Althouse: You've come to the right place...

You've come to the right place...

... to talk about comments. Got a question about the comments policy? Don't understand or appreciate the deletion policies? Do you have some suggestions about how to improve the comments section?

This is the permanent — at least for now — place for conversations like this. Meade and I will participate in the comments. So... let the conversation about conversations begin.

431 comments:

«Oldest ‹Older 401 – 431 of 431

sorepaw said...: Disrespect for Althouse, Part 3:

J constantly lumped blogger and commenters together as "A-house," "Alt-perps," "Galthouse," "Gumphouse," "Smurfhouse," "Hoghouse," "Klanhouse," and "Grunthouse."

In J's delusional system, anywhere between 12 and 100 other commenters were sockpuppets of the dreaded "Byro."

And among these sockpuppets, J imagined that Spinelli and I were Althouse's favorites....

http://althouse.blogspot.com/2011/11/pbs-documentary-on-woody-allen.html?showComment=1322060079328#c7842111749870964637

[Woody] Allen's got character issues, and probably queer--like Althouse's favorite troll "sorepaw" aka Byro Bellami (20+ names, gay poet, DU/Digby reg (until kicked off) friends of ALllen Ginsberg, etc)

http://althouse.blogspot.com/2011/12/rj-reynolds-v-fda-and-hidden-danger-of.html?showComment=1322771339374#c4367529307835184881

Like here, once again---big tobacco maybe sends you some shekels, AA? OR not.

(and note A-house's fave cyber stalker, spinelli, on here 24-7)

http://althouse.blogspot.com/2011/12/rj-reynolds-v-fda-and-hidden-danger-of.html?showComment=1322773935515#c1502048533992050228

AS usual the Gumphousers derailing the rational discussion.

Does Miss AA receive cash from the tobacco lobby or not?

The above (from December 1, 2011) was the first outburst by J that I've seen receive any kind of warning ("I'm going to start deleting comments of yours that are repetitive").

Down the same thread, Fen wrote:

http://althouse.blogspot.com/2011/12/rj-reynolds-v-fda-and-hidden-danger-of.html?showComment=1322778240560#c2364389176623432314

J has also been reported to FBI for threatening to trace ISPs and do violence to commenters here.

So if he actually *does* go all Jared Loughner on us, a paper trail has already been started. No excuses of "we didn't know" this time.; 12/21/11, 9:18 PM
sorepaw said...: Disrespect for Althouse, Part 4 and last:

http://althouse.blogspot.com/2011/09/in-madison-150-protesters-storm-hotel.html?showComment=1315963762899#c4969442262628398396

Althouse has skewed another protest. The CEO, a conservative think tank (supposedly with connections to the Kochs) has nothing to do with the U WI,does it--though AA did everything she could to make it seem like it had some official status. The protesters are against the private corp. more or less making up reports.--even if there were some evidence of bias, the CEO's not the one to investigate it.

Ahouse starting to look more like the mafia each day.

http://althouse.blogspot.com/2011/09/in-madison-150-protesters-storm-hotel.html?showComment=1315964606292#c6389385160467058463

Synova---you're hanging with the lowlifes of Blogdom. Their every belch is a lie ,defamation, insult or logical fallacy. So discussion is impossible--especially when Ahouse skews the information

The "CEO" has a reputation for BS.It has nothing to do with U WI. Looks like its funded by the Kochs, in part. So that should have been made obvious. The facts are dubious--there may be some bias issues but its about like having the klan investigate, more or less

(hey Quaestor queer, Ahouser--dissent's a problem for crypto- klansmen, isn't it)

http://althouse.blogspot.com/2011/09/in-madison-150-protesters-storm-hotel.html?showComment=1315965198553#c8976477861699739660

occultist freaks, synova --believe it (even some conservatives do). like the klan meets mansonites . Tweeking, as well. Ban A-house, now. Or at least piss test them

*****

In other words, J had only a little more positive regard for Althouse than for any of his fellow commenters.; 12/21/11, 9:23 PM
Meade said...: @sorepaw, thank you for your help in getting the comments sorted out.; 12/22/11, 10:41 AM
Sue D'Nhym said...: You want comments? I've got comments. I've got so many comments, I'll comment on your comments!; 12/22/11, 10:47 AM
sorepaw said...: Meade,

Thank you for seeing the problem, and getting rid of some of J's worst posts.; 12/22/11, 3:42 PM
Ann Althouse said...: Reasons why we didn't delete J in the past:

1. Strong aversion to any deletion, especially from someone purporting to push back the dominant ideology in the comments.

