One of the weird things about blogs is how you get used to commenters being around, and then, a couple months later, you notice they aren’t around anymore.
Sometimes people send you letters telling you “You suck because you said XXX and I am done with you, you filthy GOP/Democratic shill” and you say “Ok, then!” and move on with your life. But other times, they just slide away. Maybe they got a new job or relationship and don’t have the time, maybe they finally got fed up with me and the others, maybe they are just lurking, or maybe they died. It’s just interesting to contemplate all the things that could happen.
At any rate, can you think of any commenters who used to be here, but who no longer are? Are you one of those people who used to comment a great deal but quit?
Villago Delenda Est
Gonna be completely OT.
Why do you have an “NFL Open Thread” on the biggest college bowl day of the season?
This is one of those Jerry Seinfeld “what’s up with that?” sort of things…
JPL
The GA folks miss momanon. I wonder how she’s doing and wasn’t it about a year ago that she adopted a pup?
Yutsano
First one off the top of my head is Max, although she moved, got hitched, then went poof until the big snowstorm we had up here. I’ve heard different tales about where she went, I’m hoping she’s just in lurk mode.
Also: BRING BACK THE ORIGINAL BoB!! The new one just ain’t cutting it.
kdaug
E.D. Kaine.
(Was this a trick question?)
Omnes Omnibus
Chad N Freud
maya
No comment.
steviez314
Since Obama hasn’t disappointed Jane Hamsher lately, I’ve lost the will to comment.
Well, there’s always 2011!
JPL
Can’t believe that some miss Kaine and the original racist B.O.B.
At least B.O.B had imaginary brick ovens and girl friends.
Keith G
@kdaug: Damn you!
Now I got nuttin.
mr. whipple
What happened to Brickhead?
Omnes Omnibus
@JPL: I don’t know that we miss some of the people being mentioned; we simply have noted their absence.
Church Lady
TZ (and his various alter egos) and his girlfriend, whose handle I cannot remember. I miss him – I always enjoyed reading his arguments.
I agree with the take on B-O-B: whoever is writing his stuff now is not up to the original author. It’s just not out there enough.
Evolved Deep Southerner
Thymezone. It’s funny that you mention this today, John, because I was thinking just the other day “Wonder whatever happened to Thymezone?”
My best friend, who first turned me onto this blog, said that he was even better back as PPGaz (sp.?) but that was sadly before my time.
I sure did enjoy his posts.
EDIT: Shit, CL beat me to it.
Keith G
@Villago Delenda Est: Feh! According to my over-the-air-broadcast TV machine there in only one bowl game today.
I miss the 1970s. Death to America!
ItAintEazy
There was one commenter who called himself “Hitler-Worshiping Puppy Kicker” but I believe he either disappeared or changed his name around the time that real Hitler worshiper attacked the Holocaust museum.
blogbytom
Floyd Alvis Cooper
Omnes Omnibus
Quality trolls seem to be missing. Does that count?
Evolved Deep Southerner
His run was brief – as far as I know, one epic thread – but I miss michael gass every day. Although that one thread would be really, really, really hard to top.
John Cole
TZ is still around. I don’t know what happened to RomeAgain. And Momanon and Max, as well as J. Michael Neal.
Yutsano
@John Cole: Isn’t J. Michael Neal That’s Master of Accountancy To You Pal? Or am I losing it?
Evolved Deep Southerner
@John Cole: Still around where? Another handle or commenting on threads I just don’t read?
J. Michael Neal
@John Cole: I went somewhere? Why doesn’t anyone ever tell me these things?
Omnes Omnibus
@John Cole:J. Michael Neal has appeared more recently as JMN, Master of Accountancy (or something like that).
ETA: Just how Irish was that coffee?
eemom
CS hasn’t been around in a while. Which is a good thing.
JMN still comes around, was even here last night.
Betsy
Oh, me!
I still love the blog, but I decided I needed to, um, write my dissertation. By the grace of the flying spaghetti monster, I may finish it this spring. On the other hand, I’m also teaching my own class for the first time, TAing another class, applying futilely for jobs, and planning a June wedding. So there’s that.
Edit: I don’t think I actually counted as a regular, but I wasted enough damn time here to consider myself one.
Evolved Deep Southerner
@J. Michael Neal: Cut the man some slack. Fuck, he was walking around thinking it was Sunday until lunchtime.
J. Michael Neal
@Yutsano: I was. And if I post from my laptop, I still am, since I haven’t changed back over there.
J. Michael Neal
@Evolved Deep Southerner: I was afraid I’d made the error of where I was, but should have realized it was John making the error of when he was.
RedKitten
Yeah, there are a lot of old-timers who aren’t around much anymore. tbone, ImJohnGalt, The Other Steve, Mr. Furious, Pooh, Pb, Perry Como…
I know I used to comment a lot more but just haven’t been doing so as much lately. Between new kid, new job, new house and new blog, I just haven’t had much of a chance to keep up on politics. So I could comment and just say, “Hi, I’m here, but have nothing to contribute to the discussion,” or I can lurk and occasionally pipe up on one of the open threads.
Yutsano
@RedKitten:
With pictures. Lots and lots and lots of Samkitteh pictures.
Evolved Deep Southerner
Another Balloon-Juice legend my much-longer-reading-than-me friend mentioned was Darrell, the man everyone loved to hate. I can even remember him showing up in the lexicon very briefly before he was scrubbed from even there.
Svensker
Miss momanon.
