You Say Gadfly, I Say Troll…
Dear Ann,
Thanks for the link! And Meade, it’s been great!
UPDATE [By SL]: As for the idea that it’s “small” to want to not want trolls distracting discussion in the comments thread of your blog, I refer to the policy of a prominent professor of constitutional law:
I’m going to allow new comments, but I will monitor actively. I will delete posts with hatred, abuse, shouting, personal attacks, repetition, and perseverating demands for apologies and retractions. You can debate and disagree, but you must try to engage with some of the issues on a rational, intelligent level.
Seems reasonable!
That’s funny, I don’t recall getting a lot of comments through at Althouse’s place during this fun-fest. Maybe I wasn’t free-speechy enough or something.
If I had somebody who followed my blog who was inclined to troll and flame-bait, and following my disagreement with another blogger that person went, let’s say, a wee bit off the deep end on that other person’s blog… I tend to think I would apologize, not gloat. But I guess that approach would be incompatible with Althouse’s concept of what it means to be a “conservative”. No room for good manners, adult conversation, personal responsibility, and all that.
It would be rude of me to notice that, after a week or so of being mocked, New Media Meade changed his listing on the masthead.
I will never ever get over the fact that she teaches at a major American public university law school.
Yoo, too!
And had a gig as a replacement op-ed writer for the NYT (then again, Douthat has a permanent job there, so perhaps that’s less surprising).
Isn’t that where she showed off her “Skull Full of Mush“?
I hope they note all the traffic they are getting from here, because they’re not getting any more.
Promises, promises.
In my dreams. Only traffic I noticed was Meade snarling up the threads with his drunk posting.
Her implication aside, we link Althouse strictly for the yuks — she notoriously fails to link and when she does it produces very little traffic in any case.
One doesn’t measure quality by traffic, in any case; that is their shtick. I just love what it reveals about their narcissism, and how little they understand about connected-ness and what makes the internet awesome.
when she does it produces very little traffic in any case.
For which we can all be eternally grateful.
I went over there and the self-righteousness nearly took the skin off my face. I know, I know: the Left is just as ‘partisan’ as the Right.
The difference is people end up on the Left because they have a clear understanding of how the world works, the community of man, the interconnectedness of things, and whatnot.
People end up on the Right because they stopped developing emotionally at some point in the 7th grade.
I think you give them too much credit. Contemporary conservatism seems more like a movement of fourth-grade Eric Cartman acolytes.
A friend of mine in college made that same observation back in the 60s, and it explains a lot. That comments section at the Althouse blog is full of witless schoolyard taunts. They seem to be venting frustration of some kind. I used to think that they hate liberals because we think we are superior, but I now think it is they who feel inferior.
If you imagine that the world workd because there isn’t a community of man (and Althouse will certainly attack you for ignoring women there, kiddo), and that most things aren’t interconnected, Althousery makes a lot more sense. Hard to believe somebody who thinks that way can understand why Lochner was mocked for 70 years, but hey, that’s why we have tenure, right?
I can’t believe you have denied poor
MeadeManservant Hecubus his First Amendment rights like this!~
Nice KITH reference.
Relevant linkage.
I hereby endorse the Whiskey Fire use of Manservant Hecubus. Of course, thundrapantses gets there before me. DAMN YOU!
Also, Who is Ann Galt?
First they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out. Because union thugs!
Then they came for the dirty commie traitors. Need I say more?
Finally they came for Meade, and then there was no one left to speak for me, Ann Althouse, the real victim.
~
What’s Hecubus to her, or her to Hecubus, That she should weep for him?
Has a self-comparison to Socrates ever been less apt?
Hemlock is always available.
Not where I live. At least as far as I can tell.
Grows wild along the clear Rocky Mountain streams here in Montana.
I love that in the comments over there, Althouse tells Campos to get his own blog because he’s too good for the rest of you.
Meade wasn’t even the smartest, most interesting conservative troll regular.
His most grievous sin, other than rank stupidity, was that he was boring.
Trolling is an art.
Not getting out of the boat. How are they victims of union thuggery this time?
Well, who the heck is our Meade, then?
We need someone to go whine/troll their boards, and complain that some trivial little detail of the post is wrong… (like that LGM bloggers didn’t erase every Mead post, the software implements it that way). Once one trivial little detail gets quibbled with, their whole post becomes invalid by blogging rules.
Maybe we could all take turns? Gotta do it leftist-school.
We should collectivise! The LGM anti-Althouse trolling collective.
Meade is a lazy, not very bright, hypocrit whose political philosophy is that he wants the government to keep their hands off his wife’s publically funded medical benefits. And every time he came on here he made a fool of himself.
But to ban Him? That’s pathetic. I mean this is the internet. Pussys!
Once again, I’m grateful to you all for reading Althouse so I don’t have to.
I wish he hadn’t been banned. It was too entertaining for me
That’s going to keep Hecubus pretty busy.
Oh, not her posts? OK.