2. His personal style that involved some craftsmanship (in constructing ugliness).

3. Recognizing the style immediately and skimming over the comments, so that the stuff with actual threats was not noticed.

4. Other commenters around his who were also being insulting, making it hard to see who was the real problem and not wanting to have to delete whole long discussions, especially when they contained some good material.

5. Email from J, whining about how everyone was attacking him and claiming he was defending himself, leveraging that claim off of his being in the minority in terms of the political ideology of the commenters.

6. Not being impressed by complaints that came from people who were being part of the problem.

7. Not getting specific complaints that pointed to the actual worst of his comments.

All that taken together accounts for our tolerance.; 12/22/11, 4:16 PM
sorepaw said...: Because blogger won't accept more than 4096 characters in a post, and links to specific comments are extremely long, I will be breaking my final batch of items from J into several parts (7 if I my estimates are correct).

These are the last items that I will link to. They are all blatant, but I would not consider them the last items of concern: J posted on hundreds of threads, sometimes at a rate of 10 or more posts per.

Some search strings will pick up significant stretches of J's total output. I will get to these later.; 12/22/11, 5:48 PM
sorepaw said...: The Byro Period, Part 1:

"J" devoted most of his efforts to ripping other commenters, in the vilest possible terms.

Much of the "clutter" of which there has been much recent complaint was the result of J's rants at other commenters, and their pokes back at him.

J seems to have undergone two crises or breaks during his time at Althouse: one in April-May, 2011, which culminated in the now-deleted death threat, as well as the initial threats of bodily harm, and the claims to be tracing IP addresses.

The second break took place in late August, when a delusional system emerged full-blown, involving an alleged master cyberstalker named "Byro," for whom anyhwere between 12 and 100 of the other commenters were sockpuppets.

The first hint of the delusional system showed up on August 26, when J made a reference to "nursey courses in Casa Grande," which he would shortly be saying that Byro flunked.

http://althouse.blogspot.com/2011/08/where-does-david-prosser-go-to-get-his.html?showComment=1314387323215#c5518854831412989177

That so, B-boy (grazi for evidence, flunkie)

You don't know a syllogism from a crack stash Bubba B.

You flunked even your ...nursey courses in Casa Grande didn't you perp

****
The name Byro first appears on August 31, 2011.

Threats to trace IP addresses were a consistent feature of this Byro-rant, which continued in one form or another until J was finally induced to stop posting in mid-December.

http://althouse.blogspot.com/2011/08/dont-call-me-shirleybuddy.html?showComment=1314811105452#c5446318312050140714

and I suspect Sofa King and other annys here with brand new blogs are...HossRonius aka Raul, aka Byro ( aka Daisy of Digby), inventing names again-- since it's far too cowardly to actually link to a real site. maybe I put a call into AA server admin. we can always use a bit more evidence for your case, stalker.

****

Just one of J's posts on this thread (which probably read, "move back to Tel Aviv, pig") elicited a deletion.; 12/22/11, 5:49 PM
sorepaw said...: The Byro Period, Part 2:

http://althouse.blogspot.com/2011/09/do-you-remember-obama-and-honduras.html?showComment=1314986000493#c4426196518170556341

AS Ive said before Chip , there's no use arguing with white trash libertarians or mansonite-wicca trash aka A-house regs. Ie ya don't play chess with people who don't the moves.

Better to just laugh at them, and mock their miserable illiterate existences.

(and btw Byro--we're comin' to get yr email perp)

http://althouse.blogspot.com/2011/09/president-barack-obama-plans-to-propose.html?showComment=1315417326922#c2430235326560421149

Wow "Franglo" aka Raul aka Byro's back with some cutting-edge crypto- Romneyite brainfarts. (Ahouse non-conservatives--don't mistake this yokel for a prog./demo. He's not, anymore than the rest of the Ahouse glibertarians)

Go back to the tee-shirt sweatshoppe, fraud.

http://althouse.blogspot.com/2011/10/thou-art-waxen-fat-thou-art-grown-thick.html?showComment=1317651371055#c5400291165291191984

Ah it's Byro the Subluxanator with his phony red profile now, "Cook", talking to itself. You never read PK Dick's madness anyway,apart from the intro.