Keith G
@eemom: CS drops out for a while now and then. It’s the holidays and he has kids (or a son at least), so I imagine he’ll be around for your future enjoyment before long.
Evolved Deep Southerner
@RedKitten: Pooh! Now there’s one I miss.
And it’s funny how you’re not posting so much anymore and I’m only just now getting comfortable posting after lurking for a long time. I was kind of intimidated by this crowd for a long time.
Genine
@J. Michael Neal:
You were tweeted. You must have missed it. I also saw it on someone’s Facebook page.
VidaLoca
Darrell. Whatever happened to Darrell?
He just disappeared one day. Went completely and totally silent. I always had the theory that he was a project put together by one or more of your grad students, who graduated and went on to have more useful and productive lives than writing Darrell.
Either that or he’s in jail. Or dead.
eemom
the other thing is you let people change their names on this blog.
That was one of the gazillion ban-worthy offenses over at FDL back in the day. “Sock-puppetry” doncha know.
NoFortunateSon
Yes. I used to comment heavily over on DailyKos. I’d been there since about 2004 (original UID ~ 65k).
But after 7 years, I feel the site has deteriorated into a morass of firebaggery and doomerism as Obama Derangement Syndrome has claimed what’s left of the front pagers and regular diarists who have not left on their own volition.
What was once the epicenter of the online progressive movement is now permanently ensconced in an outdated New Deal world view of rigid idealogical Keynesian1 economics, where diarists waste the precious time for activism running in slow motion, hair ablaze with flames slwoly licking the ceiling, all over fabricated, rumored, and hypothetical transgressions to social security. I refer to it as being trapped in the Digby2 bubble.
Which brought me here, when the tax cut deal finally shook the last vestiges of sanity from the once Great Orange Satan. First I read, and then, I slowly began to comment.
1 For the record, I believe in a more Keynesian approach to economics.
2 Also, I consider Digby a brilliant writer, activist, and philosopher.
Andy K
@RedKitten:
Another new kid, or still referring to the big guy (who must be closing in on, what, his second birthday?). Either way, I demand more pics!
RedKitten
@Yutsano: I just tried putting more on Flickr, but it’s being crashy. So you’ll have to settle for a video of him playing peek-a-boo, I’m afraid.
eemom
way back when I first came here there was somebody called The Hat On My Cat who I always liked, but s/he either vanished or changed name.
And there was Angus the God of Meat, but I think he may have been one of the ThymeZone iterations…?
Damn this is a fun subject.
J. Michael Neal
Someone else I miss is whoever the commenter was with the cat Momo.
Of course I can remember the pet’s name.
suzanne
@Yutsano:
Seconded.
Looking at cute things makes we hopeful that the Armies of Cute will one day inherit the earth.
J. Michael Neal
@eemom:
Yes. So was The Hat on My Cat.
Elizabelle
Littlebritdifferent (?) not around much.
sparky
DougJ aka…
and if he’s still here, then all your threads are belong to him, and someone needs to look at his countertops and convene a blogger ethics panel. after all, he might have bought himself a bespoke suit.
Uloborus
@Evolved Deep Southerner:
There’s no denying it. We are the Beautiful People.
Evolved Deep Southerner
@J. Michael Neal: Is this speculation, or do you know this? I mean, yeah, John knows, but he ain’t saying. Or does TZ somehow let people know?
sparky
otherwise,
Lambert/myiq….
Cassady [sp]
and wilfred only puts in a rare appearance these days.
SiubhanDuinne
I responded several minutes ago with a joke and a serious. Evidently, though, the joke — mentioning the handle of a recently-banned commenter — was enough to ban me! Oh well, it was tasteless and not very funny anyhow.
The serious is, I really miss Angus the God of Meat. He sometimes used other bovinesque handles, but AFAIK he hasn’t been around under any of the variants. I hope he wasn’t turned into hamburger!
And I join JPL and others in missing AMomAnon.
licensed to kill time
There was a commenter pcbedamned who hasn’t been around for awhile. She cracked me up one time talking about checking her kid’s wiring (typo), becoming allergic to bunnies when she had her first 16 years ago (really? she had 16 bunnies?) and then swearing to lay off the meds and go to bed.
Odie Hugh Manatee
There was the goat roper and rider, myiq2xu, more infamously known as GoatBoy, who was still trying to pick up some of that raging PUMA ass last time I bothered to check.
Darrell was one of the more memorable crazies we used to have. Then there was BIRDZILLA!
eemom
is Likeable In My Own Way a ThymeZone too?
Evolved Deep Southerner
@Odie Hugh Manatee: myiq2Xu! THERE’S another one I hadn’t thought about in a while.
I like this thread. Even though I’ve been reading this blog for going on three years now, I still feel like a newbie. I like hearing the old-timers talk about old legends.
WaterGirl
@Betsy: You were definitely a regular, from my perspective, and I have wondered where you had gone…
J. Michael Neal
@Evolved Deep Southerner: He pretty openly acknowledges all of his handles. So, yes, it’s confirmed. Unless mt memory is failing. Again.
PanAmerican
I just assumed the PUMA assholes were trolling under different pseudonyms.
Ross Hershberger
@NoFortunateSon:
There used to be a lot going on at the GOS that interested me but now my appetite for outrage is quickly exhausted there. Some days I drop in for Pundit Roundup or whatever it is. And my special Saturday treat is the hate mail-a-palooza.
Damn, that’s some funny shit.
