I was having fun with this troll for a time, but it just got ridiculous. I checked my logs and the guy would literally be on my blog for hours hitting refresh and replied to everything. Every post and every single comment that anyone made, usually within a couple of minutes after they made it. During one visit, he spent over 70 minutes on my blog and went through 88 page views. And that's not an aberration, that was typical of him. This wasn't a troll coming along and chipping in a few moronic omments and going away again, this guy was insane.

Oh, the shame and the rank hypocrisy that is me. I am woefully chastised. I deliberately overlooked Paul's imposing of registration on commenters, his declaring that only those that met with his approval would be approved, and then making the registration page completely unreadable, and I hoped that no one would notice. Alas and alack, I have no choice but to crawl on my belly like the lowliest worm and crave forgiveness for my transgressions.

The simple truth is, David, tas screwed up -- repeatedly. We blamed me for the troll infestation (bitching about a trackback), then decided that to deal with his one troll by forcing everyone to jump through the registration hoops. Finally, he made the registration page essentially unreadable. I had to do a "select all" to read just what each of the half-dozen the fields required, filled them out, submitted it, couldn't read any response, then asked myself "what the HELL did I waste all that time on?" and went off and wrote my piece.

But you're right about one thing: I must be some kind of masochist. But the first step in any problem is admitting it, and I'm done flogging myself over at tas' page. It's far too much work for far too little satisfaction.

J.

Jay Tea, the least you could do is admit you were wrong. Tas has explained himself perfectly on his site and left you looking like an idiot.

Rogue, the very first explanation I considered was "coding error," not malice. My conclusion was that regardless of the motivations, it simply wasn't worth my time and effort to continue over there -- a conclusion I have backslid on, but I regret it already.

J.

Sometimes in our haste to make our opponents look like total asses we instead make ourselves look like total asses. It happens to the best of us. David and Paul are prime examples of it. ;)

Jay Tea,

I believe your quote was, "Other sites require registration, or delete or ban people capriciously, or don't allow comments at all."

I and others have merely pointed out that this is factually incorrect. WizBang, in the person of Paul, has violated this tenet repeatedly. You can be proud of your own personal open comments policy, but not that of WizBang in general, according to the standards that you have laid out.

Well said, Rogue. Haste makes waste (and asses).

Well I dont know how I have ever looked like a total ass, but whatever Rogue. And comparing me with Paul is over the Top for anyone.
As for Jay, as usual admission of wrong is beyond him.

I didn't compare you to Paul, David. I am sorry you misunderstood what I wrote.

The simple truth is, David, tas screwed up -- repeatedly.

Oh yeah. God forbid I want to administrate my own blog any way that I please. And god forbid that you even bother to read my post announcing the comment/registration process where I outright said that it was aimed at one person. I guess I'm just wrong no matter what I do.

I love how the right thinks they are so entitled to trample all over my site. One major reason why I switched to Drupal is because I wanted control over my comments section after Power Line sent ovver 200 trolls my way in November. I'll gladly use my registration features again to stop a troll flood like that, or, as I did in this case, to stop one overrly abusinve troll from ruining my comments section. As far as I'm concerned, the right is to blame for me using this feature. If the assholes on your side learned how to play nice, I wouldn't have had to do this.

Tas, you dont need to explain yourself. As usual Jay Tea is full of himself, and just generally FULL OF IT!
He is wrong, he was busted, does he appologize? No, he goes into standard Right Wing denial and blame the other guy mode. Screw it. He's busted, and thats that.

Rogue, maybe I did not understand, but that last line looked like it?

Tas, I never said you shouldn't run your blog any way you like. I merely said I thought it was a stupid way, and pointed out where I thought it was stupid. For example, instituting the registration policy to deal with one rogue (no offense intended, Rogue) idiot instead of simply banning that idiot.

As I explained elsewhere, I jumped through the registration hoops without thinking it through; I actually believed your and Kryten's statements about "valuing" what I had to say. It wasn't until after I couldn't even tell if my information had been accepted that I said "WTF am I doing?" and realized I'd invested way, way more time on it than it ever deserved.

I also went back and looked for the slightest sign of how "valued" my contributions were. The one example both of you cited was my posting some hard information on the USNS Comfort, and the only response to that was Kryten's immediately changing the subject to the Bataan and a couple of helicopter pilots. With that in light, the only way I could interpret the "praise" you and Kryten tossed my way was an attempt to rewrite history and make yourselves look better. Pity it was a smidgen too transparent.

At that point, I figured I might as well get SOME return on all the time I'd invested over there, so I bundled up my frustrations and put up that posting. I might have spoken a bit loosely in places (for example, I don't speak for Paul or Kevin, Kevin and Paul don't speak for me, and only Kevin speaks for Wizbang, as he's the guy what pays the bills), but I still stand by the essence of what I wrote: the registration process is cumbersome, it was thoroughly screwed up at the time, and the payoff for jumping through the hoops simply isn't there.

BTW, I don't have access to my Wizbang account during the work day, so I didn't get your "acceptance" until after 6 that evening. I dunno if that would've made a difference -- I might've been more detailed about the hassle I had -- but there it is.

Kevin and I have discussed instituting registration at Wizbang, and I've argued against it every time. I will continue to do so, but in the end the Golden Rule will prevail: he pays the gold, so he makes the rules.

Oh, and David? I've often admitted when I've been wrong over at Wizbang. I could probably come up with ten specific examples in a few minutes. I have no problems admitting when I've been wrong. For one, it's the ethical thing to do. For another, it gives me rhetorical ammunition -- "I freely admit when I'm wrong -- see here, here, and here. This is not one of those times."

So if you wanna keep "feeding me sledgehammers," tas, feel free. Clean out a Home Depot of 'em if you like. (The last time I bought one was as a Valentine's present for my sweetie, and it ran about $20.00.) But the odds are I won't even notice the attempts. And if I do, I will do my damndest to ignore it.

J.

Thanks for signing in, . Now you can comment. (sign out)

(If you haven't left a comment here before, you may need to be approved by the site owner before your comment will appear. Until then, it won't appear on the entry. Thanks for waiting.)

URL:
Remember me? YesNo

Subscribe to this comment thread.

Comments: