So the original intent of this blog was to allow a group of people (the infamous soars board crowd and anyone else to cared to join in) to engage in political discussion. Over the years the blog has gone from a few dozen visits a day to a few hundred to several thousand and then back down to around 50-100 unique visitors a day we see now (according to the statcounter app installed). Believe it or not there are still many people who just come to read the posts and not engage in our comment discussions and there has been no drop in unique visitor traffic since I dropped the comments (actually a bit of an increase).
Moreover there was a time when we had thousands of people signed up as members that included people like Gerry Daly, Sean Trende, Stacy Matthews, and other prominent bloggers. We had real discussions with real people and real back and forth.
But there can be no real easy back and forth when you open up a comment thread and see 10 cut and paste spams, one discussion comment, then another 10 cut and paste spams, another discussion comment, then more cut and paste spams, and then finally every new comment is suddenly all bold font because someone fd up the thread with a cut and paste that included html.
It gets extremely frustrating to attempt to engage when there is a constant interruption (generally completely off topic) that involves several comments in a row. So what happens is all of the people looking for a serious debate no longer bother to come, while those who want to cut and paste their spam pretty much just take everything over. They create the non-stop circlejerk of dominating every discussion with their own pet subject. Generally Trump or Jan 6th and generally from the same sources that we could all read if we were actually interested.
It's like trying to have the "adult" discussion and there is a child there demanding attention and just keeps interrupting and interrupting and interrupting. Because apparently the child cannot stand that people are discussing something that is not relevant to their personal needs (or in our case apparently discussing something that is not Trump or Jan 6th related). Oh and if they do not believe anyone is paying enough attention, they post the entire comment in bold or in bold caps. Talk about maturity!
I could get into the continued personal insults and the constant paranoid delusional accusations that the blog administrator is waking up in the middle of the night to "delete" comments as some form of evil censorship... but alas I am not a psychologist and not qualified to give opinions on those subjects.
 |
| anyone have any ideas, brilliant or otherwise? |
I am open to suggestion.
Comments will be allowed on this thread under "comment moderation" - meaning nothing is published until it is reviewed for content. So comments not involving some form of suggestion, complaint, idea, pet peeve, or whatever regarding the blog and comments in general will not be published. So no cut and pastes or rants about being "deleted" will be published.
All other relevant comments to this discussion will be available for others to read and react to (just not necessarily immediately). I will attempt to publish relevant comments fairly frequently and I will keep this thread up as long as necessary or as long as there is any engagement. All that being said, it would not surprise me that most people have pretty much given up and we may have very few people offering any hopeful suggestions.
43 comments:
I am in agreement that there has been FAR too much domination of this blog by cut an pastes, including mine, but especially the extremely numerous ones coming from Roger. I would suggest that he and I and everyone should adopt a policy of posting only two or three posts we consider of greatest importance, and then waiting for others to respond before posting anything else.
Let's try to aim at more real discussion, more sharing of our own actual opinions, even when based on information derived from other sources.
I agree with the guidelines
I consider what I am about to say the sort of "relevant" comment this blog should allow, even if the blog administator does not like what I am about to say.
I invite readers to scroll down to the thread article below titled "Why is Liz Cheney using her dad to attack Donald Trump in compaign ads?" and read through it.
I guess my answer would be simply, "Why not?"
I can understand that the administrator of this blog finds it offensive for Dick Cheney to say such negative things about Donald Trump, but I find myself having to wonder whether in Ch's mind winning elections has become more important than telling the truth.
Isn't that the point of the video in question? Dick Cheney (whom I do NOT admire in many ways) is, in my opinion, rightly proud of his daughter taking a principled stand for the simple truth that Trump is knowingly lying about the election being stolen from him, a truth that far too many Republicans, including the administrator of this blog, are not courageous enough to state.
When did winning elections become more important to you, Ch, than telling the truth?
Let me revise my first comment above
After going back and reading what Ch said in this thread article, I notice that he states that NO cut and pastes will be permitted.
Okay, however I would consider it UNacceptable for me not to be able to make comments on things that are being published elsewhere, as long as they are my own comments.
Reverend...
The no cutting and pasting about other topics is specific for "this thread". I only want suggestions about the blog and comments "on this thread". What I didn't want is people attempting to use "this thread" to go off topic.
Not too surprising, there are already several comments from Roger that he attempted to add about other subjects (mainly the new bill).