J. Michael Neal
@eemom: I think so, but I’m not sure.
elf
ok, my offbeat list since some of them may still be around:
Thumper
Andrew Lazarus
PPgaz
Sojourner
Demimondian
srv
gogol's wife
@J. Michael Neal:
and he had some name like Don Diego the Furious. I’m sure that’s not it, but something similar.
licensed to kill time
@Ross Hershberger:
The hate-mail-a-palooza is the only thing I read over there. I like to read it out loud to my SO in an outraged tone. Fun times!
Nethead Jay
@eemom: AFAIK LikeableInMyOwnWay is TZ’s current handle when he shows up infrequently.
Doctor Science
I don’t comment here much any more, because I’m now a front-pager over at Obsidian Wings. This regular blogging thing is *hard*, yo.
Anyway, I’m not sure what the ettyket is about bloggers commenting at other people’s blogs — I notice that (unlike livejournal/dreamwidth, my usual hangout) there tends to be a split between “people who blog” and “people who comment”, and when front-pagers have something to say about someone else’s blog post, they do it by making a post of their own, not by getting into the discussion space over at the other guy’s. I find it rather confusing, frankly.
Wordsmith
Sometimes it takes a lot of energy to respond and that’s when I weigh time constraints…like I really have them.
Jay C
@RedKitten:
Beat me to it!
Happy New Year, all!
from the still-here Jay C
Hob
@Evolved Deep Southerner: TZ is pretty recognizable. He always has a WordCapitalizedNameWithNoSpaces, writes in the same style, stops posting under the last name as soon as he starts with the new one, and occasionally refers to conversations he had under the last name.
Mike Furlan
Sometimes folks do actually die.
Years ago, an online antagonist of mine did just that.
Puts things in perspective.
catdevotee
@NoFortunateSon: I’m surprised that I haven’t seen more refugees from GOS here – I see folks all over political blogs who I recognize from all the years I spent hanging out on DK. I finally decided being in that community wasn’t good for my blood pressure.
Mac G
@VidaLoca: I dont know who Darrell is but your comment made me laugh out loud. My guess is dead.
joe from Lowell
Auld acquaintances?
Fuck ’em.
Betsy
@WaterGirl:
Hey, thanks!! I have definitely missed you guys!
SIA
@JPL: You’re demowoman, right? I have noticed quite a few GA folks here. (SiubhanDuinne, waving at ya!)
Omnes Omnibus
@joe from Lowell: Hungover?
Elizabelle
*sigh*
Note that commenters remember the trolls more than others.
Too much like real life.
I’d be interested in what made some of the former regulars decide “that’s it” for me. Maybe real life intervened; maybe something else …
PS: Happy New Year’s Day to all. May 2011 be good for us.
Tony J
@VidaLoca:
IIRC it was put out there a few times that Darrell was, as you suggest, a Wingnutotronic project for John’s grad-students, and I always found it instructive that, a) he never denied it, and b) Darrell vanished around the time the question was asked.
Evolved Deep Southerner
Never have frequented Daily Kos except for links from places like here, but that Hate Mail of the Quarter thing is funny as shit.
John, if that’s not copyrighted, you ever care to share some of yours? I know you’ve got nothing but time, after all.
Xenos
I first got hooked on this place in early 2005 when I wandered over from Brad’s link at sadlyno and found a 180-comment four-way fight between Darrell, Paddy O’Shay, TallDave, and PPGaz. In the midst of it was Dougj and several of his spoofs egging the whole thing on. Then Stormy77 drunkblogged the whole thing into a dada-ist mess. Truly vicious stuff, and a great pleasure to find in those dark months after W. was reelected.
I also remember a commenter named Bruce Moomaw who was active back in the day. Since he used his real name I googled him, and it turns out that he died last February. So it goes.
drunken hausfrau
Time Zone Issues. I live in London… I love this blog, but I am usually reading posts and comments the next morning… hard to participate — but I still love it here.
Maybe it’s the drinking?
eemom
@catdevotee:
there’s a fair number of FDL refugees here, which has been great because believe it or not, there was a really good community there back in the days before Jane Hamsher’s ego choked out all other life forms.
JPL
@RedKitten: He’s so big. What a cute video and thanks for sharing. Although you’re busy we always appreciate your wisdom.
RedKitten
Wasn’t that how things went pretty much every Thursday evening?
Redshift
@eemom: Yup. Plus it was a community that actually did stuff, rather than just sitting around bitching and moaning.
Redshift
@RedKitten: Mr. Furious was around not too long ago. Couldn’t have been more than a month, I don’t think.
Ross Hershberger
I still read Tomasky and used to comment there a lot. There are some very interesting people over there and it’s a diverse bunch.
I got tired of 40% of the comments being from the same 3 or 4 unimaginative trolls spewing the same predictable nonsense. I can scan past it to read the interesting people but it’s annoying.
MT occasionally comes down to slap them around for the more egregious offenses, which I appreciate, but it just emboldens them.
Tony J
Who was the guy that would pepper his comments with calls for the Bush Administration’s various criminals to be put up against a wall and shot for their lies, pour encourager les autres, but who had zero-tolerance for any criticism of Israel?
It started with a T, but for the life of me I can’t remember what he was called. He stopped posting here around 2009.
fourmorewars
I’ve hardly commented here, but thought it might be interesting to talk about certain factors that go into one’s decision to comment/not comment somewhere.
You size up the crowd, of course, too small and you figure there won’t be anybody there to read you, too large and you’ll get lost. This obviously’ll change over time, and maybe someplace like baloon juice will wonder why people have drifted off, the answer being you got TOO popular, and people still read you but they see ‘874 comments’ and say to themselves ‘what’s the use.’
