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Rants and the Ranting Ranters that Rant Them

On Wednesday I tossed something up on Slog about my reluctance to wash my hands in the toilets on airplanes. (You have to touch the sink, the spigots, the soap dispenser—ick! My dick, I figure, is the cleanest thing in an airplane bathroom.) In the comment thread attached to that post someone—not a Stranger staffer, a commenter—suggested that some of the other comments were posted in the thread were written by Weekly trolls. Which prompted My Two Cents to make this comment:

You don’t have to be a “Weakly troll” to be sick and tired of all of the petty rants against the Weekly and every other paper in town lately. Do they think that these posts will boost their circulation? Yeah, right. All I can do is scroll through the crap and look for something more interesting.

The slog used to be a really fun destination, but now we have to endure this juvenile turf war, compliments of the “cooler-than-you” Stranger staff. I think that’s why there are so many negative comments these days.

The Slog used to be fun, way, way back before we started beating up on the Weekly and every other paper in town. But… uh… we were beating up on the Weekly and other fine local publications before the Slog came along. To me the amount of Weekly-and-every-other-paper-in-town bashing on Slog seems pretty minimal. (And necessary, as I’ve written in previous posts.) We have unlimited space here and we could post rants about other papers ten times a day, every day, if we cared to. But we don’t care to. We post about them once in a while—and they post about us every once in a while too. (Hi, Mike!) But is it really excessive? Or is this just a case of “why can’t we all get along” pansy-asses and Weekly trolls lurking in our comments trying to create the impression that we post rants about the Weekly and other fine local publications all the freakin’ time?

So I asked one of my subordinates—it’s good to be the king—to go through the last month’s worth of Slog posts and count up the total number, the number that ranted about other local publications, and give me some stats.

Okay, that was tedious… here’s what I found: I tallied all the Slog entries containing snarky comments aimed at the Weekly, the Seattle Times, and the P-I. I did not count mere mentions of these papers, or posts where we discussed serious issues therein—I only counted “look how lame they are” and “we scooped them” -toned posts. The rants.

In a three month period in 2007 (Jan-March), out of 1,881 posts, 21 were nasty toward another paper. That’s 1.1 percent of the total posts.

I looked at the same period in 2006 (Jan-March) and found something very similar: out of 1,625 posts, 18 (again, 1.1 percent) were mean-spirited or petty.

So: We’re about as mean as we ever have been, and we don’t target these newspapers all that often.

1.1 percent of posts—1.1 percent! And no spike in the number of “petty rants” over the last year. We get about 150+ posts up on Slog in any given week. So that works out to about one rant every week and a half. So quit whining, Weekly trolls.

Comments (12)

1

What are the stats on meta-rants? You know, posts about what you post about?

Posted by flamingbanjo@hotmail.com | April 13, 2007 12:04 PM
2

We'll get right on that, FB.

Posted by Dan Savage | April 13, 2007 12:06 PM
3

I just don't get how some people can't understand that you can read both daily and both weekly papers and like or respect them roughly the same. In each paper I care about the new more than the opinion. The Weekly, when it truly was a local paper, did cover some stories that the Stranger missed and vica versa.

Posted by elswinger | April 13, 2007 12:08 PM
4

I thought the jabs at the Weekly peaked a few years ago, in print, before the Slog.

And I haven't seen a page-count swipe in AGES.

Posted by Fnarf | April 13, 2007 12:29 PM
5

There are 1440 minutes in a day. 1.2% of that is about 17 minutes. I suppose if you spent 17 minutes every day masturbating we wouldn't consider that excessive*. So I guess the journalistic equivalent isn't out of line.

* Well, the people at AWAKE! magazine would, but we're talking Dan Savage here, not religious nutbars.

Posted by Joe | April 13, 2007 1:18 PM
6

It's nice to see the Stranger take ownership of the contents of their Slog. I mean, it's all yours. You stand by what your write on here. 100 percent. It's nice to see the kind of integrity that'll hold up in court. Refreshing.

Posted by Hardy Harhar | April 13, 2007 1:26 PM
7

There's still a Weekly? I'm shocked. I assumed you stopped ripping 'em a new one 'cause they were out of business.

Posted by Boomer in NYC | April 13, 2007 2:02 PM
8

The Stranger this week is 104 pages.

Seattle Weekly this week is 88 pages.

Bring back SSWW!

Posted by Seattle's Smaller Weekly Watch | April 13, 2007 3:18 PM
9

i have no problems with criticisms of the weekly or any other paper. but when you would never say a single positive thing about the weekly, no matter what they published, it makes hard to give much credibility to all your negative criticisms. i like seeing some 'talkers' coming out of the weekly and i hope they get back on track, because i think the more good local media we have, the better.

Posted by jesus | April 13, 2007 3:23 PM
10

I really like the new, sharper edge to The Seattle Weekly. I think they're making a lot of strides since they've reinvigorated their staff. It kind of comes at a time in my life where I'm in transition, too, and I can feel the sparks.

You know -- funny thing -- I picked up the new Seattle Weekly real early Wednesday morning. I've gotten into the habit of going to that Starbucks on 4th near the Hotel Monaco and waiting for the driver in the pick up to come by and deliver them. The Weekly also has really cute drivers. This guy in particular has a nice butt. Sparks? I probably shouldn't post this. Or should I? My stars.

Personally -- and I think this is a good practice for you other Weekly fans out there -- I like to pick up two copies of The Seattle Weekly, in case I smudge up my 'reading copy' over the course of the week. I'm one of their fans that likes to give the paper a good read. I'm a sucker for hanging on every word.

To my point: I really wish you Stranger illiterati would stop making fun of my paper. The one put out by the employees of The Seattle Weekly. As a huge fan of theirs, I hate that I am moved to search out your BLAAAHG! (yuckers), to mount a defense, and all I read is this whitewash of negativity and ineptitude, whether by your dumb and ugly staff -- who one can only hope is as sensitive to getting picked on as the people that they're always picking on -- and their commenters who just seem like a bunch of lonely losers who are wasting their bosses time and money and want to tell everybody in the world about their penis AND/OR clit.

So, fuck you Stranger. I hope a plane crashes into your building and I hope a lot of the flames and cinders, flaming fuel and debris burn down the whole rest of Capital Hill.

Have some class.

Posted by goobers86 | April 13, 2007 4:24 PM
11

This is why I like Slog. Only 1% tedium, instead of the pre-Slog days when The Stranger was 10% tedium re: Weekly, et al bashing.

The only thing that's changed now is that
a) it seems The Stranger is getting more tired of bashing The Weekly. GOOD
b) The New Times Seattle Weekly has decided to be just as whiny as The Stranger was a few years ago. BAD

Aside from the classic Savage vs. Fefer thing, The Weekly never used to whine about The Stranger at all, even though anyone knew they really WANTED to. Now they actually are whining.

Thankfully, New Times didn't take over the Weekly a few years ago, otherwise, the entire city would go deaf from all the cross-whining.

Posted by matthew fisher wilder | April 13, 2007 5:19 PM
12

I read this blog every damn day, because it's interesting, and for the silly rants, and for the news. And I have never been to Seattle. I live in Boston. So you must be doing something right with your rants, and random posts about blood on the bathroom floor.

Posted by Monique | April 13, 2007 10:10 PM

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