If you had a german dictionary you'd find out Dick is thick,big. Fett is fat; Fettsack or beleibt obese, like you. Even PKD would have known of these distinctions.
Just STFU

http://althouse.blogspot.com/2011/10/why-stanley-fish-never-wants-to-meet.html?showComment=1317745359723#c2621885783353555551

yo edu ,or Byro LDS joto, or any A-tard--

step in a ring, legal even. mano a mano.

POP. Yd be gone.; 12/22/11, 5:51 PM
sorepaw said...: The Byro Period, Part 3:

http://althouse.blogspot.com/2011/10/oh-no-no-no-john-nichols-is-not-sort-of.html?showComment=1318709074221#c192215292678906118

Yes, Pasta-idjut--and (and others--fems, titus puto). Byro doesn't only follow me--he stalks many sites--was on DU and d-Kos for a time until they booted him (and Digby). Actually Cook might not be--at times it's a bit too articulate for Byro the sockpup. scum (tho maybe if it has its thesaurus open and works for hour on a comment).

http://althouse.blogspot.com/2011/10/rasmussen-cain-43-obama-41.html?showComment=1318884177720#c3663370685748434914

Lets ask "Pagan" boy aka Byro about...his mummy Barbara, now dead nearly 20 years.

What happened to her, wicca swine?

Well...no one's quite sure. Mysterious death...and her sonny Byro the only one present. More to come!

*****

J made several other insinuations about the fate of "Babs from Tempe" during this period.; 12/22/11, 5:53 PM
sorepaw said...: The Byro Period, Part 4:

http://althouse.blogspot.com/2011/10/saturdays-protest-ambiance-mellow-low.html?showComment=1320053623419#c779401839633547690

...

(And the blowhard "Tyrone"-- a mentally ill piece of white trash from Sac aka Byro with dozens of names, stalking this site, and others--knows nothing about scottish history. It gets its "philosophy" from like Charlie Manson)

http://althouse.blogspot.com/2011/10/is-america-built-on-lie.html?showComment=1319515501811#c3133611199564817109

wow Byro-"Caplight" (what a ridiculous name), the acid-head-LDS troll now putting on his phony nazi-history schtick. Wait, Byro--better not let Digby or DU see you hanging with C4. YOu don't know jack about real history either, little RN flunkie, regardless of your swastikas in the garage, next to the LDS and occult books

http://althouse.blogspot.com/2011/11/russ-feingold-big-lie-is-beginning-big.html?showComment=1321819982058#c2283195052573424221

garag---"sorepaw" aka Byro's got issues. One, he belongs to an extreme right-wing mormon church. Two, he never finished HS, and spent 20 years doing hard drugs in AZ (and in and out of prison). So take his brainfarts with a big grain of salt (and
tell AA to get the iggy button up); 12/22/11, 5:54 PM
sorepaw said...: The Byro Period, Part 5:

http://althouse.blogspot.com/2011/11/cain-reassessing.html?showComment=1322590721859#c1648808988834151172

STFU, Byro-sorepaw, LDS queer-pagan garbage. Even your attempt to be a rightist as pathetic as su mama's panocha

http://althouse.blogspot.com/2011/11/cain-reassessing.html?showComment=1322595245339#c807712752850391175

"AZ yokel"". Nice ring to it eh-- concise not to say accurate, Byro-Jaybird. Maybe go back to yr zionist-pedo daddy's place and spank it together to yr fave NAMBLA vids, puerco (well, fore the ...F**s get there). Ya know, old school beatnik, like you were trained to

http://althouse.blogspot.com/2011/11/whatever-happened-to-occupy-your-city.html?showComment=1322682975888#c1266805569273124489

Byro-jay-sorepaw, AZ trash, lie away, 'roids boy.

Got yr cyber-stalking traced, perp, and yr little tee-shirt shop closed soon goat-boy. Your Billy Idol act also about over, cabronita

http://althouse.blogspot.com/2011/11/whatever-happened-to-occupy-your-city.html?showComment=1322666246979#c4121965654968930172; 12/22/11, 5:55 PM
sorepaw said...: The Byro Period, Part 6:

The first item can be found at the last link in Part 5...

Roger J, perp,klansman, trash--I linked to the punk Byro-jay-sorepaw's site numerous times. but you're tweaking and can't even open a link. I suspect yr already like trading kiddie pics together, right puto.

http://althouse.blogspot.com/2011/12/this-is-populism-so-crude-that-it.html?showComment=1323451363405#c9214958327326791334

Garag [sic]--I told you to bust this little mormon fraud, Jay-sorepaw (aka Byro) didn't I.