__
— atrios…that’s the place I hung out and commented at most, but for two reasons I pretty much went away. 1) you felt it getting too chummy, i.e. your comment ignored while the regulars asked each other about their cats. I fully understand I personally might’ve been ignored because I wasn’t saying anything interesting, of course. Just making a personal gripe that may or may not be more universally applicable. 2) you find another place that’s more fun, in my case a board devoted to bar trivia. There were a whole lot of idiot right wingers I could get into red-meat screaming matches with, so I devoted more energy there.
__
— used to comment on digby, but I really dislike the change she made in the comment box. It used to be like here, a long string with every comment visible, but now all but the newest comments are invisible unless you click page 2 or 3. Alicublog uses the same thing, I think, unfortunately.
Speaking of which, I hate all comment threads where, if you reply to someone specifically, it tucks up underneath their comment. If I’m replying to somebody I want it up front, i.e. down at the bottom as the latest comment. Bet I’m not alone there.
__
— enjoyed commenting at fdl and crooksnliars until they went sign-up. Too much trouble. And kos, I gotta confess I rarely visit there ’cause the whole site is so diffuse, to my mind. Would rather hit atrios, baloon juice, lgm, digby, alicublog, c&l, before I ever think of going to kos.
I’m ranting away on facebook now, but that doesn’t mean I like the format. I like comment boards where you can reply to a two-year-old comment and it’s right up front, most recent comment. Places like facebook, a one-week old argument is so far down the page, who’s gonna see it?
Actually, all these political blogs are like that, too, but one doesn’t blame them since they’re supposed to be that way, up-to-date and concerned with immediate headlines. So I’m talking about a different animal, I guess. But the subject is commenting, so I brought up that type of discussion board ’cause I’m sure others have visited them as well. Forum boards, I guess is the proper term for them.
Windy, ain’t I? I’ll go away now.
Redshift
@Doctor Science: I know that from the beginning, the platonic ideal of blogging was supposed to be that everyone responded on their own blog, connected through trackbacks or something, and therefore comment sections were unnecessary. Never really understood how that was supposed to work, or how it was possible to have a real conversation.
In any case, screw blog ettyket; come comment here when you get a chance. I’m sure nobody will complain that it’s beneath your exalted front-pager status. ;-)
Mark S.
@elf:
PPgaz is General Stuck; srv’s still here.
Tony J
@drunken hausfrau:
Oh, I hear that. I once got into a spat with a commentator who refused to accept that me being in Liverpool and needing to eat dinner before midnight rather than respond to his shitbaggery meant that I had ‘lost’ an argument.
Good times.
Redshift
@Ross Hershberger: Yeah, same thing happened with Greg Sargent once he moved over to the Post. I still read his posts sometimes, but the comment section is completely unbearable.
Ross Hershberger
I avoid political discussions on FB except in private messages with people I know well.
Earlier this year I got fed up with a FOAF ‘winger and told him to go do a physiologically impractical act.
I banished myself for a week and sent a donation to Cat and Girl as penance and I’ve behaved since then.
If someone on FB pisses me off now I block them from my page. I have enough places that get my blood pressure up already.
Tony J
@Mark S.:
I’ve thought that, but (and I may be having false memory syndrome here) weren’t there a few threads in the long, long ago where PPgaz/Thymezone slapped the younger General Stuck around and asked him the inevitable question “Do you really want to do this, because I’m much better at it than you are?”
Yeah, I’ve lurked here for – that – long.
Moses2317
I used to comment here a lot more, but have gotten caught up building my blog. I still visit here regularly and will comment occasionally.
Winning Progressive
frosty
@catdevotee: I’m another frequent GOS’er who’s lightened up. I generally read the Pundit Roundup and one or two diaries before bailing for BJ.
As long as we’re being disappointed in Other People’s Blogs, TPM has become almost unreadable for me. Instead of crowdsourced news (US Att’y scandal being the best) it’s become the site of Republican Outrage of the Day. I can only take so much of that.
Omnes Omnibus
@Ross Hershberger: As a general rule, I try to avoid political things on FB. The majority of people with whom I am friends tend to do the same. I have a general idea of where people stand on issues because I know them, but that is about it. My wingnut cousin and one crazed, Lew Rockwell linking libertarian who is a friend from undergrad are the exceptions.
Max
I’m here! Just seem to have lost my commenting groove. And WP hates me and deletes my comments.
I have moved and gotten married and am now, at 39, trying to get pregnant. Believe me, when you are trying to conceive at 39, you lose the romance during “go week”.
Oh yeah, I’m still an O-bot.
Wiesman
I thought maybe this thread was about me, but then I remembered I’ve made no impression whatsoever here. Yet. 2011 is the Year of the Wiesman! Er, well, maybe not.
Yutsano
@Max/a>: YAY!!
WP is capricious and ebil. It’s not just you.
A future Matkitteh?? WOOTDAHOOT!!
WaterGirl
@Max: Glad you are not gone. Seems to me that the subject of your paragraph #2 could be the source of some interesting posts on the open threads…
Maude
headpan is gone.
Goat does comment once in a while under another similar name.
Max commented not too long ago.
A mom anon was having some family hard times, that’s prolly why we don’t see her.
Snuff…can’t spell it, got upset and left.
Ross Hershberger
@Omnes Omnibus:
It’s weird. One former GF on FB has a PoliSci degree, is a liberal and posts raging political stuff on FB all the time without igniting flame wars. She’s also rather hardcore on immigration and crime, which is out of norm for a Leftie.
