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what you have wrought

With "you" referring to some people, not all. 1) I will no longer be appearing in my own comments. I use my blog to say what I have to say and when I'm done, I'm done. If you would like to discuss it with others in my comments, go right ahead. I will read every single comment. However, what I have to say about a subject starts and stops with the post at issue.
2) I will not be returning email sent to this domain name for a great long while. All email is going into a folder to be marked "maybe some day when people aren't so god damn nosy and self righteous." Those who I correspond with regularly know the alternate address(es) to use. If you're waiting on a return mail from me stemming from an email in which you a) asked entirely personal questions; b) demanded I respond to your inquisitions or c) berated me for one thing or another, don't hold your breath. I am also, at this time, not responding to any emails from people looking for links to other blogs, charities, begathons for the greater good, holiday season blogging/linking for causes or coalitions begun to raise money for one thing or another. I already have three of four pet charities in mind that I collect money for during the holiday season (and other times of the year) and I'll be pimping those out. Besides, to be honest, one or two people who tried to make me feel guilty for not immediately responding to their request for a charitable link ruined if for everyone else who wants one. I'm just one blogger, people. One blogger who is steadily declining in the ecosystem race. Perhaps it's time to bang on other people's doors for a bit. I would really like to find the exact moment in time this stopped being fun. And I sure as hell would like to put the fun back in it. Right now I see the blogosphere as a stinking carcass of a once beautiful animal and all of us vultures are still picking at it, even though its festered with maggots and there's not much meat left. Which is when we all start pecking at each other, I guess. Frankly, you don't taste all that great. And you give me heartburn. I hate not having fun doing this. I hate that it's become so much agita. Maybe there's a twelve step program for getting rid of my 2004 election season blogging malaise. I need to find a sponsor, someone who doesn't believe, like I do, that the fun has been sucked right out of this thing. Update: Sorry if I gave the impression that I'm quitting. No, I'm just quitting having pointless conversations with certain people.

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Comments

I hate not having fun doing this. I hate that it's become so much agita.

Word.

Michelle,

You are absolutely doing the right thing. If you need to, divorce yourself from the comments as well. They can suck the life out of you, if you let them.

Please don't let them!!!!

I go through this every year around this time. Right now I'm contemplating picking up Evercrack II and dropping off the face of the earth till February.

And Allah, you're missed man, hope you're well. I actually just sent Michele an e-mail asking about you. Bloghosts screwed me too. I sent it to this domain, though, so I guess it's in the dead letter office.

what if you forget something and someon points out what you forgot? Then What?

On a good note, I haven't read the word "Vietnam" in the press for a week now...

It's entirely your party, Michele,

(hmmm.... song cue!)

and you are one damned, fine hostess.

But you know, some of us don't mind sticking around to wash the glasses, pick the beer cans out of the shubbery and hose the vomit off the patio.

I can't believe you used the word "agita". I'm in Oregon and I ride the bus with a girl from New Jersey who asked everybody on the bus a couple of weeks ago whether or not we knew what agita meant.
Apparently, it's a word used by frequently on the East coast (yes, I now know it's Italian), but nobody around here knew what she was talking about. Anyway, after she explained what it meant we've all started using the word.

Sorry-totally random, I know.

Yes, but will you still appear in my nightmares?

It just won't be the same if someone else is jabbing me with fondue forks and dipping me in scalding motor oil to feed to Yogi Berra.

I never did this for fun.

I always thought of blogging as a form of penance.

And if I'm one of those crazies that's sent you too freakish email, sorry. I only know of two that I've sent you ever, but still, sorry if I offended.

Sometimes, as I lurk around, I worry about you, Laurence =)

Do your thing Michele, and it's unfortunate that some people have taken the fun out of this whole thing.

Why don't you just kick a dog or something?

I've only been doing this since September, and I'm feeling a bit wearyy--but I think it's post-election blues. Actually, since I'm still new to this, I'm curious to see what people write about with no election providing daily input.

And remember-- even columnists in the MSM usually only write 3 or 4 times per week!

Allah, good to see ya, man.

Michele, I think if you check with Allah, Bill (of Bloviating Inaninties), Steven den Beste, etc. you will find that while they are not posting, their hits have diminished somewhat but people still check in "just in case". What they, and you, do is good work and your true fans...yeah, fans...enjoy it and we won't dry up and go away.

I don't mean that as pressure for any of the afore-mentioned to perform...just to let them know that their past work was appreciated and they have a waiting audience when the muse hits them.

I think you should go for a capitalistic solution, like Limbaugh does. People have to shower you with gifts and money for them to have "insider" access.

Tell us fans (okay, stalkers) how much and we'll pony up

Sorry to hear you're having a rotten troll filled time of it. I hope you'll still post, because I'll miss you if you don't, and I'll drop by your other pages to see what's up. In the meantime, enjoy your blog vacation, whatever form it takes, and spend some quality time with your family.

Do whatever you have to do to keep it fun and interesting for you because, as you point out, it IS your blog. Just please don't go away again, whatever you do!

It can indeed be very hard to resist comment trolls who demand that you respond to things, to say nothing of the rising tide of spam.

Me, I'm having plenty of fun, even if I have hardly blogged this week. There's always another tomorrow, always another game, always another argument.

a different Bill,

I agree wholeheartedly. Thanks for saying it so well.

Take care of yourself first. If you stop altogether, well, thanks for your writing. I came here because of what you were writing and I will stay as long as you write. And if you need to kill the comments, so be it.

After reading this, I went to look up "agita" on m-w.com and found out it's such a good word, they want you to sign up for their paid service to get them to define it for you.