“a href=”http://althouse.blogspot.com/2011/03/candyass-blogger-move-of-all-time.html?showComment=1300651497075#c3777595031716864035″>Meade said…
“@Lincolntf: You know, I wasn’t even aware of LG&M until my Google Alert on ‘Althouse’ one day pointed me to a post where Scott Lemeiux was taking a shot at Ann.”
Holy shit, I thought that was just a joke!
The hell? Sorry.
Having a google alert on the name of another blogger is God’s way of telling you to get a life.
Where’d all the fun go????
well, there’s still the Donalde for psycho trolling fun…
I haven’t seen him in ages!
Don’t worry, it’s not like he can quit Thers or I. He’ll be back.
He did a driveby at S,N earlier today.
And then a drive-by here. I guess we shouldn’t complain: we did mention his name 3 times in this thread.
The verb “to quit” is followed by objects, not subjects.
I comment occasionally at the Althouse blog, and read quite a few political blogs, left and right; the few times I’ve ever come to your site (or even read mention of it) is through the Althouse blog.
You’ve cut off your nose to spite your face.
I’ve read Meade’s comments for years. He’s clever, and subtle, and never boring. Commenters contribute quite a bit to any blog; they’re important. And he’s apparently been contributing comments to this place for a long time.
And you just erased them all. You’re a fool and an asshole.
Most of your contributors and commenters didn’t agree with Meade on most issues. See how many people want to participate in an echo-chamber.
Where’d all the fun go, indeed. Enjoy your 12-man circle-jerk, dudes.
You couldn’t be more wrong. “Circle jerk” is clearly the wrong phrase; many women post here, too.
How do you tell the difference with liberals?
we let women use computers
You do realize the stupidity of that comment in reference to Althouse I hope. And since when don’t women jerk off?
Well, the ones you know would, mainly because the alternative is so disgusting.
Meanwhile, I’m sure that I have as much realization that Ann is a woman as Robtr does that all liberal are pussies and feminine. After all, superduck, if you are so keen on propping up the ladies, maybe you should ask the commenters at Ann’s blog and robtr, why being being feminine is allegedly pejorative.
I’ll await your thoughtful answer*
* Just kidding, I won’t ’cause I don’t care
Just FYI, superduck.
If you think you’re dating a girl, and she says she needs to “jerk off,” that’s one of the signs you might be dating a guy. Now, if she says she’s going to “rub one out,” then most likely you really are dating a girl.
I’d explain the difference between guys and girls and stuff to you, but this thread’s going downhill fast and frankly it looks like the whole things a little confusing to you. And this is waaaaaay more sex talk than this blog needs.
I stand corrected, L2P: A 12-human elephant walk, then.
I’ll save you the time: That’s where you form a chain, with one thumb in your mouth and the other up the bum of the human in front of you.
My point is this: Any blog is richer with a vibrant comment section that includes comments from both sides. As conservative commenters go, Meade is witty, even-handed, and enigmatic. You don’t even know what you lost.
You don’t even know what you lost.
We got a small taste of it when we accidentally switched thumbs.
Meade is none of those things, pasta guy. Still, I’m all for dissent and I don’t think he should be banned.
Meade compares union membership to slavery; he defends his wife’s weird Constitutional interpretations by mis-representing the Constitution; he gets free tickets from a Republican legislator as possible quid pro quo for his wife’s stances and refuses to admit it, while screaming questions back at all interlocutors. Finally, he embarrasses himself and the Western world with a compare and contrast on Iraq so faulty that my three year old laughed and then commented it was too bad some people were dumb enough to buy the Rumsfeld book.
He was anti-wit and predictable and easily to make fun of. Now, that I think about, we seem to have an opening for colossal right wing douchebage and, well, don’t be shy, you sure seem to fit the bill. Drop your resume off with the receptionist
See, that’s just it, timb.
If you thought Meade was bad, you’d thoroughly hate me. Meade’s much more reasonable and clever than me. My comments here would mostly consist of profanities; to avoid repetition, I’d probably have to resort to profane idioms from other languages. Serbia has some of the most vile.
As well as cool murder of Muslims….no wonder you like them
Done and done. Thanks for stopping by!
Meade once asserted that the official US policy of containing Al Qaeda reached all the way back to Carter.
I guess that qualifies as enigmatic.
Well, it is certainly an enigma how someone that stupid has survived this long.
Are we talking about the same Meade?
I think Pastafarian knows a different Meade than we do. Our Meade definitely does not fit his description.
Pastfarian obviously has been eating some of his “special recipe” pasta.
I think he drank the wrong Meade
Meade is witty, even-handed, and enigmatic.
Dude, we warned you about that brown acid.
I’m a huge fan of Meade, been reading him since he started commented on Althouse’s blog a few years ago. (Full disclosure: I’m a blogger, and he’s commented on my site too.) I watch the goings-on and have to scratch my head. The people who hate him the most are all in their twenties and early thirties. There’s this awful suck-up named Scott Lemieux–his “writing” is sweaty with panting obsequious ambition–who keeps distorting everything Meade writes–the only way this no-talent can get him. And I ask myself: why is it the young guys who go after Meade? Must be because he writes the way young guys should be writing: angry, independent, not afraid of offending powerful people. They on the other hand write like aging careerists: timid, ingratiating, careful not to offend people who are powerful. They hate him because they want to write like him but can’t. Maybe if they’d let themselves go and write truthfully, they’d get Ann Althouse to shtup them too.
win
Epic Fail.
hi five
We would never ban Neal Peart!