It was her friend who I invited to engage in intimate congress with himself and have since blocked.
There are some political ranters among my FB friends, but they’re off my main page. For the most part the READ THIS IT’S THE TRUTH OTHERWISE WE ALL DIE posts come ‘wingers. I don’t have Leftie pals slinging their opinions (or other people’s) around.
RSA
I used to comment a fair amount, I think, back when Balloon Juice was a one-man operation. I was never very high profile, though. Since then, life and work pressure have made me stop thinking very much about politics.
srv
demimondian’s still around, he posted yesterday. I don’t think teh google lets the modern
oilerseulers out much. A year or so ago I wondered about Pooh and he did a cameo, he had a blog.I wonder if KG is KCinDC, haven’t seen him/her. Haven’t seen wilfred in a long time.
ppGaz/Thymezone/…/Stuck has fewer personalities now, I would guess he retired and lost his bot lab.
Oh, yeah, RSA is pretty rare, he’s been around forever.
Max
@WaterGirl: I imagine my routine and props prior to *ahem* would rival John Coke’s Steelers game warm up.
Yutsani- Hi!
srv
I wish SpotWeld would show up more, he/she apparently lurks until they have some zinger, maybe someone elses rimshot troll.
eemom
@Omnes Omnibus:
Political commenting on FB is a treacherous mine-field indeed, but it CAN be entertaining. I post a lot of political stuff just because I like to vent, and also I have only one true wingnut (a sister in law) on my “friends” list. Nevertheless, in the last year I’ve managed to
(1) get into two flame wars on friends’ pages with THEIR wingnut friends;
(2) get into several nasty flames war on my page with a former college classmate who accused me of being a sexist for mocking Sarah Palin, an Obot for supporting HCR, and a foul-mouthed hater for calling people “Teatards” (she’s an equal opportunity sociopath);
(3) start a family feud with my brother in law when he defriended me after I scolded him for not voting.
Good times.
Omnes Omnibus
@eemom: I can’t believe someone as mild-mannered and quiet as you managed to stir up that much mayhem.
srv
Pooh’s blog: http://sethyblog.blogspot.com/
Someone go tell him John said he sucks.
Yutsano
@Max: Look one thread up. Apparently you’re not alone in the desire for teh bebehs. And I don’t even have the requisite parts!
eemom
@Omnes Omnibus:
yeah, I been puzzling over that one myself.
Nobody ever believes this, but actually I’m a confrontation-eschewing, kumbaya-chanting, pacifist Zen wannabe at heart. : (
Ross Hershberger
I used to be active on Boing Boing comments back when I was self unemployed & had free time. I was on there so much they dangled a Mod position in front of me in an uncharacteristic show of poor judgement.
Mr. Furious
@RedKitten: Ahh, it feels nice to have registered in someone’s memory banks, Krista…
I’m still around, but much more of a lurker than pugilist these days. Last time I was around for any extended conversation was probably in defense of the Chevy Volt a month or two back.
In the last year I’ve quit a job, gotten a new, much better job, relocated the family and just been more busy in general. As a result my own blog has pretty much fallen off a cliff, and my presence here and elsewhere has waned.
At my old job, I felt fairly free to engage at BJ during the day since the only person who might get a glimpse of my monitor was the editor, and that would mean he’d have to tear his own eyes off of bringatrailer.com where he spent every day looking for old Jeeps and FJs.
At my new gig, I sit in an open bullpen with my back to almost everyone, so time online is fleeting at best. I did however have a moment recently where the Balloon Juice world intersected with real life in the workplace, but not on my machine…
My managing editor spends some time on teh blogs, and I’ve caught her at Hullaballo once or twice, but a month or two back, she was watching a Louis CK video at work, and later that evening I saw that a front-pager here had embedded it.
The next day, I asked if she had watched via Balloon Juice and she admitted yes, and that she was a regular reader here. I probed further, hoping to discover I was unknowingly sharing an office with eemom or someone, but she confessed she never comments, and I told her I was a stalwart at one time, but had pretty much retired…
All the logistical reasons aside, the resounding stupidity of the coutry has really sucked the fight out of me over the last year as well, and I think my blogging and commenting would likely have fallen off regardless.
I’m still enjoying the reading, but it’s mostly on my iPhone, and commenting with that thing is a pain in the ass to say the least, so keep up the good work/fight without me, and know that I’m here in spirit.
southpaw
Twitter also has something to do with it too, I bet. It gives you much of the interactive, argumentative feedback of commenting but (i) you get to run your own show and (ii) trolls are constrained to 140 character bursts (+ more easily blocked).
amorphous
What happened to Josh Hueco? I always found that handle to be quite witty, since s/he was a Baylor (wo)man.
Anne Laurie
@Max: Glad to hear you’re doing okay, and hope you get everything you want from that latest ‘experiment’!
Yutsano
@amorphous: IIRC he said something about going on hiatus for awhile due to work/personal issues. My memory is a bit fuzzy on that though.
Rihilism
As someone who used to read and comment on numerous blogs several years ago (hardly, if ever, now), I can tell you that the online fights get old after a while. Not just between the commentators but between the blogs and the blog front pagers. Sometimes it’s easy to forget that you are talking to real fallible person, who has bad days, makes mistakes, who occasionally types before they think or makes an intolerant comment (self included). Trolls are another story altogether, yet some seem not to want to follow the “do not feed” method.
I tend now to just read blogs with the rare comment regarding something I think is important. I tend to read the funny blogs like Sadly No or TBogg or WhiskeyFire and usually go to Atrios or BP or TPM for news and info that I am unlikely to get elsewhere. I check in with GOS and FDL from time to time, but find them a bit dry and wonky.
There’s another reason I read BP (specifically JC). John seems capable of second guessing himself as new information becomes available (i.e., GWB). This is an admirable quality in a human being. He also seems willing to allow his front pagers to express their own opinions regardless of how he or his commentators feel or believe. What makes me unlikely to read comments (or write them) is that occasionally a commentator seems to think they “own” the comments and have the absolute authority to tell the blogger who they may or may not allow to speak. More than trolls, the commentators who allow their egos to get out of control (please, if you can’t say something nice then at at least say something innocuously funny) are the ones who drive me to the back button on my browser….
Bubblegum Tate
I’ve been coming here long enough to remember Stormy70 and Rick (of “Cordially, Rick”) fame. I actually kinda liked both of them, too.
I don’t comment so much anymore mostly because threads get inundated with comments so quickly that by the time I get to them, there’s already 150 comments and nothing left to say.
Chad N Freude
@Omnes Omnibus: Scaramouche-Dude, I am so flattered. I’ve been lurking but not commenting. Circumstances made it difficult to impossible for me to spend any time actually composing stuff, and I’ve been reading the blog when I could. But I’m still around and will try to butt in every now and then.
And I miss Thymezone/ppgaz, although I, too, have had suspicions about General Stuck, although I believe Stuck is in NM and ppgaz is (used to be?) in AZ.
And I really miss Darrell. Taking apart his assertions and arguments was exhilarating.
I’m a little disappointed that Redkitten didn’t say she misses narvy (outing my long ago nom d’ecran).
Zifnab
@RedKitten: That’s certainly how I always remembered it.
magisterludi
I know Just Some Fuckhead still comments, but there is one glorious comment pre-2008 election that involved JC locked in the trunk of a car.
It was a rant to behold.
Jonas
I used to comment here back 2003 or so when you were a conservative, but still readable to a liberal. I’m still alive, I just don’t comment much anymore.
Bill E Pilgrim
@Rihilism: Everything you said.
General Stuck
Well, I’m not TZ and we sure had some epic flame wars once upon a time, not sure who got the better, but I suspect TZ did, on the whole. Am certainly glad that hatchett seems buried. None of the other young guns since could hold the dudes pearl handles.
I hope to roam most with the wild Unicorns to hunt wingnuts, this next year. Mixing it up with the home grown jackals and Hyenas are just wasted energies.
Tlazolteotl
I mostly lurk, so nobody misses me at all!
Happy New Year, anyway. :-)
Mark S.
Wait, who used to post as PPgaz, Stuck or TZ? This was all before I was out of the womb, so I was just going by what someone else said.
It’s funny when someone links to a real old thread, back when Cole was conservative or starting to come out. DougJ’s trolling is hilarious.
General Stuck
@Mark S.:
TZ is ppgaz, I lurked some during this period, but didn’t start commenting until like June or July 2007 as whippoorwill, i think, then as nightjar.
Evolved Deep Southerner
@magisterludi: Talking about old posts, there was a commenter here one time named Phil, a forgettable troll with a forgettable name, and I remember clearly his Goodbye, Cruel World rant as he left, just ripping Cole a new one.
And John came back with “I don’t know how I’ll go on without Phil.”
I laughed my fucking ass off.
General Stuck
And the only commentator, if you want to call it that, that I miss is BIRDZILLA. Some nights, I weepy myself to sleep wondering what happened, and missing that big crazy birdy.
All the others are but a blur
something fabulous
I’ve been wondering/worrying about moe[+some number–66, I think?]. I remember she had mentioned battling an advanced stage of cancer during the health care threads. Hope you are out there and battling on!
Helena Montana
“Are you one of those people who used to comment a great deal but quit?”
Yes.
Nethead Jay
@Evolved Deep Southerner: Yah, I remember that one too. It was epic.
General Stuck
I trust all our firebaggers were bizzy little beevers over the holidays, making lists and checking them twice for all the ponies they didn’t get and all the grievances why the Obama Santa let them down, again. Ho Ho Ho
coffeegirl
I’m one of those people who just hang around…… Sorry y’all, I’m still here!
magisterludi
I’ve been meaning to change my screen name for some time (yes, I am that lazy). Kinda pretentious and I don’t even like Hesse much.
Think I’ll go with bird because some people actually call me that. Apparently my legs are on the scrawny side.
Mr. Blink
I have no need to make comments. Plenty of entertainment just reading and lurking…
Mike Kay (True Grit)
I wonder how blogs turned into conspiracy theorists.
There’s a well known blog who says a carbon tax is in reality a plot to enrich corporations.
I mean, really, this is no different than birchers who say fluoridation of water is a commie plot.
Comrade Mary
@RedKitten: New blog? Link?
asiangrrlMN
@something fabulous: She still posts from time to time. I saw her no more than a week ago, pretty certain it was in the last few days.
JD Rhoades
@Tony J:
I run into this all the time. I call it “endurance trolling.”
HyperIon
@Tony J:
The couch potato guy (Dick Spud) is my best guess at ppGaz’s current handle.
Bruce (formerly Steve S.)
I am no longer here, I am there.
something fabulous
@asiangrrlMN: Oh, that’s good to see! [and hi to you not at 3 am!]
Mumphrey
@Xenos:
I’d love to read that. Can anybody dig it up somehow?