This tells me that Roger did not read the post (as he generally doesn't) and immediately went off topic with multiple comments about the same off topic subject.
That being said...
Understand what a "spam filter" is attempting to do. Many blogs start to get overrun by bots and people who pretend to show some interest in what you are writing about... then provide a link which takes you to a penis enlargement website, something selling ED medication, or even a porn site.
Might go something like this:
Hey, I really enjoy your blog. This article is interesting and well written. You should really check out this at "www.anotherwebsite.com" as it would be right up your alley.
THen you click on the link and it you immediately see some big penis or naked women or some shopping site.
So when Blogger sees the same IP address link the same website over and over and over (say an IP address from Normal Illinois posting politicalwire.com 50 times over 2-3 days)... well that will get flagged. They are not going to bother to see what is at the other side of the link. That many of the same basic url put into comments is going to be seen as spam. At some point it will not matter what you are putting in your comments, they see the IP they block it as spam.
I read it before I posted the article about the inflation recovery bill because it was more important.
I read very quickly and completely understand it.
But I had already followed the steps 🚶♂️
But Roger...
This is a case in point.
I offered that this comment thread was going to be "exclusively" about the blog and comments and decorum. I specifically stated that I was not going to allow political discussion on this thread.
Rather than provide a suggestion as to how this blog can increase decorum and sort "win back" the people who have been complaining to me that the comment threads are no longer fun because of all the spam... you basically went right into trying to "sneak" in your url links (what is it - 3 already this morning)?
Obviously you neither understood it...
and you certainly did not follow any steps...
KD.
Well said Scott.
I enjoy debating the likes of Roger and James.
Mainly on topic.
As for making this blog more enjoyable.
IF the Hate Trump/January 6th crew could focus on what the thread topic is and stay in course it would really help.
Thanks for the input Kansas...
To address the claim that Reverend believes that anyone is offended that there might be disagreement with one of my posts, that not only misses the point, but is a 180 degree miss.
The only manner to have a debate is to have people who disagree. Nobody is offended if someone disagrees (well no conservative is). Would I offer such a blog if I was thin skinned and could not handle dissent. This isn't Twitter where a bunch of spoiled woke kids believe theirs is the only opinion that should be allowed.
This is sort of a red herring martyr argument. As in "if you do not let me cut and paste 20 goddard posts in a row it is because you do want dissent". Nope. Okay with dissent. As long as it is a real argument made by someone interested in a debating their own opinion.
But if I wanted to read Politicalwire.com... I know where to find it.
I don't need it shoved down my throat.
You aren't allowing comments on the vote numbers.
What is interesting about the Reverend's statement about the Cheney post was that it was actually sort of an argument and it did not involve some link from Goddard.
There are plenty of interesting points about that Cheney ad?
1) Does it tarnish the Cheneys more than Trump?
2) Is it true? Coming from a man who arguably started two wars in the middle east?
3) Has Trump ever shot anyone in the face with a shotgun?
4) Even if you agree with it... is it a good campaign strategy?
5) If it is a bad strategy, why is she so intent on Trump when her opponent is 30 points up focusing on Wyoming and the issues of the day?
6) What does Liz Cheney do if she loses the primary?
So many points that "could" be discussed or debated just in that one thread...
But we cannot... because every thread burns itself down to "demands" that Trump is the devil reincarnated with cut and pastes from others who hate him, name calling, and eventually everyone throwing up their hands and giving up trying to have a real discussion because it becomes all Trump bashing and cut and pasting.
Eventually in bold font that takes over the entire thread moving forward. This drowns everything else out (and in some cases it seems to be the point. To simply drown everything else out).
I hear you, Ch, and am willing in the future to make use of politicalwire.com (from which I derive much but not all of of my information) in ways that I think you will find acceptable.
I fully understand and accept that from now on mere cutting and pasting will be deleted in accordance with the blog's new policy.
And I do think that will improve the quality of the discussions here.
With regard to your 12:17: When have you EVER been really critical of Trump no matter how egregious his actions were?
The simple fact is that things are beginning somewhat to look up, though perhaps not yet decisively, for the Democrats and maybe even for Biden.
I can understand that it may not fit your agenda that more and more Republicans are turning their backs on Trump. But perhaps you should give more consideration to the possibility that it is now time to stop defending him and be critical of him, and that for the greater eventual good of the Reublican party.
Long term, even a Republican defeat for being on the side of truthfulness and not on the side of lying, might pay off for Republicans in the future.
