Thursday, March 09, 2006

STOUSH

I was going to post something here about the Academy Awards, specifically the frocks, mostly hideous and unwearable. That was before I fell out of bed this morning, looked at the body of Godzilla in the mirror which was topped by a mop of hair I'd stolen from Sideshow Bob sometime during the night. (memo to self: don't wash hair and blow dry it at night without a safety net) I thought after that I'd best leave the stone throwing to others. I'm probably on Asio's list already for slagging off at Jeanette's spangled chaff bag last week.

I will say that Taffeta is not the most forgiving of fabrics to wear or sit down in and in case men still don't think women can pee standing up, have another look at some of those dresses. Not that anyone was looking at Dolly Parton's dress, more like what it almost covered. I love the way she sends herself up and love her songs but it's about time for a little reduction in the chest department before she has to have wheels fitted. Damn, I wasn't going to rant.

I have been finding out about the seedy underbelly of the blogosphere, i.e. the blog stoush.
I can't believe that a commenter would go to a blog just for the sake of not only having an argument but to insult the blog owner.

I have a commenter who lives in America and we are such complete opposites on everything I don't think we could agree on the time of day. I read his blog, shake my head and say only in America. He probably comes here, shakes his head and says only a woman would say that. For some reason I haven't been able to access his comments although I did this morning but I would never abuse his blog right to say whatever he likes. I know his views so I can stay away, nobody is forcing me to read them.

It's the same in Australia, if I don't like what is said, I can stay away but I did think there was a certain blog etiquette in force where vicious comments on personalities were not permitted or encouraged. Moderately insulting comments in a humourous vein seem to be okay, aren't they G-G? I've certainly left my share of those around cyberspace. Nastiness isn't just confined to left versus right either, there have been some vicious ones directed at female bloggers.

The whole point of a blog is the freedom to speak one's mind even if the mind is a little fried around the edge. Good manners shouldn't be thrown overboard (couldn't resist) in the guise of anonimity. Now I'm going back to 'Go Fug Yourself' to mentally rip a few more dresses to shreds.

24 comments:

R.H. said...

I use my real name, I don't hide.
I don't cower behind anonymity.
If every blogger were required to do the same there's be a lot less bloggers. And no cowardly abuse. Then the internet would be a much better medium - with credibility. That's what it lacks. And that's why things like blogs will always be second-rate. It's why they'll never have the status and validity of mainstream media. Hard copy cannot be deleted, secretly altered, or cunningly revised. There's no net to catch you.

I have only spitting contempt for nameless little creeps who fire off abuse from a secure hiding place.
Some bloggers do use their actual names, and they are the only people I seriously listen to, no matter what they say.

Lord Sedgwick said...

"Moderately insulting comments in a humourous vein seem to be okay, aren't they G-G?"

Back in our olden days I think it used to be called 'badinage' and it was, and still is one hopes, an honorable and mutually respectful art.

Dammit I wish the Wilde and woolly Oscar was still with us. He would have been the bright and guiding star of the blogosphere. He would have taken to the medium like a duck to Bosey.

JahTeh said...

My gem of a blog second rate! rh, you wound me but I would never delete a comment, the exceptions being the anti-gay sites and white supremacy sites that were posted here. I have visions of a blog archaeologist in the future trying to decipher all of this cyberspace.

Your Excellency, I'm always learning from you. I didn't know Bosey was into ducks.

Lord Sedgwick said...

Rhyming slang m'dear, rhyming slang.

But then again there was an awful lot of odd stuff (sic) going on round thenm thar times.

R.H. said...

Showing your suave dials at grog blogs makes you two even less anonymous than R.H.
Golly but I'd never do that.
You're two of the best bloggers I've read anyway. No coincidence.

R.H. said...

No matter how shifty the reasons are for deleting it, once a comment has been deleted you have no chance of defending yourself, no redress at all.
If you challenge them to republish it so that others can judge, they'll say, "It's vanished into the blogsphere," or they'll say, "I'm sorry!- but I am just not going to have offensive trash like that on my blog, not under any circumstances!"

So what can you do?

You won't even get a specific reason as to why something has been deleted.

And then some LIAR like Currency Lad(y) might pipe up and say, "Yes, I saw that, vilest abuse ever!"
And after, mind you, saying in comments he hadn't seen it at all.


So here's the drill. If you get a dirty on some commentor, for whatever reason, just delete one of his comments - any comment at all will do, then when he complains get all outraged about it. Say that you simply refuse to discuss it. After all, presenting the evidence would mean repeating the offence.
But meanwhile, in real world defamation cases the offending material is everywhere for the public to see.
Blogworld however is a special little enviornment where the delicate may bloom, safe from the reality of the outside world. A world in which a lot of these deleters wouldn't last five minutes.
In the past few weeks I've been cunningly deleted four times: by His Honour Armaniac, by Her Ravishing Old Bag Highness Miss Pavlov!- by Miss Anna Winterbottom - who suspended me the week before, and by that creepy little CUD-CHEWING HOLY-COW CRANK LIAR and HYPOCRITE: CURRENCY LAD(Y)
I tell you, these people are such fragile constipated little babies. No wonder they bicker day and night. Same stuff over and over again. Around in circles, they go. No end to it.
And there will be no end, not for them.

jdallen said...

Talking about me, ma'am?

I don't think we are nearly as opposite as one might think. Different, that's for sure, but opposite is hard to define.

And I think that the fact that there are no rules at all is what keeps this whole thing interesting.

Unknown said...

Take control, use a Shewee!