Not kidding! Seriously, I've never seen that result before. Good vocab lesson :).

Do whatever you need to do to make it an enjoyable experience. Some thoughtful stuff from both sides does show up in the comments, but there's a lot of turgid, strident, Crossfire-style nonsense as well. I'll still look forward to hearing what you have to say, regardless of how you choose handle the comments issue...

agita = angst or agitation in Italian

What you need are some lyrics! (Well, you're getting them anyway.) Say what you will about U2, but they had some good lyrics back in the day:

Don't believe what you hear - don't believe what you see If you just close your eyes you can feel the enemy
When I first met you, girl, you had fire in your soul
What happened? Your face of melting snow
Now it looks like this And you can swallow, or you can spit
You can throw it up, or choke on it
And you can dream - so dream out loud
You know that your time is coming round
So don't let the bastards grind you down (more...)

Oh, and some...

<useless trivia>There's a female Latvian name, Agita (pronounced ah'-git-uh), and I know one. For her sake, let's hope it doesn't mean the same thing. Ha.</useless trivia>

There, cheered up yet?

You know, I really, really hate to say this, because I like Michele, I really do. But jeez, get over yourself already. You start posting your stuff on the Internet and BIG SURPRISE you get hateful comments, and hateful email. The Internet has been like this since I started reading Usenet back in the day.

You wanna blog, blog. You wanna allow comments or not, do it. You wanna stop blogging, stop. You don't have to go into high drama mode and make a big huff about it every few weeks.

For the record, I didn't see your bad lyrics contest before I posted mine here. But I don't think they qualify, anyway. I don't know if anything from that era of U2's music would.

Farmer Joe gets it, he really does, he's just having a little problem communicating... really...

Have you tried putting cinnamon on blog carcass? I used to cover candied yams with extra cinnamon so I could choke them down. (My parents loved candied yams and I hated those things. But I wanted to clean my plate so I'd get dessert.)

Michele you write so damn good, please don't stop again. I don't comment much, but read nearly every day. Command Post, well I never miss that!

There are trolls and ignorant SOBs wherever you are-they are not worth the jump in your blood pressure.

Jews who ought to know better (like my mother in law) think "agita" is Yiddish.

One of the better pick-ups from the NYC melting pot.

Schmuck, shlemiel, shlemazel, putz, knish, bagel, schmear, kvetch, tush, maven & nosh are a few of the treasures we've given back.

I'll stop utzing you now.

Illegitimi non carborundum.

My father had a sign that said this. Fun Latin for "Don't let the bastards wear you down."

I don't know if I'm ever going to get around to putting up a blog on my website, but I do know that my expectations won't be unrealistically high, after watching so many bloggers flame out.

Actually I spent time on USENET years ago, and since there is no moderation in most USENET groups, they're MUCH WORSE than the world wide web. Usually, the number of assholes on any social group reaches a critical mass at some random point and the combined nastiness drives away every single sensitive soul and every interesting or intelligent person.

The assholes have infinitely high tolerance for cruelty and don't miss the good people so their takeover is stable and permanent - and from then on regular humans with normal sensitivity who show up occasionally are considered some sort of target for the sport of driving them away...

So anyway I have low expectations of humanty.

Once you've gotten over the pain of accepting that there are lots of assholes and lots of unintelligent blatherers, then I think you can deal with the creeps easily. Automatic filters are your friends.

Just use that bit bucket (kill file).

And enjoy the connections you make with intelligent, sensitive or otherwise interesting souls.

Oh, but when you corospond with assholes, you eventually become one. I've found that out first hand. Don't be too fast to copy their habit of telling people off at the drop of hat or before you've had time to think. When you have hair trigger assumptions you start taking out innocent people like a postal worker with a sniper rifle.

Anyway it stands to reason that if you run a popular web site, then what happens on USENET will eventually happen there. And if you correspond with the unwashed masses there through your email then what happens on USENET will eventually happen to your inbox.

Eventually there will be an accumulation of stupidity, insanity and cruelty that will be more than you can stand or will be enough to destroy your own civility.

So as I always say, the only solution is to filter and moderate every forum and to get over any compunction against doing so.

Command Post. 6 million visitors in 18 months. Two political conventions, as press. Journalism changing forever. Fun.

Rats. For me it's a little java jolt of fun when bloggers pop up in the comments section... Curse you, who ever ruined it.

I smell a screenplay.......
___________________________________

We Were Bloggers Once .. and Young.
___________________________________

The part of Michele could be played by Linda Fiorentio. Glenn Reynolds as either Bill Paxton or Bill Pullman. Duncan Black as portrayed by Judd Nelson.
Vin Diesel for Kos.
Christopher Walken as George Soros.

... and so forth.

Blogging...fun??? Is it supposed to be? I thought it was a way for me to avoid studying? Hmmm...I'll have to rethink that. ;-)

Geeze... I take a few months off of active blog-reading (unemployment, underemployment, other issues, does that to a person) and the whole world seems out of kilter!

Whatever you do, don't reply to this. Just know there are folks out here who do appreciate your efforts (if the prior comments don't already reflect that). To all those "certain people" who annoy you: they can all find someone else to berate and bug, for you have no time for them and their nonsense.

heh. Been married into a Brooklyn Italian family for 12 years and I always thought that word would be spelled 'Odgida'.

I can be such a dumb WASP sometimes.

I dont think that you should be committing yourself to not rebutting feedback to your thoughts in your home turf.

Thats what made this monumental waste of time fun in the first place. The world is full of assholes, when you turn your back on them on your own turf, they cant hear your superior message as well, and it gives their ideas a false sense of a small victory over your own.