Not allowing comments at all Roger...
Not until there is an understanding from the community. I thought you understood that?
I would like to eventually bring back others into the fold. As least those complaining to me - not Indy or McNaulty or those whom you contend are offended by my conservatism.
But rather those (several who have complained over the past two years or so) who are specifically not coming anymore because the comment threads are overrun with cut & pastes from basically two people.
I literally have no interest in maintaining a blog where the sole purpose seems to be for two people to spam their Trump hatred and cut and pastes all day (and for you all night as well)... no matter what is posted.
Only to hear complaints about how your excessive commenting is getting caught in the spam folder.
I don't get paid to monitor this blog... I am not anyone's dad.
Coward
Roger...
I can assure you that calling me a coward or insulting me or demanding that I have "lost my mind" is not what this thread is about.
Reverend...
That last comment I posted suggests that you can think for yourself and ask questions (albeit sort of irrelevant ones). I am simply like the lionshare of Americans. My top concerns are things like inflation, gas prices, supply chain issues, crime, etc. I have never in my life dealt with so many times not able to get staple items at the grocery store. I have not had this many posts in local neighborhood watch sites with so much continuous property crime in places that used to be safe.
The midterm polling suggests that Americans have very very very little interest in Trump or Jan 6th. You might ask yourself why you are so out of step with everyone else... and then consider if that is all you read, why are you so interested in that circlejerk and why are you so insistent that everyone else deal with "your" concerns instead of their "own" concerns?
This plays back to the complaints.
Regardless of what topic is discussed... you always want it to be about Trump when 95% + of the population is not interested. Sure, they might be interested in his chosen candidates (who won almost all their races last week) and certainly those Republicans who voted to impeach him have been punished by the voters (looks like one of the two NeverTrumper Republicans here is going to lose after looking like he was ahead).
But honestly...
Why is it so hard to discuss the economy? Crime? Border? CRT? Corporations that are killing themselves with wokeness? Why do you ALWAYS have to bring it back to Trump? Then once you have believed you have established the change of subject then you are free to go on your barrage of anti-Trump dialogue and C&P.
So while you have (for this one comment) brought this back to Trump...
I am pointing out that this is what irritates people.
Questioning why they are part of the 95% who are more concerned with bigger issues as if they are crazy (and not you for being that minority who believes everything is about the bad orange man) - is part of the issue.
Figure out that others want to discuss these other subjects WITHOUT INTERRUPTIONS within the thread that bring up Trump... every time.
As you did here (which I allowed as an example).
Ok, here's my ten cents worth...
Perhaps we can have 'No Trump weeks'? It's not just the repetitive cut and paste posts. It's when a small number topics are beaten to death. We know what they are.
While Roger took the copy paste bombardment to extreme, James is the one who started it years ago. This needs to be pointed out.
With elections coming up, it's a good opportunity for topics of discussion. That's actual discussion and not just pasting opinions of others.
Originally, many came here for the host's commentaries. The fact that traffic is up over the past week would suggest that this could still be the case.
I posted about the inflation bill not the orange monster.
But you still blocked me forever
Surprised 😮 thanks
Herein lies the current situation...
Roger (the genius) still hasn't figured out the point of the thread and still keeps calling me a coward or insulting me because he cannot get back to C&Ping...
Reverend seems a bit more understanding and willing to change, but still is trying to "justify" as to why everything really "should" be about Trump.
And others just want to go back to discussions that are not dominated by two people C&P about Trump and Jan 6th non-stop... or just C&Ping instead of providing their own opinion.
I won't insult you anymore and I hope you return the favor
Ch, you have a tendency to
exagerrate which does not
serve you well.
You claimed that I was ALWAYS making every thread about Trump.
Not so. Go back and look at the thread "an exercise in futility" (51 comments)
where I commented more than a few times before you shut commenting down.
I had posts about
abortion (MANY, including)
the Kansas rejection of the GOP bill
your word salad
dems to target republican extremism
democrats' unified
backlash on the Taliban
though confined, biden having good week
biden killed terrorist Zawahiri
gas prices falling for 94 daysnever manchin on board with billTrump republicans
ex wh counsel subpoened
oath keepers trial not delayed
biden: patients can travel for medical care
abortion rights jolt the midterms
collusion
Should I accuse you of lying, as you and others so often accuse me?
Or should I just say you have a very selective memory?
KD.
Roger complaining "But you still blocked me forever"
Roger, try this.