Note the white supremacist joto never links to a blog or writing. He was booted off of DU and d-Kos a while back for his klan views.; 12/22/11, 5:58 PM
sorepaw said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 12/22/11, 6:02 PM
sorepaw said...: The Byro Period, Part 7 (abridged—see note at end):

J made jawdropping equations, such as sorepaw=Roger J.=titus=Raul=Jay=ndspinelli=Fred4Pres=caplight=Allie=Robert Cook=Ritmo Re-Animated. (He did eventually decide he might need Cook and Ritmo as allies, so took them off the Byro-list.)

But he didn't assimilate all of his enemies to "Byro."

He still picked a few out for individual abuse:

http://althouse.blogspot.com/2011/08/deceptive-daily-news-headline-muslims.html?showComment=1314802320336#c3238674678586557647

A better question for you -- Geronimo--what's the definition for "septum smashed in"? heh heh

You're another libertarian dumbass

http://althouse.blogspot.com/2011/09/obama-does-great-job-reacting-to.html?showComment=1317166191860#c462575454245471746

Fred4pres-- what , little LDS trashbucket --you were sucking your son's dick when that comment startled you, log cabin joto ??
Hah hah.

Yr game's over--don't pretend to be str8 either. Going to the Obama sites as well\

Ahh, I see that Meade has been busy. Three really nasty items from September 5, 2011, were just deleted, so I won't repeat them...; 12/22/11, 6:05 PM
shiloh said...: I will be breaking my final batch of items from J into several parts (7 if I my estimates are correct).

J surely appreciates your concern ...; 12/22/11, 6:07 PM
sorepaw said...: Search strings for J's posts

The basic structure is

"J said" stalker site http://althouse.blogspot.com

"J said" is far more specific than "J," which will generate lots of false alarms. Even so, it will occasionally pick up a post by "Roger J." or "Larry J."

Many of the words in J's, uhh, characteristic vocabulary will work.

"J said" acid head site http://althouse.blogspot.com
"J said" wicca perp site http://althouse.blogspot.com
"J said" klan site http://althouse.blogspot.com
"J said" masonic site http://althouse.blogspot.com
"J said" cyber stalker site http://althouse.blogspot.com

I don't recommend "queer" or "fag," because Google brings up hits on "gay"—or "stalk," because Google goes and gets "stock" (!).

Then, of course, the handles of those J most often cursed:

"J said" squat site http://althouse.blogspot.com
"J said" byro-sorepaw site http://althouse.blogspot.com
"J said" edu site http://althouse.blogspot.com
"J said" byro-jay site http://althouse.blogspot.com

Any of these searches will turn up between 4 and 70 threads on which "J" posted. He was prolific.

I'd thought J started in February 2011, but recently found there are (very sporadic) comments from him going back to October 2010.; 12/22/11, 6:16 PM
sorepaw said...: Oh, and I meant to include Robert Cook, not "Rol Cook" in J's jawdropping equation (Part 7).; 12/22/11, 6:21 PM
Penny said...: Oh for cripes sake...same as you!

Althouse needs a new fucking job just like the rest of us!

Care to step out first?; 12/24/11, 11:48 PM
Penny said...: If she sounds like your wife?

Only because you married well.; 12/24/11, 11:51 PM
Penny said...: I know!; 12/25/11, 12:32 AM
sorepaw said...: Ann Althouse, April 4, 2012:

http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=6329595&postID=1875265056609517460

"What's my motivation to keep reading these comments?"

None.

There seldom is.

"All the comments getting this wrong bore the hell out of me.

Please raise your game. Show some glimmer of getting this.... or I will avert my eyes."

Ann Althouse has been averting her eyes since 2004.

This is in no way a criticism of her blogging.

It merely acknowledges that skill at writing blog entries and skill at managing blog comments are not the same thing.

I began reading this blog because of the high quality of most of Ann Althouse's blog entries. I still occasionally read it, for the same reason.

However, I deleted all of my comments (except those I've left here, in the penalty box) three months ago.; 4/4/12, 2:28 PM
sorepaw said...: I didn't delete them because I believe there should be unlimited freedom of speech for commenters on a private blog. I don't.

I didn't delete them because I expect Ann Althouse's blog to be perfect. I don't expect anyone's blog to be perfect.

I didn't delete them because I plan to start my own blog. I have no such plans, and if I ever acquire some, I will use my real name on it.

