Wednesday, June 15, 2016

The Hesperado policy on comments for Dummies 101



A few times over the months, some dim bulbs from the CJM sub-community at Jihad Watch comments have come to my blog and complained in various comments sections of various articles about how some commenter is posting comments they find offensive (the main offense being articulations of anti-semitic conspiracy theory by certain regular commenters my blog has attracted).

These dim bulbs who have complained perhaps come from a culture that does not value free speech, and so they expect a blog owner to step in and censor the thoughts of the people who happen to drift into this public space here.   Since all the ones who have complained that way come from Robert Spencer's Jihad Watch community of comments, and since they are Spencer sycophants, they apparently think Spencer's philosophy of comments is written on stone tablets sent down from on high from God Himself.   Now, Spencer does allow a lot of freedom; and that's good.  But he could allow more freedom; and that's bad.  I've always found it odd when people can't see that a comments thread attached to the underside of a blog essay or article is a separate adjunct.  It's a precious public space where, in my view, the utmost freedom possible should be allowed (with only extreme exceptions, such as death threats, publishing other people's private information, or egregious spamming).

And, more importantly, it should be clear to anyone with minimum sense that, unless the blog owner explicitly states that the commenters are his publishing minions or that he agrees with them, public comments are just a random influx of people from the wider world of the World Wide Web drifting in and taking the opportunity to register their two cents.  And all these two cents adding up to heaps of small change (and sometimes adding up to enough to buy a nice Italian dinner and a bottle of wine, but often just hills of beans) remain a pool of public opinion separate from the official position of the blogger who owns the blog featuring the blog essay or article they are commenting on.

That said, if any reader wants to know my views on some matter, and wonders if I happen to agree with the view of any given comment they happen to see in one of my comments sections, they can undertake that amazingly novel pursuit of .... wow, actually asking me!  (Either post a comment, or email me.  Duh!)

Beyond that, the blog owner can make a formal statement, if he thinks there exist out there in the Blogosphere bulbs dim enough to worry about whether the public comments of a blog are somehow reflecting the blog itself and its owner's views, explicitly stating his policy.  All these years, I've felt that unnecessary -- and still do, frankly.  I'm just writing this "policy" because it's fun to dash off little missives like this.  But I also do mean every word of it.

So here's The Hesperado's comments policy:

1. My comments sections are free public spaces, where free means real freedom (as opposed to Orwellian "freedom" subtly restricted through passive-aggressive fascism).  You can write anything you want -- but not death threats against others, publishing personal information of others, or egregious spamming (which I will define as generously as possible; an example would be repeating gibberish in several comments in a row).

(Note: If people have noticed, in a recent comments thread here, I have even allowed the rudely abusive comments of that obtuse and Anger-Management-challenged blunderbuss from the Jihad Watch comments community, "joe blow" (aka "Philip Jihadski") to remain standing, without censorship or deletion, even though he's attacking me in childishly uncouth terms like a retard with his tongue hanging out.)

2. When someone violates the minimal caveats in #1, I will delete the comment.  However, I don't monitor my comments 24/7, and several days may go by before I notice the violators (I say this only for any dim bulbs from the Jihad Watch comments community who may have a hissy fit if they see a violation not being taken down in a time short enough to satisfy their childish impatience).

3.  Otherwise, have another sip of coffee and enjoy my blog.  And that's an order. :)

18 comments:

Egghead said...

Correction: ...turned into an agent in jail...

Egghead said...

Thanks! I went back and re-read that thread, and I still support my comments there. :)

Many related issues are intertwined in the LGBT movement in the West.

1. Due to the supremacist nature of Judaism, Jews are always acting as a defined group over time to achieve clearly articulated goals.

The best comment that I read about the Orlando shooter asked (paraphrase): Why do we have to believe a man who says that he is a woman, but we have to disbelieve a man who says that he murdered for Islam?

So, I ask a variant to the counter jihad: Why do we have to believe that Muslims are defined by and act based on the Koran, but we have to disbelieve that Jews are defined by and act based on the Talmud?!

Anonymous said...