ALL. ONE. GUY.
Crit, is that you?
I’ve read Meade’s comments for years. He’s clever, and subtle, and never boring.
Then he ought to appreciate LGM banning the inane, obvious, borimg guy who keeps coming here pretending to be Meade.
I remember that day many many moons ago when Ann Althouse, who is smart and pretty, was very very perturbed by parade commentary she had read on the Internet. I thought at the time she was being sort of hall monitorish and unfun, and I still think that, but much like Jared Padalecki Ann has grown a lot since then.
I think it is incumbent on you to find a more recenter example of her thinkings with respect to the policing of comments.
Thank you.
…Ann has grown a lot since then.
I think it is incumbent on you to find a more recenter example of her thinkings with respect to the policing of comments.
On the contrary, the person asserting that Ann’s policy about comments has grown has the burden of proof for that claim.
Why wouldn’t you just share the link that proves that she has a new comment policy? (I would click it, I imagine others would, and we all know how traffic-conscious the Althouse contingent is. So you must have a good reason.)
Ann has grown a lot since then
I think perhaps he is referring to mold.
that’s just it I don’t think she’s super-fretful about commentings.
I don’t comment there cause of I don’t understand how to do it to where it’s easy … there seems to be a process where you need certain accounts and yada yada yada.
I can’t help but wonder if you would have been satisfied by a similar assertion tainted by confirmation bias from Mr. Lemiuex as a response to your request for evidence.
Anyway, let the record show that you are declining to provide any link(s), as requested.
a more recenter example
Somewhere, an elementary school teacher is sobbing.
And you just erased them all.
All these moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain.
~
And eyes welling with those tears, you’ll look back on this thread, and this moment, as the high-water mark for your blog, in terms of traffic, and in terms of interesting discussion.
As my sign-off, I’d just like to leave all you Lawyers, Guns (I doubt any of you actually own any) and Money contributors and commenters with this thought: Da Bog da ti zena rodila stonogu pa ceo zivot radio za cipelle (May your wife give birth to a centipede so that you have to work for shoes all your life.)
Those Serbians, gotta love em.
The centipede-fetus curse is less effective on the pro-choice.
May your buggy whip manufacturers unionize!
If you mean by “high water mark” the day the sewers backed up, you are absolutely correct. Frankly, you Outhousian fanboys make me long for BigAllWrongJimBob.
喂， 王八蛋，肏你祖宗十八代。
This is a fun game.
One more – Pastafarian, may your laundry never dry.
I am disappointed that Pastafarian couldn’t be bothered to transliterate the Serbian properly, with the diacriticals. “Žena” is not pronounced like “zena”, nor “život” like “zivot”.
I had also hoped for an original insult, but a few seconds googling reveals that this one appears at umpteen thousand websites (all copied from one another) promising “Best insults from around the world”, and all misspelling it the same way as Pastafarian.
Languagelog is a good source for all your Serbian swear-word needs.
Win.
Also, Pastafarian is este hatke huseko hacoce. Hope you are up on your Native American languages.
I’m gonna guess Creek or Mikasuki.
Muskogee (Creek). Basically means “Crazy dickless white guy.”
nice
That would be an area of expertise for the Seminole.
[...] Since there seems to be some confusion about this in comments, I suppose I should make the obvious point that there’s no principle of free speech or liberalism or even norm in the blogosphere that entitles people to a right to comment on someone else’s blog. I haven’t noticed any mass boycott of blogs — such as Instapundit — that “ban” comments altogether. Given this, it should be pretty obvious that a blogger can ban commenters under any criteria they see fit. Indeed, this is obvious even to bloggers inclined to selectively raise this complaint. [...]
Nobody says you don’t have the right- we’re saying you’re exercise of that right was wrong.
“We”?
“you’re”?
My point is this: Any blog is richer with a vibrant comment section that includes comments from both sides.I agree, but that’s not what you find at Althouse anymore. Anyone with a dissenting opinion is immediately labeled as a troll or leftard, or worse. I stopped commenting years ago because it became so tiresome, it was impossible to engage in any meaningful dialogue. All of the good people of the left side have gradually left leaving the comment section with very few reasonable commenters.
As conservative commenters go, Meade is witty, even-handed, and enigmatic.
For the most, yes. Problem is, the site overall, has descended into the most shallow and banal perspective possible on chosen subject, except for c law. Except when it’s all about Althouse, which is often.
She’s amazingly good about banning people though. IIRC she only bans when someone threatens or becomes too persistent in their directed creepiness towards her.
Really? Really?? Who is going to be monitoring La Drunkhouse???
“perseverating” sounds like terrible english, even if it’s in Merriam-Webster and defines a concept sorely lacking. I see ‘perseverating’ threads often, and sometimes it’s tough for the perseverating to see that the issue has been dealt with… That’s no excuse.