If blogging wasn't a basically anonymous activity, it would soon lose it's appeal and fade away.

Leaving aside purely personal attacks (my apologies to you, RH, for my medications quip the other day), anonymity allows people to be honest - about their politics, their sexuality etc. - to express personal things they may not even share with their partners.

Blogging can never replace mainstream media - it, by necessity, feeds off it.

If nothing else, blogging at least acts as a kind of safety valve by allowing us express our views, frustrations ... ever tried to get a letter published in a mainstream daily?

/End rambling rant>

R.H. said...

I've never had trouble getting letters published in the Heraldsun, and in local rags around here, but the Age banned me a while back so I never tried them again.
I like to feel I own everything thing I write, and so I'd never write it anonymously. And I can't see what good anything is if the author is afraid to put his name to it. But then, I don't care, because what I say is like my fingers and my toes, part of me. If it gets blown up so do I, meanwhile I believe it, every word.

If blogging lost it's anonymity, it would lessen, not fade away. There's plenty of bloggers already who use their actual names. And they are people you can generally trust. But right now there's some appalling evil bastards blogging under aliases, and causing loads of trouble. It's easy to lie, spit and scream abuse when no one knows who you are. It's easy to be a crook, a complete fiend. Anonymity attracts these bums. And they give the whole thing a bad smell.

Some comments should be deleted. Dirty low mongrel comments should be destroyed straight away. But I'll tell you truly, I've never made a comment like that, everything I've had deleted has been from spite, or just plain disagreement with what I've said. And that's what riles me most of all, because anything should be open to challenge. No one should have the lofty right to just make pronouncements.
I've said this before: Even God needs opposition. That seems strange, but it's true.

JahTeh said...

When I made the comments I hadn't caught up with you RH, it was another stoush entirely and much worse than anything you've said. You know you're safe here.

Nice to see you again JD and I did manage to make a comment at last.

Your Excellency, we've been outed. We'll have to do something with our suave dials at the next grogging. A bit difficult for me, like hiding an elephant in a strawberry patch. You only have to take off your tellysnobby suit.

JahTeh said...

Ron I'm not even going to ask how you found that site. Knowing me I'd fumble and lose the lot.

Anonymous said...

RH said: "Dirty low mongrel comments should be destroyed straight away. But I'll tell you truly, I've never made a comment like that..."

RH used the word "cunt" to abuse and intimidate a commenter at my site. He is a liar.

I warn you fraternally, Copperwitch, that yours is about the fourth blog he's used as a forum for his vengeance. (From about the same number, he has had abusive comments deleted - left wing and right). At each one, he pretends to be a harmless, old fashioned trooper. If you ever chastise him, he will get his revenge against you elsewhere.

I find it odd that a post on commenter abuse (mention was made of sexist abuse too) includes a poster - RH - gratuitously abusing people - and one woman as an "old bag". Rather than deal with him, you instead assure him he's "safe here." For your sake, I hope you're not serious. He will destroy the civility of your site.

JahTeh said...

Just caught up with your comment cl and at the moment I'm inclined to let all the children play in the sandbox.

Having said that, I do have boundaries.

R.H. said...

CL.

Answer this.

NAME the "about four blogs" I have used as a "forum for my vengeance".

Name them.

Or be shown as a liar.

R.H. said...

In the meantime, you low filth, don't try frightening this woman. I'm no danger to her at all, as will be seen. You are a danger to the truth, and to ordinary human decency.

Answer the question above.

Anonymous said...

Oh and another thing, JahTeh.

After a heavy morning on the "Pablo," RH may end up attacking you as a "neurotic" or an "old bag." I've frightened him off using the c-word but he'll return to that vomit like the obsessed dog he is when and if he loses control again - as is likely.

He is not merely a liar but a man who likes to put women in their place. He has had comments deleted at my blog (where he used the word "cunt" to stand over another commenter), Armaniac, Gummo and Larvatus Prodeo.

His argument here that he has never left a foul comment on a blog is a lie. You'll note that he hasn't bothered to deny it.

R.H. said...

Name the four blogs I've used as a "forum for my vengeance".

Name them.

Anonymous said...

Copperwitch is exactly the fourth blog to which you've taken the weird, vengeful neuroticism that began at my blog. The other two are Larvatus Prodeo and Gummo Trotsky. (Evidenciary hyperlinks available).

Feel free to add references to other thread discussions nobody else knows or cares about.

R.H. said...

Where's the links? You've said nothing.

You're a proven liar.

Anonymous said...

It's all over, RH. You are a foul-mouthed liar and now everyone knows it.

You picked on the wrong man and you got hammered.

Talk amongst your selves.

R.H. said...

That's it, what I expected; run away, you lying little cur.

You Jesus Christ queer-hating hypocrite.

How could I pick the wrong man, you're not a man at all, you witless little worm.

You? Hammer me? I'd sit you on your arse with one backhander.

Where's the links? To my "vengeful comments"?

Where's the comments?

Where's the bloggers, supporting you?

You are a purposeful liar who'll say anything from desperation, hoping it won't be pursued.
But I'll pursue you, and I'll tell you why; because homosexuals can walk straight into heaven, but hypocrites cannot. I'm a true Christian. You're a fraud.
Christ doesn't want you.

Hypocrite.

R.H. said...

"Pastor Christ the Lord".

Otherwise known as "Currency Lad".

The dork!

Read his blog. It's his life.
He has no other.

JahTeh said...

Boys, Boys, please you will have to stop.

It's just like being married again.

Without the sex.

Or the money.

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