Tell us in your own words what you think the topic/purpose of this Topic thread is?
Maybe if you can articulate it, Scott will turn on comments on other threads .
Reverend... and how many of those topics did you bring up on threads about other things... and what percentage of the overall comments were yours and Rogers talking "off topic" and how many of them were from Goddard?
Again... Think you are missing the point. This is not necessarily about "my" concerns. I still try to engage in these threads.
These are the concerns of people who simply do not come anymore because of how they "view" the current comment decorum. They open up a thread and see a long list of C&P from you and Roger...
and more often than not it is about Trump, Jan 6th, and it is pretty much 90% what I could go find if ANY OF US WANTED to go to Politialwire.com
You do understand that anyone choosing to come here is choosing to come "here" not politialwire.com? Had they wanted to see everything on Politicalwire....
Then wouldn't they have the option of just heading over their themselves?
Send there's the other all too common topic - James cheerleading everything Biden and democrats. No discussion. No debate. Just pasting like he gets paid by the dnc. He doesn't seem to understand the points here. He still talks past everyone as he does his propaganda dumps.
Why doesn't he analyze the democrats bench after Biden? Or do a real analysis of inflation, or covid origin or something?
I am conceding that neither Roger nor I should have so dominated with c & p's. It will be a great improvement for him and for me to state our own opinions.
But you should be gentleman enough to admit that you far overstated your claim that I posted ONLY on Trump.
Trump will, however, continue to be a focus in the next election, even if he does not run...which I think he may not. Your side cannot have poured out so much carping support onto that inveterate liar without expecting Democrats to use it against you as much as we can.
We're committed to keeping Trump a one term president.
And that's already one too many.
You should have found him guilty when he was (twice) impeached.
So just to be clear here Reverend...
The way you are going to prove to us that not everything you want to discuss is going to be about Trump...
is by turning this particular completely non-political conversation regarding the blog into something about Trump?
Do you not see the pattern here and the continued reason for concern?
Of all of the midterm issues, the polling suggests that it has virtually nothing to do with Trump. Even when polled on the Jan 6th hearings the general public determined that of the possible things that the commission needed to address... Trump's involvement was dead last. Dead last! Every other issue (including FBI infiltration) polled as a higher concern than Trump's involvement. Security before, security during, why no national guard, FBI involvement and infiltration, etc... all of them were of more interest to the public than Trump's involvement.
This is why the polling went from 2-1 in favor of hearings to 2-1 that we should move on.
Doesn't seem like you or Roger will EVER be able to understand that most of America doesn't give a shit right now about Trump. They certainly will if he runs for President again. But not right now.
And quite frankly it may not be both of you on any given day. But between the two of you, I would be hard pressed to go through a comment thread and not find comments about Trump pretty much every day.
KD.
I do like Myballsinthewoodsagain idea.
No Trump or Jan 6th for a week.
I don't James or Roger have the discipline to refrain that long.
We rarely invoke, Obama, Clinton here.
You mentioned,
"The way you are going to prove to us that not everything you want to discuss is going to be about Trump..."
No, I simply showed you that NOT everything I wanted to and did discuss was about Trump by referring you to a thread that had c & p's of mine discussing a number of things other than Trump.
As for you accusing me of
"turning this particular completely non-political conversation regarding the blog into something about Trump..."
~~~~I must say I really don't see how any discussion of this blog could possibly be "completely non political."
It is, after all, a political blog.
I will, however, try in the future to follow the rules you have established.
But let me point out that, whether you like it or not, while you are suggesting that future political discussions should not be so much about Trump, Trump is himself busy doing everything he can to ensure that future political discussions will be very much about him.
I can sympathize with any Republican who wishes Trump would stop that, but I really don't feel anyone can expect Democrats not to try to counter Trump if he he keeps it up, and even to take political advantage of it, if they can.
Nevertheless, I look forward to better, more on topic discussions in the future.
Well Reverend....
If you bring up Trump on a thread about inflation and nobody but Roger responds to you... are you capable of just dropping it or will you continue to post more and more stuff (while everyone is ignoring it) until you finally start posting in bold font just to emphasize your point (that nobody else cares about)?