I didn't delete them because I think I would be a better blogger than Ann Althouse is. I don't.

I didn't delete them because I imagine that her blog will somehow crumble without my indispensable contributions. They were so indispensable, I didn't make a copy of a single post that I deleted.

I deleted my comments because of Althouse's manifest inability to manage long comment threads in response to multiple entries per day.

I deleted them because of her manifest inability to make elementary distinctions among commenters or to establish minimal bounds on commenter behavior.

The need for some degree of comment management is obvious. Without it the threads can turn into a zoo—as they did for most of 2011. (Though a touch less zooish today than it was at its worst, the site is still being trolled relentlessly.); 4/4/12, 2:30 PM
sorepaw said...: Ann Althouse has referred to her

Strong aversion to any deletion, especially from someone purporting to push back the dominant ideology in the comments.

The "strong aversion" explains why there have been long periods of minimal intervention into the comments, interrupted by quick explosive crackdowns. (I wasn't around this blog in 2007, but the ruckus over "Dave" appears to have followed a rather similar pattern to the ruckus over "J.")

There is a deeper problem.

I don't get the impression that Ann Althouse likes having commenters. I doubt she thinks much of anyone who comments on her blog, past a handful of familiar people.

Cynics have supposed that the function of commenting at Althouse could just be to increase page views at the site, or to react as required to an occasional pot-stirring article or poll. They have a point.

In any event, Ann Althouse definitely dislikes being around so many conservative or libertarian commenters. Her protected trolls have been, or have pretended to be, Leftists.

Keeping trolls on the threads who claim to be Leftists administers a vicarious scourging to non-Leftists. The more noxious and insulting they get, the brisker the scourging.; 4/4/12, 2:31 PM
sorepaw said...: What eventually spoils the scheme is that the trolls never keep within their designated boundaries. If they merely insulted or threatened other commenters, Ann Althouse would let them hang around year after year. But in time they cross over, and begin insulting the proprietress herself. If they do this long enough and steadily enough, she may even notice and react. (I figure the troll called "Shiloh" will be in trouble—in 2014 or so. And the retreaded troll so subtly named "O Ritmo Segundo" might hit the skids in 2017.)

Recognizing the style immediately and skimming over the comments, so that the stuff with actual threats was not noticed.

I wonder how long it has been since Ann Althouse, while maintaining a posting rate of 10 or more items per day, has actually read the full contents of any comment thread.

Look back at the John Edwards thread from May 25, 2011.

Interspersed among some of the worst things J ever posted (a death threat and several threats of bodily harm, finally deleted by Meade in late December 2011 after they were cited here in the penalty box) are several comments from Althouse herself. She was completely ignoring what J was writing.

On August 26 of last year, Ann Althouse actually engaged J, on a thread about David Prosser and Joanne Bradley.

Yet it was on that very same thread that J (in a reply to "B") started in on his paranoid raving about "Byro," the cyber stalker that according to his fevered visions had between 12 and 100 different usernames. In early December, Ann Althouse was still claiming to know nothing about the Byro rants.; 4/4/12, 2:33 PM
sorepaw said...: Not being impressed by complaints that came from people who were being part of the problem.

From Ann Althouse's point of view, one thing is worse than a commenter threatening to trace other commenters' IP addresses: another commenter objecting to that threat.

Trolling might sometimes be a bad thing. Complaining about trolls, on the other hand, is always unacceptable.

And, naturally, anyone who actually challenges any troll is "being part of the problem."

Actually, he or she is the whole problem. Otherwise, Ann Althouse could just go on insisting that everyone pretend there are no trolls, thereefore no action would have be taken against any, therefore vicarious scourging would keep being administered.

So she will never be impressed by any such complaints.

This is why, three months later, the still-mutating proclamations about "bad faith" commenting have been useless.

Good and bad faith are, to begin with, a matter of intention. In the latest mutation, bad faith is "the ulterior motive of destroying the conversation and driving people away from this forum."

Who the hell knows whether J was trying to destroy conversations or drive people away? After a time, the effect of J's posting was to damage the comment threads and to drive commenters away. J was overtly hostile to the list owner as well as to the other commenters. But J was so whacked out that his actual scheme was as likely directed against imaginary tormentors as against real people.; 4/4/12, 2:34 PM
sorepaw said...: There are a few commenters still active who rarely, if ever, appear to be expressing their honest opinions in their comments. There are some still active who never exhibit positive regard toward anyone else who posts in the comment threads. There are others still active who repeatedly insult Ann Althouse.