And something else I’d like to know, and maybe this would be worth its own thread, is: how did people come to choose their names? Some are easy to work out; other meanings are far more deeply hidden. If anybody’s wondering, I chose Mumphrey because it’s a funny name. I have a thing for funny names. I’ve been known to make up lists of funny names in classes when I got bored. My wife doesn’t think that’s a wise use of time, but I know better…
Yutsano
@Mumphrey: Good question. This has been my nom de Internet for a long time. And for the life of me I have no idea where I got it. But it’s unique.
Rosali
I used to hang out here often and comment and then WP started messing with me and I would go into moderation hell. Not fun.
SiubhanDuinne
Seems to me it’s been a while since Soonergrunt has posted. I hope his health is okay.
WaterGirl
@SiubhanDuinne: I was wondering about soonergrunt, too, just a couple of days ago.
Yutsano
@SiubhanDuinne: @WaterGirl: I think he’s either on self-imposed hiatus or vacation. I forget which.
asiangrrlMN
@WaterGirl: I saw him a week or so back. I think. Not sure. Maybe it was at TBogg’s place.
@Max: Man, I’ve missed you, girl. Glad to know that you’ve had a banner 2010. Good luck experimenting!
@Betsy: I have been thinking about you. Glad to see you pop in and comment. Sounds like your life is full and busy. Is the wedding yours?
LikeableInMyOwnWay
@Church Lady:
It’s me, and I haven’t been anywhere.
This handle, Dick Spud, and a few others … all me.
Ghost of Smoot, me. Angus God of Meat, me.
I make no effort to conceal these moves, in fact I generally go to pains to make it obvious, but …. I figure that keeping track of me is not really a matter of national security. Most people would not give a rat’s ass, and that is just the way it should be.
SiubhanDuinne
@Yutsano: Thanks, hope he returns soon.
@SIA: ::waves back:: Happy New Year!
LikeableInMyOwnWay
@HyperIon:
Sweet Jesus, are you kidding me? ppgaz is me, and I have never been Stuck, if you will permit the phrase.
Stuck is New Mexico, I am in Arizona. He lives in a cave with no electricity, and I live in the very middle of a metro area of 4m people.
Mark S.
I want to say I saw soonergrunt a week ago or so.
LikeableInMyOwnWay
@General Stuck:
The original (not the latter) BIRDZILLA (all caps) was by far the campiest and coolest poster who ever graced this wall.
BIRD, wherever you are, come back and get back to work.
wonkie
I post political stuff onb my facebook mainly to present an alternative reality to my Faux-benighted friends. NOne of them ever respond. My liberal friends respond.
I don’t read Daily Kos much any more either.
I don’t read or comment much at Obsidian Wings any more either even though it is my favorite blog and one I read assidiously for years and recommend highly to everyone.
It’s just all too depressing.
Mostly I read animal rescue websites. I like to read the success stories.
RedKitten
@Chad N Freude: Narvy! Holy shit, that name brings back memories!
And yeah, I remember Rick, or “Cordially, (P)Rick”, as he was often called. Good times. I definitely miss BIRDZILLA. His posts were like mystical poetry.
Stormy70 was definitely insane on the political end of things, but I enjoyed bonding with her over our shared lust for Naveen Andrews.
@Comrade Mary: Here you go, darlin’!
Evolved Deep Southerner
@Mark S.: Soonergrunt’s been in the thick of it pretty recently. I trust it’s just the holidays and such.
LikeableInMyOwnWay
@srv:
I swear, thinking Stuck was me is one of the most bizarre misattributions I have ever seen on the tubes.
Headshaker, totally.
I wonder about you, kid. Did they get all of that railroad spike out of your head after the accident?
asiangrrlMN
@something fabulous: Thanks! I do pop up during the day on weekends (football).
@Rosali: It’s not just you. WP hates everyone.
::Waves hand at the room::
Hi, all. Man, it’s good to see old faces popping out of the woodwork. And, lurkers, too. Have an excellent 2011!
LikeableInMyOwnWay
@Tony J:
Yeah, I asked that question. But it was rhetorical, if you get my drift. Heh.
Wow, the Stuck-TZ confusion. Truly amazing, I never would have guessed that anybody would make that mistake.
You don’t have to take his or my word for it, John knows who we are.
I am the one who lives with Rome Again, aka Little Dreamer. Stuck lives with a salt dried fish.
General Stuck
@LikeableInMyOwnWay:
My cave does to have lectricity, sometimes.
Yutsano
@RedKitten: Holy schnikies that Mars bar recipe looks divine!
General Stuck
@LikeableInMyOwnWay:
Very weird, indeed. And it’s a salt dried chicken. And a few mice.
edit – plus, I am way more purdier than TZ.
LikeableInMyOwnWay
@General Stuck:
WTF are you talking about? I never used those handles that I am aware of. I started posting about six years ago as ppgaz.
TZ came along a year or two later. Then when I got jealous of DougJ spoofing and changing his handles every three days, I started playing around with different funny handles. I would still be doing it but this software right here is so shitty that I don’t trust it any more to handle the situation properly. I have used the same email address, which is my actual everyday email address, in every post I have made here .. with the exception of about a dozen posts I made while banned a few years ago.
Joy
@Evolved Deep Southerner: I know the feeling. I primarily lurk, but the animal posts get to me and I usually chime in. I always enjoy the commentary here. It’s hard to not be intimated (in a good way).
Mark S.
@LikeableInMyOwnWay:
To be fair, someone posted a link a little while back from like 2006 (it was some nonsense about Cindy Sheehan) and said Stuck used to go by PPgaz. Since this was long before I was here, I took that person’s word for it.