The Donkey Lıes Agaın:

'... to remain standing, without censorship or deletion, even though he's attacking me...'

Liar. You deleted a post of mine and you know it.

Blow it out your ass Bobby.

Egghead said...

Hesp, It appears that your cyber-stalker has followed you home....

Egghead said...

By the way, Bobby (?), my comments disappear regularly. It is all a part of the 'new & improved' censorship program just announced by un-nameables who own all major Western media.

In my experience, the un-nameables were censoring comments and private emails (!) for many years BEFORE they announced it.

Of course, when I said censorship was occurring, I was a 'conspiracy theorist,' but when the un-name ankles proudly announce it in a joint policy, it's the just the new inch-by-inch 'normal' - destroying the right to privacy and the (role of) the first amendment to criticize people who would rule rather than govern.

http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2016/06/03/how-will-facebook-google-and-twitter-define-hate-plan-to-censor.html

Egghead said...

Correction: un-name ankles = un-nameables

Hesperado said...

"Liar. You deleted a post of mine and you know it"

This was the childishly brute comment of "joe blow" whom I've mentioned in recent posts.

Not only did I not delete any of his posts, I have not deleted the posts of anyone else other than myself in all the time I've had this blog here (since 2006, I believe). (I have a few times deleted my own in order to revise them then republish them, since this Blogger comments format apparently doesn't allow a person to **revise** comments after they've been published.)

The fact that "joe blow" intemperately insults me and accuses me of being a "liar" is, of course, unremarkable and oh so predictable. Also, as the commenter "Egghead" noted above, she's had the experience of some of her comments apparently being deleted (though a comment not showing up, or seeming to disappear, may not be proof of actual **deletion**). At any rate, as I indicated above, I've never deleted any Egghead comments.

I myself have only had one experience here of a vanishing of a comment that would have to have occurred through some "censor" -- when, back in 2008, a supporter of Obama who had actually made the news (including a Jihad Watch report), a convert to Islam, James Yee, Muslim chaplain for the U.S. Army, actually left a comment on my essay on Obama -- saying nothing especially interesting, just some pap about how Obama is a great candidate, blah blah blah. I saw his comment with my own eyes, in black and white. At the time, I smiled in amusement and didn't even deign it worthy of a response from me. Then I moved on, wrote other essays, married a supermodel, divorced her, married another supermodel (well, those last three things I just made up...); anyway, several months later, I wanted to revisit the essay in order to copy James Yee's comment to show a friend -- and lo and behold, it had vanished without a trace. Now, on this Blogger format, a commenter can delete his own comment -- but the vestige of that action remains as a line that says, "This comment has been deleted by the commenter" or something like that. To delete it without a trace at all, only the owner of the blog who has the password -- moi -- can do that. And I know for a fact that I did not delete James Yee's comment.


Anonymous said...

Hesperado: I noted yesterday, when perusing GoV comments on various threads, that 'joe blow' also now appears on that site. I've no idea if he/she/it is new to that site, but if you feel you are being stalked from blog site to blog site, I believe you can bring the matter to the attention of civil authorities and that government body which has authority over conduct on the internet in the US.

Hesperado said...

Well Anonymous, according to "joe blow" he's "just a teacher", so how would he know how to do Internet stalking...?

Egghead said...

Hesp, all he needs to do is google your name.

Egghead said...

And, now back to our previously scheduled programming about the many related issues intertwined in the LGBT movement in the West:

2. It is always interesting to read Muslim and 'moderate' Jewish commentary about 'radical' Jews and Israel.

So, let's look at these related articles:

A Muslim claims that 1) Omar Mateen's wife claims that the government and media have substantially misquoted and misrepresented her (and the Muslim also says that, even if Omar's wife DID help him, why didn't others do anything to stop him either?!), and 2) Omar's wife wants to know why she is being blamed instead of the people who sold him the guns, and 3) the wife's friends speculate that Omar was upset that he was going to be 'outed' as gay.

http://husseini.posthaven.com/noor-zahi-salman-everything-youre-hearing-about-me-is-a-lie

But, the best thing about the Muslim article is the link to the following 'moderate' Jewish article about the fact that Israeli Jews often blackmail Muslim gays:

http://mondoweiss.net/2014/09/blackmails-palestinian-informants/#comments

Egghead said...