Reverend - Trump
Roger - yay! more Trump
everyone else - crickets
Reverend - more Trump in response to Roger
Roger - more Trump
Reverend - more Trump
Host - enough about Trump
Roger - Host is crazy because he doesn't agree
So we've seen James try to justify all his posts about Trump by saying how relevant he is. The problem with this false logic is that Joe Biden is pretty darn relevant. So is VP Harris. So are their immigration policies. And their energy policies. Their economic policies. Their social progressive policies. But he rarely post's on these things. So that argument doesn't fly.
Nope. That's not the way I see the future.
And by the way, posts entirely in bold were usually not my doing.
BTW, I got a facebook message from Roger saying he's been blocked "forever."
A QUICK WORD SEACH
Biden the sitting President mentioned 6 times
TRUMP = 54 Times.
I would think that would be reserved in any quality Debate about Politics, the Economy and US Policies.
Reverend...
There is no "blocking" of anyone. Blogger does not have that feature. Roger has been submitting comments all day long about "other things" and then bashing me for not publishing them. Everything he has said about the blog I have published (which has been very little)
If I cannot trust him to not spam a comment thread like this (when he is specifically told this is not about political debate but a discussion about the blog) - then how can he be trusted on any other thread?
As I see it . Another problem experienced by Roger and James , is they don't read what is posted in a thread.
No need to tell us what may have been sent to you James.
"Coldheartedtruth TellerAugust 6, 2022 at 1:42 PM
I posted about the inflation bill not the orange monster.
But you still blocked me forever
Reply
Replies
Coldheartedtruth TellerAugust 6, 2022 at 1:47 PM
Surprised 😮 thanks"
Seems to me you are intent on keeping a rather strict, even dictatorial, control over this blog.
In that you will join much rightwing talk radio which simply allows NO dissent at all to air.
Now that you have such total control over content, which will appear only after you in lordly fashion have reviewed it, you can easily quash anything you do not like to hear.
Puts you with the oligarchs who totally control so much rightwing media.
Why was there not even any opportunity to comment following the Sunday funnies?
James and Roger constantly changing nyms think that would get them pst the spam blocker and then seeing the exact same poar 5:to 8: times repeatedly was driving me nuts and proved they do not understand how this interwebs thing works.
And that’s after you patiently and repeatedly explained this to them.
Reverend...
Have you heard anything that has been said?
This is not a blog just for you and Roger with me being the daddy that picks your mess up when it ends up in the spam folder... only to have you whine like a three year old about how I am "blocking you".
I am getting constant complaints from everyone else. Do I just ignore the issues that everyone else is having... just to allow the same behavior as before which will mean that every thread will be the Roger and Reverend show?
Case in point... Roger has attempted to both claim he understands this thread and yet has offered about 30 different political points (about half with links) and has tweeted at least another dozen that he tweeted "at me" (so it would show up in my notifications).
This is not about liberal or conservative.
This is about decorum and common sense manners.
Personally I kind of like this format.
Worth stopping by and not feeling any need to respond to obsessive spamming, bitching and complaining
But if you can figure out how to stop the spamming I'd be glad to come back as Commander-in-Thief Biden with whatever rules you set up.
until the POS "pastor" starts falsely posting as me.
then it would be back to James's Fucking Daddy
and he would be crying as a "victim" again
and probably breaking every "rule"
I have been paying attention and think I am capable of decorum and commonsense manners regarding the new blogging understandings.
Let's get on with it then. Open up a thread on a topic and let's see how it goes.
In response to 11:38, which I only saw just now.
I have enjoyed "James' F**king Daddy's" absence recently.
I have always objected to his using that disgusting title and think you, Ch, should insist that he not use it. My real father, still living, is 103 years old and a WWII hero who flew 51 B-17 bombing missions into eight European countries: Italy, France, Germany, Austria, Czechoslovakia, Greece, Hungary, and Yugoslavia. He does not regard himself as a hero, however, but says the real heroes are those who did not make it back (unlike what Trump said about John McCain which totally disgusted my father and caused him for one of the few times in his life NOT to vote for a Republican candidate for president.)
Anyway, if "F Daddy" continues using that disgusting nomenclature, or continues to refer to me as a POS pastor, I can simply ignore his posts.
Reverend...
you could always "ignore his comments" - but what if every time you opened a comment thread it was JFD spamming insults at you nonstop... and 90% of the comments were just that.
How long would your rummage through 10 JFD posts to see a single post on subject that interested you, then 10 more JFD posts, then one post you found interesting... then 12 JFD posts... etc... etc....
You'd probably be emailing me (just as other have) or complaining in the threads that you did not want to take part anymore.
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