December 29, 2002
From the desk of Jane Galt:Public Service Announcement
This year, I am not going to be irritated by snotty comments.
And the reason I'm not going to be irritated by them is that I'm going to delete them.
I don't really moderate the comments, because my feeling is that if I start editing them, the temptation will be to edit out the stuff that puts me in a bad light, and that sorta damages the whole point of the blog. I mostly edit for repetition or profanity.
But then there are those very special people. You know who you are. You don't like me, and you don't like my site, and it just makes you mad that I'm around. This raises some disturbing questions about the sheer amount of time you spend poring over my driveling idiocy -- I hate to say get a hobby, but my sweet, someone has to.
It's a hard life you live, isn't it? You know deep in your heart how much cleverer you are than I am, and funnier, and how much better you write, and how much more you know about everything, and you long to prove that by. . . well, apparently by writing in the patronizing tones adopted by insecure fifth graders, calling me names, or inserting sarcastic comments. When I respond to you, you ignore the substance in order to make hysterical accusations about my motivation, personal habits, or erudition. You are abnormally fixated on my degree. You display a less than touching concern with my dating life, especially when it is not the topic under discussion. When you want to come up with a really devastating rejoinder, you rack your memories for the snappy comments that served you so well in eighth grade.
It is a great consolation to me that you don't annoy me half as much as I apparently annoy you. And the good news is that you're not going to annoy me at all, because comments that have an excessively nasty tone will henceforth be deleted on my threads. That will save us the boredom of reading them, and you the trouble of composing them. I might add that since I'm already deleting the emails with headings like "You're a [expletive deleted] idiot.", you'll be getting a lot of rest for those little fingers. It'll be good for you, really. Repetitive stress injuries are no joke, you know. Besides, if your mother didn't warn you, your face can freeze that way and then where will you be? Probably home composing aimless rants to right-wing bloggers. And really, there has to be something more interesting with which to fill your otherwise empty weekend nights.
No, don't thank me. I'm a giver.
Posted by Jane Galt at December 29, 2002 11:10 PM | TrackBack | Technorati inbound links"); ?>It's not just typing that gives these folks repetitive stress injuries.
Posted by: Gary Utter on December 30, 2002 2:00 AMPost nasal drip. Expectorate. Runny nose.
AH-CHOOO!!!
So how's that for a snotty comment?
Woo-hoo! I've just written the first post to be deleted under Ms. McArdle's new policy!
James
Your degree? What degree? Oh, you must mean your MBA. It's tough to recall because you never mention it. Ever.
Posted by: Charles on December 30, 2002 12:18 PMRemember = "Illigitimati non carborumdum."
Don't let the bastards grind you down!
Surely, you don't mean me? I noticed you deleted your thread about Mayor Mike after I took you to task -- but I hope you didn't think it was personal. If I didn't think you had worthwhile things to say I wouldn't read your blog. I'm a fan, truly
Posted by: Norman Rogers on December 30, 2002 1:25 PMI just deleted it because it was over-harsh on the City Council, and my Dad has to work with them.
No, no one's seen the comment that set me off. I deleted it right after it appeared. It was just nasty and pointless. You know who you are, and cut it out.
But seriously, sarcasm doesn't help your point. I try to limit it to people who have already gone down that road. Attacking someone who's well-meaning with nasty side comments just makes it seem like you're more interested in picking a fight than discovering the truth. And it certainly doesn't persuade those who disagree with you.
You're free to make brutal fun of my ideas (as long as you're funny and/or right.) Just don't get personal. There's no reason for it. The person to whom I was responding (although they aren't the only offender), decided to respond to something I wrote with an attack on my personal life, motivations, intelligence, background, and morals. It was uncalled for, and so I got rid of it.
Posted by: Jane Galt on December 30, 2002 1:48 PMJane, you have far more patience than I do. I wondered how long you'd be able to hold out. I went that route months ago (and ended up with a mailbox predictably full of accusations of cowardice, censorship, and barratry (huh?) for saying that henceforth I would delete screeds that seemed to have been posted for no other reason than to be nasty.
I haven't regretted the move for a moment. And I noticed that the number of intelligent comments I got began to increase as soon as I started the new policy.
Good luck, and a very happy and prosperous New Year to you.
Posted by: Bill Quick on December 30, 2002 3:25 PMTruth be told, Jane, I had no idea that people were actually being mean and nasty to you. One of the things I envied about this site is that you appeared to be getting people that were genuinely interested in discussing the substance of your posts without getting personal at the same time. Not that the vast majority of my commentators (God bless 'em) aren't that way, but I get trolls from time to time, and I was rather envious of the appearance that you never seemed to get them (I mean, Jeff Hauser was a long time ago, no?).
Needless to say, the fact that you appear to have actually had to put up with trolls is as enraging as it is nonsensical. This is far too intelligent and erudite a site to have to suffer their inane insults. I was once a free speech absolutist myself, but the fact is that abusive posts serve no one's interests, and don't deserve the time of day. Good on you for deciding to delete them.
And no, I'm not just saying all of these kind and nice things about you and your site just because Instapundit thinks you are "a babe."
Really, I'm not.
Stop looking at me so suspiciously!
Posted by: Pejman Yousefzadeh on December 30, 2002 6:26 PMJane,
Sheesh, what's with people?
Nobody is going to write a blog that everybody agrees with all of the time, but that's not an excuse for insults. What's *with* people?
As far as I can tell, the philosophy of your blog is "be a grownup, don't expect government to create free money, earn a paycheck, do some work for people less lucky than you, don't copy MP3s". All of which strikes me as perfectly reasonable (even though my favorite operating system makes MP3-copying unpreventable and probably inevitable).
And comments about your personal life? Double sheesh. Clearly somebody is suffering serious loser-envy of your official babe-dom. ;)
Posted by: Erich Schwarz on December 31, 2002 12:03 AMComments are Closed.