no more, please, they sure do seem to think we find them… important(?) enough to go seek out. Why on Earth would any of us ever want to have contact with any of these unpleasant and disagreeable folks?
“Comment by Josh on 7/14 @ 10:29 pm #
Maybe you should hit her with a rock too? That’d show her. After all, you display the wit and maturity of an 15 year old, so maybe she’s two year’s older too?”
Gosh, that’s stupid.
I suspect that cynn and josh are referring to me. And they’re right.
After 3-4 years of polite and not-so-polite requests to leave, all met with more abuse; of attempts to handle the problem with technology of several sorts, all frustrated by the inability of the Internet to easily screen out assholes; after all that effort for less than zero results, I finally reached the point of being willing to resort to force to deal with the problem.
I’m in even more of a rush to war than President Bush was with Iraq…..RIIIIIGHT!
Comment by SBP
“an ODD serial failure like thor…”
Boy, did you nail it.
“Diagnostic Criteria
1. A pattern of negativistic, hostile, and defiant behavior lasting at least 6 months, during which four (or more) of the following are present:
Note: Consider a criterion met only if the behavior occurs more frequently than is typically observed in individuals of comparable age and developmental level.
1. often loses temper
2. often argues with adults
3. often actively defies or refuses to comply with Adults’ requests or rules
4. often deliberately annoys people
5. often blames others for his or her mistakes or misbehavior
6. is often touchy or easily annoyed by others
7. is often angry and resentful
8. is often spiteful or vindictive”
I think the best way to get rid of a persistent troll is to pay lots of attention to it, even posting an entire story about it, with its name in the headline.
This works every time, because trolls hate attention more than anything else.
That must be why he’s so prevalent on the blog the last few days, Darrell. Thanks for the tip.
josh never came back. We never found out if he were a tree what kind of tree he would be.
Oh, happyfeet. He’s a Weeping Willow.
FOR THE OPPRESSED PEOPLE!!
Weeping willows destroy foundations.
Willow… if he once should be retuuuuuurning
pray tell him I am weeping toooooo
“invasive roots“
Wow Darrell,
Haven’t seen you around her before. Great comment. I can’t take my eyes off of it. You’ve got a story to tell. I just know it. I’ll be watching. More please!
Nobody ever chooses the Piss Elm tree
California trees are very mysterious to me cause none of these idjits know what they’re called. I keep asking and they keep not knowing.
Go with this happy
Monkey Pod tree, because it’s fun to say.
Those ones you have to get all up close and personal with the leaves. In Los Angeles the trees are all outside your car window.
So I gather no one’s assuming the obvious?
Joshua trees can’t spread without sloth poo the wikipedia says.
There is also concern about the ability of the trees to migrate to favorable climates due to the extinction of the giant Shasta ground sloth (Nothrotheriops shastensi) 13,000 years ago; ground sloth dung has been found to contain Joshua tree leaves, fruits, and seeds, suggesting that the sloths might have been key to the tree’s dispersal.
Maybe josh would be willing to pitch in.
For the trees.
…although given his performance here the Joshua tree’s new habitat might be blog threads.
Have always loved the free spirit of posting here. Hate to see registration.
As much fun as it was to watch the comebacks thrown at, say, actus, for example, in the past, I believe trolls like thor are different. IMHO, they reside on the 7th level of troll hell, somewhere far below actus types. They don’t deserve retorts like the ones given to an actus.
Designate thor a Level 7 who should never get a rebuttal. Ask some of the regulars to zap his stuff (he may change his address, but he can’t change his style). See how it goes…
thor is controversial is all. Don’t mean he’s a bad person. Hoppy Totter had the best opening day of any Hoppy Totter film ever on Wednesday. Don’t mean it’s a good movie. That’s kind of a stupid analogy. I miss Jeff.
Fight fire with fire. Troll the troll. How? Appoint several secret moderators (The Assassins) who look for Thor’s posts, and then edit them. Omit words, change meanings, switch object nouns, and every now and then make Thor commit verbal hara-kiri. Turn him into a laughingstock. Put a timer on his posts…disappearing in 30 secs…20 secs…10 secs…poof! Cause his posts, and his alone, to be displayed in pink, or zebra stripes, or with clown shoes appearing next to his name. Prevent him from being to reliably express himself in his own words. Cause everyone who reads “his” posts to immediately wonder what parts got changed. Make it an inside joke with its own jargon. Soon, people will be looking for those posts to have a laugh at Thor’s expense. A belly laugh.
Thor loves to be hated. But he will hate to be laughed at. It takes away the one thing that drives him – his status as agent provocateur – and showers him instead with the one thing he hoped he had forever left behind – status as a nincompoop.
The left uses ridicule, inversion, and acid snark against persons to subvert actual arguments made by those persons. They know that ridicule cannot usually be answered gracefully (the way an actual argument can) and that derisive attacks demoralize the sputtering targets. Take a lesson from them.
I will selflessly devote myself to Assassin duty should I be tapped.
thor is really gone it seems. In the back of my head I’m certain he’s not gone forever but what if? It’s not too painful to remember so I think it unlikely we’ll simply choose to forget. I wonder who the thor we remember will be? Me I’ll remember the thor what wrote feelingly of Russia I think. thor. I remember thor. Brash feller. Wrote feelingly of Russia. That’s what I’ll say I think.
I wonder who the thor we remember will be?
I’ll remember the lap-sitter one.
That’s what I’ll say I think.
I think I’ll say rollercoaster.
I wish I could still remember the thor we saw briefly before he went off the deep end about Vick. That thor has been gone so long I have begun to doubt it ever really existed.
McGeHee? You’re absolutely correct. I liked Thor at first, but after a while? he started the violence crap. I hate violence…UNLESS I’m the one perpetrating it.
Huh. I’ve always thought thor an ass.
Long time ago he was at least a relatively inoffensive ass, but an ass none the less.
I’ll always remember thor as the guy that likes to go to church only to ogle the married ladies.
The ass.