Then, we have these two nuggets:

http://getoffthebs.com/fbi-introduced-florida-shooter-informants/

http://getoffthebs.com/five-suspects-involved-in-planned-attacks/

Egghead said...

Keep in mind that Omar's calendar was marked D-Day on June 7, but along came tropical storm Colin which evidently postponed plans by a few days.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3639587/A-dried-Christmas-wreath-door-child-s-Ninja-Turtle-backpack-hanging-wall-ceremonial-sword-books-Crucial-Matters-Life-Muslim-Palestinian-Makes-Smile-Inside-home-Orlando-terrorist-Omar-Mateen.html

http://www.cnn.com/2016/06/06/us/tropical-storm-colin/

Egghead said...

What events happened on the Jewish calendar on the original planned D-Day of June 7, 2016, and the actual Orlando event on June 12, 2016?

http://m.chabad.org/calendar/view/month.htm

June 7 - Rosh Chodesh - Sivan

http://www.hebrew4christians.com/Holidays/Rosh_Chodesh/rosh_chodesh.html

http://www.hebrew4christians.com/Holidays/Rosh_Chodesh/Sivan/sivan.html

June 12 - Savuot

http://www.hebrew4christians.com/Holidays/Spring_Holidays/Shavuot/shavuot.html

Anonymous said...

Liar and Donkey:

"The fact that "joe blow" intemperately insults me and accuses me of being a "liar" is, of course, unremarkable and oh so predictable. Also, as the commenter "Egghead" noted above, she's had the experience of some of her comments apparently being deleted (though a comment not showing up, or seeming to disappear, may not be proof of actual **deletion**). At any rate, as I indicated above, I've never deleted any Egghead comments."

What a bunch of horseshit. You really are dense, aren't you? Where did you get the phrase, "great teacher", if it was not from post you deleted, that was so graciously added by my student?

Where'd that come from, dummy? Just out of the blue - magically? You're a horrible liar. I have the screen grabs of all of my posts here - and my student's. Would you like me to embarrass you further by posting them, or are you gonna' man-up and admit that you DID DELETE MY POST?

Egghead said...

Again, the powers-that-be have been, are, and will be actively censoring comments and emails - presumably based on key words, key word combinations, and concepts. You seriously need to clean up your language.

Some comments disappear as they are being written, some as they are posted, some after they are posted, and some months later.

Tricky, tricky! Your comment may appear to you to have posted, but you need open another window right away to verify that your comment has posted. I am evidently on a 'master list' where NONE of my comments post the first time that I submit them.

Even if your comment posts, your comment may disappear later.

Please try debating IDEAS instead of trading purile insults.

P.S. I will be adding info about the janissary system as time permits.

Egghead said...

Correction: Puerile.

Hesperado said...

From the "For the Record" Dept.:

The projecting "joe blow" (commenting as an "Anonymous") above says:

What a bunch of horseshit. You really are dense, aren't you? Where did you get the phrase, "great teacher", if it was not from post you deleted, that was so graciously added by my student?

He really isn't too bright, is he? The comment by his "student" he claims was "deleted" is readily available in a comments thread of an article nearby:

https://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=29566846&postID=5711737807024282081

Notice that the phrase that his "student" used was not "great teacher" but rather "great man and teacher". His "student" also said: "He is a great man of great integrity. He is my professor, and I have the utmost respect for him."

That's why, when I made my comment, I paid careful attention to what the "student" wrote, when I wrote (in the same comments thread linked above), carefully putting in quotes what was actually written by the "student":

Oh, and right on cue, look above to see Anonymous's "great man of integrity" a "teacher" and "professor" ...

Not only did "joe blow" in a burst of intemperate (and inaccurate) paranoia assume wrongly that the post was "deleted", he also got wrong the words of his own "student". Some "great teacher" he is!