Are they commenting in bad faith?

Is this the most important feature of their behavior?

Meanwhile, Ann Althouse remains completely convinced that anyone who objects to any of her policies must be a troll, must harbor ill intentions toward her blog, must be posting in "bad faith."

So there has been no clear statement as to what forms of conduct will get a commenter run from the site. Overt resentment lingers, at ever having to kick anyone off the site.

J, no matter how egregious his behavior, could not be kicked out unless punishement was simultaneously administered to multiple commenters who were complaining about him.

This penalty box was constructed, not to trap J—his failure to show was utterly predictable—but to snag a few of J's opponents and make public examples out of them.

ndspinelli was hung out to dry. I would have been, had I not quit posting outside the penalty box, and I was threatened with wholesale deletion of anything I posted inside the penalty box. Allie was told that her entire output was vacuous and insipid (though for some reason this has not deterred her from returning). Anyone else who objected to any aspect of these proceedings was sharply scolded.

Messenger-shooting doesn't rank high on any list of good management practices.

Long stretches of malign neglect, punctuated by loud bursts of pique, are not normally an effective way to deal with recurring problems.; 4/4/12, 2:36 PM
sorepaw said...: Not getting specific complaints that pointed to the actual worst of his comments.

I provided a slew of links only after I considered that Ann Althouse might not be feigning ignorance—that she might genuinely not know what J had posted.

This was a difficult conclusion for me to arrive at. And at this late date, I'm not fully convinced.

J's gross paranoid rants about "Byro," accompanied by threats to trace IP addresses, threats to get other commenters prosecuted for a host of offenses, and, occasionally, threats of violence, had been featured close to non-stop for three and a half months. (I didn't start commenting until mid-June 2011, and until I did my research on J's output I'd never seen any of his posts prior to that time.)

How can you manage comments on your blog, when you don't know what the commenters have been saying?

How can you credibly assert control over what appears in the comment threads, when you don't know where most of it is?

And how can you rely on commenters to tell you where objectionable material is located, when you neither respect nor trust any of these commenters?

If you don't know how to perform the function, or you can't be bothered to, it's wisest to delegate.

Ann Althouse has now delegated the comment management to Meade.

To Meade, I recommend the exercise of locating and deleting all of J's past comments—and not just because J richly deserves it.; 4/4/12, 2:37 PM
sorepaw said...: Finding these comments, reading them, and observing their immediate context will prove quite the learning experience. Nearly all of them are among J's "actual worst comments."

J was the sort of commenter whose conduct would be classified as consistently unacceptable by nearly any list owner. As far back as March 2011 (that "Voonderbar" comment, comparing Ann Althouse to Ilse Koch), the costs of allowing him to continue posting surely exceeded any benefits derived from making life unpleasant for other commenters.

Leaving them up (most of the specific comments that I quoted here in the penalty box are still on the site) memorializes past mismanagement and points, brightly and shinily, toward future mismanagement.

It invites the inference that, to the person who owns and operates this blog, no one whose comments remain on the site is any better than J was, and none deserves any greater respect than J ended up getting.

PS. A recent spat

http://www.althouse.blogspot.com/2012/03/why-i-dont-delete-mobys-in-comments.html

over a moby called "Dane Country Taxpayer," strarkly reveals how little has changed.

Meade wanted us to delete DCT's comment, but I argued with him about the proper meaning of our key policy term "bad faith," and I was adamant that what we will delete is only the commenter who we believe hates this blog and is out to wreck it by undermining the conversation and driving people away. I'm not about saving readers from having to be smart about detecting insincerity and sarcasm. Admittedly, I don't know when someone has crossed my "bad faith" line, but that is the line.

Then, Ann Althouse goes on, in the very next paragraph, to suggest that "Dane County Taxpayer" did post in bad faith.

While continuing to refuse to take any action.

Of course. Commenters are for page views. And the scourging must go on.; 4/4/12, 2:38 PM
sorepaw said...: *starkly* reveals...

in that last installment.; 4/4/12, 2:44 PM
sorepaw said...: The top two hits from this search

"J said" acid head site http://althouse.blogspot.com

—conducted a few minutes ago—are two apparently intact sets of "J's" comments from November 29 and December 1, 2011.

Including equations of Ann Althouse with Satan.

Apparently thousands of comments from "J" will be preserved indefinitely, as an unintended monument to poor comment management.; 4/20/12, 3:31 PM