Slog: News & Arts

RSS icon Comments on The Tragedy of the Comments

1

/violin

Posted by Mr. Poe | May 29, 2008 2:55 PM
2

Are you complaining or what's happening here.

YES WE ARE ALL CONTRIBUTING TO YOUR SALARY BY COMING HERE AND CLICKING ON SHIT SO DON'T GET TOO HIGH-HORSE

was that tragic?

Posted by Non | May 29, 2008 2:55 PM
3

Wow. Those comments are indeed tragic. I think I need to just read Slog for the posts, and skip the comments. Except then I would miss the Will/Fnarf smackdowns. Tough call.

Posted by arduous | May 29, 2008 3:00 PM
4

Wow. The three bravest, avant gardest, most relevant bloggers in the history of evar.

Posted by Ziggity | May 29, 2008 3:04 PM
5

Recently we've been getting along, actually.

But, seriously, why are only men called abusive names and women are exempt?

As opposed to Mr. Poe, who always is an ignorant slut ... (SNL reference)

Posted by Will in Seattle | May 29, 2008 3:04 PM
6

Boo-hoo.

Put your big-kid pants on and get over it.

Posted by Jeff | May 29, 2008 3:08 PM
7

@5, I agree, we have been getting along until someone screams sexism...who is that anyway? Hmmmm....

Posted by Cato the Younger Younger | May 29, 2008 3:08 PM
8

At least they're not being called NAZI's! HaHa........Do I get a prize for that?

Posted by godwin | May 29, 2008 3:14 PM
9

Eli, you need to address this. Why is Mr. Poe allowed to treat the comment section as his personal blog, posting about all manner of things that have nothing to do with the topic while others get deleted? How about some consistency? If not, you should allow everything in the name of free and open debate.

COMMENT DELETED - OFF-TOPIC


We'd rather not moderate your comments, but off-topic, gratuitously inflammatory, threatening, or otherwise inappropriate remarks may be removed, and repeat offenders may be banned from commenting. We never censor comments based on ideology. Thanks to all who add to the conversation on Slog.

Posted by Jeff | May 29, 2008 3:15 PM
10

Yes. Some people on teh interweb say stupid, mean, unconstructive things. (Anyone been to Youtube recently?) The same people probably say the same shit in real life, but we don't hear about it as much.

The literal soapbox has been replaced by a metaphorical one but it's ability to project the insecurities of ignorant people remains unchanged. The scale is just larger.

Posted by bearseatbeats | May 29, 2008 3:19 PM
11

There is, of course, a partial solution to this problem: user registration and some sort of user moderation system. It's not a solution you folks have seemed to take too seriously, though.

Posted by tsm | May 29, 2008 3:20 PM
12

If it weren't for the comments I'd have stopped reading Slog after the first time I read Slog.

Posted by heywhatsit | May 29, 2008 3:20 PM
13

I agree. All of my comments should be deleted entirely. The use of "Mr. Poe" should also flag the comment as spam.

In conclusion, comments should be removed from Slog=completely. Stranger staffers cannot handle the burden of comments any longer, for they are all self-conscious "professional" wimps.

,.|..

Posted by Mr. Poe | May 29, 2008 3:22 PM
14

User registration is coming soon.

Posted by Dan Savage | May 29, 2008 3:28 PM
15

Really, those comments seemed tame compared to YGTBKM's comments about not letting people with vaginas out in the public sphere over on the "he blogged/she blogged" post.

But what do I know. I'm apparently on the secret persona non grata list that the Stranger staff keeps and most of my comments are now ignored. Will the next step be the "ecce homo" treatment where my comments are removed? Will I have to resort to sock puppetry? Am I too annoying, or not annoying enough?

Posted by PopTart | May 29, 2008 3:29 PM
16

Dan, you're stealing our freedom, maaaan!

Posted by laterite | May 29, 2008 3:31 PM
17

Poe, I think your funny and I generally like reading your stuff. That said, it's often WAY OFF TOPIC and if the powers that be are going to start deleting comments you have to admit yours would be candidate no. 1.

Posted by Jeff | May 29, 2008 3:33 PM
18

Uh, folks? Saying that there are comments that sometimes annoy us—and some are tragic—is not the same thing as saying all comments annoy us, or that they're all tragic, or that all commenters are tragically annoying.

Just as some Slog writers and some Slog posts annoy the fuck out of some of commenters (hello), some commenters and some comments annoy Slog writers. Fair's fair, kids.

Posted by Dan Savage | May 29, 2008 3:39 PM
19

Jeez Jeff, you seem a little too "law and order" to be here. I know that the interwebs are serious bizness, but...lay off Poe, he gets to say what he likes. He was here way back when slog was just an ugly little site with 5 commenters.

Signed,
Mr. Poe's #2 Jew

Posted by wisepunk | May 29, 2008 3:44 PM
20

we should get to delete slog posts, then. fair's fair, right? :P

Posted by some dude | May 29, 2008 3:45 PM
21

You have a point, Some Dude. And I enjoy your comments, PopTart.

Posted by Dan Savage | May 29, 2008 3:48 PM
22

If you restrict the flow of Mr. Poe's comments in any way I will stop visiting Slog. Hurrumph.

I LOVE off-topic comments, sometimes best of all. I just had a delicious piece of chicken and a cold cup of coffee.

Posted by Fnarf | May 29, 2008 3:53 PM
23

Every comment I've removed today has been the same spam about suicides in the military. It's on almost every post today.

Posted by Amy Kate Horn | May 29, 2008 3:54 PM
24

Like ?"lyrics are a trick to get people to listen to music", comments are a trick to get people to get all pissed off at flippant idiots who aren't worth being all pissed off about but you do it anyway and notice an ad or two or... once in a while.

Posted by umvue | May 29, 2008 3:54 PM
25

Amy Kate, thanks for removing the war guilt spam. The one thing that bugs me is redundancy. Plus, they were making me feel so guilty I was considering giving up golf. Or cheese spread. One of those things.

Posted by elenchos | May 29, 2008 3:58 PM
26

When the feelings gone and you can't go on...

Posted by Andy Gibb | May 29, 2008 3:59 PM
27

@22

Was it Ezell's Chicken?, because I gotta tell you, after hearing it's praises sung here for so long I finally took my life into my own hands and dodged the bullets to try my first taste of Ezell's a few weeks ago, and it left me unimpressed... (Certainly not any better than the chicken at the City Market used to be back in the day...)

Posted by You_Gotta_Be_Kidding_Me | May 29, 2008 4:01 PM
28

OK, we love most of you and all that, but what do you guys think of our awesome neolo-phrase-ism? It so fits. The tragedy of the commons was followed by enclosure, and the tragedy of the comments will be followed by user registration.

Posted by annie | May 29, 2008 4:03 PM
29

@28

So Paul Allen is buying The Stranger?

Posted by You_Gotta_Be_Kidding_Me | May 29, 2008 4:09 PM
30

Why not just disable commenting? Problem solved -- Commenters resume actual lives, Slog becomes marginally bearable to browse.

Posted by Just Sayin' | May 29, 2008 4:10 PM
31

You could put up a barrier and see how many clumskulls fall into it?

Posted by andywarhol | May 29, 2008 4:16 PM
32

@30: don't you mean unbearable to browse? Half the fun of Slog is the comments, and commenters.

Posted by Jessica | May 29, 2008 4:17 PM
33

I agree with Jessica.

Posted by Dan Savage | May 29, 2008 4:18 PM
34

What Dan said.

I really enjoy the smart (and smartly scathing) comments, and I always appreciate the links to things I've missed or might be interested in. All in all, I've learned a lot from some of our commenters.

Now, that is not to say that I don't find some of the tropes down here in comment-land to be tedious—even tragically boring at times. But hey, sounds like you all find us to be tragically boring at times, too. Like the man said: Fair's fair.

Which is to say that I look forward to many more workday hours of alternately entertaining, infuriating, and boring each other.

Posted by Eli Sanders | May 29, 2008 4:18 PM
35

#28

I like it, but I don't think it's an apt comparison.

If we register, will we be able to choose avatars? Please say yes.

Posted by tabletop_joe | May 29, 2008 4:22 PM
36

Yeah, it's a cool phrase, annie.

At least it's not as bad as what passes for comments on neocon-central at the PI and Times ...

Posted by Will in Seattle | May 29, 2008 4:23 PM
37

@34

Oh, really? What changed between Super Tuesday and now?

Posted by Mr. Poe | May 29, 2008 4:27 PM
38

@30, You have to click on the Post Comments link to read the comments, so it's up to you whether you do or not. Just sayin'...

@28 Next up, the tragedy of the commoners.

Posted by PopTart | May 29, 2008 4:27 PM
39

Sorry, that was a typo. I'm changing it.

Posted by annie | May 29, 2008 4:31 PM
40

more interaction is a good thing, and a robust user account feature is a pre-req.

polls will be less prone to abuse.

spam is limited.

opportunities for commenters to network amongst themselves arise (personal messaging, being able to get an RSS feed of ecce homo, etc.)

you could also go one step further, and let the users decide what posts appear on the front page. digg style thumbs up thumbs down. or personal browsing preferences, so I can "mute" certain sloggers.

not to mention it would give you actual data that you could use to make fact-base decisions. when you realize how many people "mute" erica, for example, you might get around to shipping her back to the weekly.

and avatars are the shit. really obnoxious and seizure-inducing animated ones.

Posted by some dude | May 29, 2008 4:36 PM
41

Me, I love the new phrase. The comments here have been a tradegy since the start. Spelling/grammatical errors, off-topic drivel, kiss-assery, piss-assery, fnarfery, sexism, racism, idiocy. Slog takes it all.

Posted by Original Monique | May 29, 2008 4:42 PM
42

The more I read here, it's like a Comedy of the Commentators. But then - being gay and left-handed - I am easily amused by bright shiny objects (Poe), infrequent irrelevance (Will) and tragic pronunciation challenges (Fnarf, Elenchos). Not to mention all of the Originals - '& Drew'-'Mon-Eeek' and Flavor. Off to see "Ask Not" on this coincidental 91st birthday of JFK.

Posted by RHETT ORACLE | May 29, 2008 4:43 PM
43

@40: Nice way to get a stupid off-topic dig at ECB in. Maybe if we can set up RSS feeds on commenters, we can see how many people only get on Slog to be haters, thus showing the world how sad you truly are.

But to be on topic: yay, user registration! If someone takes my name before me I'm cracking skulls.

Posted by Jessica | May 29, 2008 4:54 PM
44

I'm a lefty, too. But I jerk my load with the right hand.

Zomgpersonalinformationcutit.

Posted by Mr. Poe | May 29, 2008 4:55 PM
45

Poe, I think you're funny as fuck. There's plenty of unfunny as fuck comments in the comments already to keep the tragedy and boredom chugging along just fine.

Posted by Lloyd Clydesdale | May 29, 2008 5:00 PM
46

Haven't we been promised registration for some time now? In March it was "a month away"...

SLOG without comments would be like Will in Seattle without a Fleshlite.

Posted by Big Sven | May 29, 2008 5:04 PM
47

@44, Wow, me too! Errr, except the girl way...

Posted by PopTart | May 29, 2008 5:08 PM
48

I also pick my anus with my right hand. Just so you all know.

Posted by Mr. Poe | May 29, 2008 5:24 PM
49

@41 - yeah, sorry about all my Spelling mistakes.

We should have an opt-in period for logins so the "real" people get them. With challenge ability.

Fleshlite ... that's one of those perv things, right?

Posted by Will in Seattle | May 29, 2008 5:24 PM
50

@28 -- I thought it was wonderful. I doubt if many commenters here have ever heard of the tragedy of the commons, though.

Off-topic posts can contribute to the conversation, or they can not. Mr. Poe's always contribute, because he's a real person commenting in real time. The vet suicide post is semi-automated, repetitive and irrelevant; it's virtually identical to spam in that regard.

Posted by Fnarf | May 29, 2008 5:26 PM
51

Slog without comments would be like the Portland Mercury Blogland-thing... empty.

Posted by JC | May 29, 2008 5:29 PM
52

Tori, spelling are a tradegy.

Posted by COMMENT? ARIES | May 29, 2008 5:29 PM
53

Please no avatars.

And not turning into one of those sites that makes you log in again every thirty seconds would be nice, too.

Personally, I like slog exactly the way it is now, douchbaggery and all. It's not like reading Ecco's drivel actually harms anyone, or affects the way anyone thinks. Just grow a thicker skin and ignore it. I think you'll be surprised at how much sign-ins put a damper on the action here.

Posted by Fnarf | May 29, 2008 5:30 PM
54

"Tragedy of the Comments" works because there is actually a crucial relation to the original thing*, in this case the badness of too much freedom, more or less.

But how is registering going to help the rudeness problem?
I'm also pro avatar, but the default avatar should not be an androgynous silhouette. I hate those.

*unlike the more common hipster practice of appropriating some phrase in a completely meaningless way, as in Marc Ribot's smug announcement of his next song, "nature abhors a vacuum cleaner", which was my first "this is a trend and I hate it" moment for that particular trend, and that was something like 20 YEARS ago. So watch it people. You can do this stuff, but "Tragedy of the Comments" is your role model - it has to fit.

Posted by Phoebe | May 29, 2008 5:48 PM
55

Also, this is my olive branch to the much-abused ECB:
http://www.slate.com/id/2192220/pagenum/all/#page_start
what are your thoughts, ECB?

Posted by Phoebe | May 29, 2008 5:52 PM
56

This Goddamn site already brings my computer to a grinding halt, depending on whether there's 4 or 12 identical and completely unoptimized flash banner running at one time. Yet, here I am, with my finger hovering above CTRL + W in case it actually starts screwing with real work.

A repeat log-in screen would pretty much end it for me.

Posted by Dougsf | May 29, 2008 6:05 PM
57

Flashblock, Dougsf. You can still play the ones you want to.

Posted by Fnarf | May 29, 2008 6:32 PM
58

I'm just going to go ahead and say it:

I love you all.

I even love those among you that sometimes piss me off, because either:

a) I meet you at Slog Happy and you are nice, well-adjusted and entertaining people, or

b) I never have to deal with you in person.

Posted by Hernandez | May 29, 2008 7:09 PM
59

Fuck registration, fuck avatars. Keep this shit wide open and anonymous (hint: it's not--ISP's are easily traced). It will police itself.

Posted by I'm a Nuclear Bomb | May 29, 2008 7:47 PM
60

I don't really see how either tragedy or the tragedy of the comments works.

first tragedy:A drama or literary work in which the main character is brought to ruin or suffers extreme sorrow, especially as a consequence of a tragic flaw, moral weakness, or inability to cope with unfavorable circumstances.

this implies a heroic main character with a flaw, weakness, etc.
I don't think slog qualifies as heroic and lets not talk about flaws.

second the tragedy of the commons is about too much access to a finite resource, not about misuse of an infinite resource.

What is sad and pathetic is the level of discourse in the comments. but tragedy, no.

except you poptart. I like your comments too. and a few others.

Music swells "Que sera sera!"

Posted by LMSW | May 29, 2008 7:49 PM
61

My vote is status quo. Even the trolls can be amusing at times, the regulars, almost always. (Where's 5280 been, anyway?)

@ PopTart.... Keep on Truckin'. I'd buy ya a drink or three at the next Slog Happy if I didn't live halfway across the country.

Posted by drewl | May 29, 2008 8:58 PM
62

@60

The amount of time anyone can spend reading a thread is finite. If you allow an infinite number of people to write useless nonsense in a thread, they use up the limited time you can spend searching a thread for something of value.

Your definition of tragedy needs to include when everyone has good or harmless intentions but the circumstances make a terrible outcome inevitable, even though no one person can be said to have wanted to cause it. Even somebody posting one thoughtless comment isn't evil; it's not their fault exactly that a hundred others do the same thing.

So it is a tragedy of the commons.

Posted by elenchos | May 29, 2008 9:40 PM
63

delicious stranger staff:
please don't be heavy-handed and try to moderate slog.
thank you.

Posted by pretentious | May 29, 2008 11:10 PM
64

LMSW:
a] "tragedy" in tragedy of the comments is hyperbole

b]you say "the tragedy of the commons is about too much access to a finite resource, not about misuse of an infinite resource."

Yeah it's not an exact fit, but similar enough - too much freedom, abuse of freedom, pain caused, so freedom gets taken away.

I'm not feeling the pain myself. Was it the sexist stuff that made people want to clamp down? Man up, people! [rimshot!]

Posted by Phoebe | May 30, 2008 1:36 AM
65

I like quesadillas. Yum!

Posted by NaFun | May 30, 2008 6:56 AM
66

*hugs*

Posted by poppy | May 30, 2008 9:27 AM

Comments Closed

Comments are closed on this post.