Thursday, January 15, 2009

So this is sort of more of a blog post

Moderated comments

We all have things we're touchy about. And when we start thinking of specific areas of our lives, we can probably find something that doesn't work for us. When it comes to maintaining this blog, the thing I find hardest to manage is the Anonymous Comment.

I want to be very, very clear about this: I am not mad at anyone, and that's not what this is about. I just received a spate of anonymous comments over the past few days, and I have no idea who is commenting. Were this some popular site, I'd probably think nothing of it, but as we have often the same visitors here, I prefer that if you comment, you find some way to self-identify.

That doesn't mean you need to use a Google account. You can still just post a comment, but I'd prefer you then sign your comments one way or another.

I know you're going to ask why.

1) Yes, each of you is a unique snowflake. But no matter what you think, I can't really hear "your voice" when you post anonymously, so it certainly is useful to see who is saying what so I can get the tone of what you're saying. The same comment that can seem incredibly rude from an anonymous comment can be understood as a joke or whatever if I know who the source is.

2) I have no way of knowing if you are someone new if you don't self-identify. I might think you're one of the Loyal Leaguers, but for all I know, you're somebody I don't know, and that makes it difficult to frame a response.

3) Sometimes I also want to talk about a comment that's been posted offline. No matter how open I try to be, every once in a while a comment shows up that I know is going to cause an issue, and I think that if we're all friends here, we should be able to talk about it sidebar rather than immediately causing a problem.

4) And I'll be truthful. Every once in a while we'll get one of these drive-by commentors who is literally doing nothing but being obnoxious. That happened today, and I'm just not in the mood. I know this person is having a grand time but... whatever.

So, anyway, I'm sorry about all that. But that's how we're going to roll for a little while. I think as we head towards our sixth year (yeah, seriously. SIX) I've earned enough trust that you know I will publish anything you guys say (within reason). But I also want to try this new policy. Hopefully it won't discourage you guys from commenting.

And, hey, this may all pass in a week or two and we'll be back to SOP.

Airplane in the Hudson

I don't even know what to say about the crew who landed a plane in the Hudson river and everyone involved made it out alive. That's simply amazing.

Read here.

Not only am I having a moment of pause that for once, a story involving a plane wasn't a tragedy, but... all those millions of times a flight attendant went through emergency procedures, this was the only time I heard of the steps for a water landing being actually applicable. It's sort of mind-boggling.

I will actually pay attention next time I'm on a plane.

I'm being plagiarized, sort of

So as you know, I write for a site called Comic Fodder.

I check technorati on a semi-weekly basis or so to see who may have linked to Comic Fodder. I find it to be good practice to see what people are saying about whatever the hell I said.

And I know the internet is full of people who steal your content all the time, but...

Anyway, (edit: I had the site directly linked, and it appears James Michael Wilcox has chosen to block me somehow. The URL is www.teamsuperfriends.com) was completely ripping off Comic Fodder's content.

This dork is the party responsible.

Here is a photostream of his family.

He seems like a real bum.

He's also moved on and is ripping off other content.

Bad form.

Spidey y Obama

I did manage to get a copy of the limited edition issue of Spider-Man meeting Obama.

I don't usually seek this sort of thing out, but I've started collecting comics with political figures (there's a comic coming soon about Caroline Kennedy!)

Anyway, here's a pic of that cover.



Austin Books was very good about how they managed distribution, which I guess I'm saying, because I got a copy.

Bush says "adios"

So Pres. Bush had his farewell speech this evening which I sort of listened to while Jason cooked dinner (I know..! Jason cooked dinner!). It was short, covered the same talking points he's hit in every interview the past few months, and was full of no surprises.

So long, George. I wish I could say we'll miss you, but... well, there's like 22% of the people who will miss you.

5 comments:

James Michael Wilcox said...

Hey, I'm that "dork" you say is ripping off content. I'm not ripping it off, I'm simply collecting interesting feeds from the net, giving full credit to the sources they come from. It's just RSS aggregation. Thanks for the link back anyway.

The League said...

James, people generally ask for permission for reposting content to their site. There's an insinuation that as you were using our content as a major portion of your site that we were somehow working idrectly with your site, which we were not.

I've spoken with my site admin, and we have decided that, yes... It is an RSS feed. While we're not crazy about not having received communication from you, we're aware of how the technology works, and while this was not the intended application, it is what it is.

We're very, very nice guys at Comic Fodder and we may have gladly worked with you. All you had to do was contact our site admin and perhaps something could have been worked out (we don't mind exposure of our writing, after all).

When you don't ask, it leaves a lot of questions as to your motives. I have no idea why one would build a site and then just republish other peoples' work.

Michael Corley said...

The fist pump does it for my in the spidey issue.

And dude, third grade rules, you don't take something without permission. You're gonna get a check by your name.

J.S. said...

I don't know. I think that including his middle name really lends this dork an air of credibility.

The League said...

Which is why I think that by not using your middle name, Perciwiggle, that you're just not taken seriously.