LikeableInMyOwnWay
@General Stuck:
Static sparks and lightning during the monsoon season do not count as a utility.
SiubhanDuinne
@Mumphrey #145:
Yes, Mumphrey *is* a funny name!
I think someone (Krista/RedKitten or maybe Screaming in Atlanta/SIA or demowoman/JPL or someone) asked about SiubhanDuinne a long time ago, so I’m probably being repetitive here. I’ve used it since I was maybe 10 years old. I had a beautiful book of Scottish tartans and in the back was a glossary of Scots Gaelic-to-English as well as a list of male and female names and their English equivalents. According to this, “Siubhan” was equiv to several English girls’ names, mine included, so I started using it. Then I found that the word for “man” is “duine” (with one N). My last name at the time was Mann (with two Ns) so I thought it would be oh so clever to put an extra N in “duine” and make “Duinne” my surname. So Siubhan Duinne is a literal translation of my maiden name with a little wordplay thrown in.
There, aren’t you glad you asked?
General Stuck
@General Stuck:
Calm down. And reread, I said those were MY handles.
LikeableInMyOwnWay
@eemom:
Just call me Herb.
asiangrrlMN
@Yutsano: I was looking at all the shiny things ::cough, cough::
@Mumphrey: I am really a white, sixty-year old man who lives in Florida. What can I say? I have a weird sense of humor.
@LikeableInMyOwnWay: I like your AngusGodofMeat incarnation.
RedKitten
@Yutsano: It is. They’re really, really easy and really, really addictive. I ran out of milk chocolate chips and used butterscotch chips for the topping in one batch. Sweet enough to give a horse diabetes? Yes. But delicious? Oh, you bet!
(Fuck, I was going to write “you betcha”, and realized that I can never, ever use that phrase again, because it reminds me of Sarah Palin. Curse that bitch!)
LikeableInMyOwnWay
@General Stuck:
Ah. Noted.
I can’t remember every handle I have used. Some of them were just one nighters.
LikeableInMyOwnWay
@John Cole:
RA is Little Dreamer, and you and she are friends on FB. There is also some game or other you guys have played online but I don’t know the name of it.
RA/LD is napping, but I will tell her you said hello, sort of.
Mumphrey
@SiubhanDuinne:
Yes, thank you. I’d like to know about all the cryptic names here.
LikeableInMyOwnWay
@asiangrrlMN:
Moo! I’m in rare form.
I can’t believe I just said that.
LikeableInMyOwnWay
@Mark S.:
Cool. This is a confusing place for those without a program. On the last day of this blog, DougJ will reveal all the handles he has used here over the years. It will take him several days to type the list.
Maude
@LikeableInMyOwnWay:
Say hi to Little Dreamer.
LikeableInMyOwnWay
@VidaLoca:
John’s student who was writing Darrell finally graduated and went away. At least, that was my theory. Or else it was DougJ. Probably the latter.
Mumphrey
@asiangrrlMN:
Really? With no way to hear anybody’s voice or see anybody’s face, it’s hard to tell when people are being facetious.
LikeableInMyOwnWay
@Maude:
I shall point her to this thread and maybe she will make an appearance …..
WaterGirl
@LikeableInMyOwnWay: Do not say that to suzanne.
asiangrrlMN
@LikeableInMyOwnWay: I can’t believe you did, either, but it cracked me up.
@Mumphrey: Sorry. I’m being facetious. I really am an Asian female in MN.
@WaterGirl: Cudlip!
Yutsano
@RedKitten: Fuck her. Take your good English back for all upstanding Canadians. And go ahead and invade Alaska while you’re at it. We won’t miss it much, plus they’ll really get a taste of what sociaIism is. Of course it’d be like quintupling the size of the Yukon, but they at least won’t get too many ridings in Parliament.
Ross Hershberger
OT, but maybe the most famous anonymous commenter I know is ZODIACMOTHERF***ER, AKA ZMF on The AV Club. He/she comments on films primarily but can pop up in reviews of potato chips, TV shows, etc. ZMF has been interviewed by the AV Club and is a local loved/hated celebrity. Whoever writes under that name has a world class sense of humor and a big brass pair that go clank. Always a pleasure to read.
eemom
@Mumphrey:
I like that question. Specially cuz during the sexist flame war a couple of nights ago, I encountered the SECOND asshole on this particular blog to inform me that anybody with a “mom” in their screen names is an idiot.
I have this different idea, i.e., that anyone who insults someone else on the basis of their screen name is REALLY a fucking idiot.
Jane2
@RedKitten: Use it with pride…she stole it from “Fargo”.
asiangrrlMN
@Jane2: And exaggerated it, to boot.
LikeableInMyOwnWay
@Water Girl:
Is she a vegemite? I mean, veganitarian?
My old favorite carnivore joke: If God had not intended us to eat cows, He would not have made them out of meat.
But I heard one on tv the other day I liked even better:
…… He would not have made them so easy to catch.
To provide a little balance, I am quite familiar with the horrors and abuses of the meat industries. To say nothing of the health issues of factory meat production.
However, those concerns don’t change the fact that the gods made me a meat eater and I will eat almost anything that walked, crawled, swam or flew as long as it did not die of natural causes. Or from being run over by a car.
Thoughtful Black Co-Citizen
@RedKitten: Well there’s one of the people I was going to ask about.
Darrell is of course no longer with us since John got tired of writing his lines. Demimondian, who always told me to StFu when I mentioned Darrell … Haven’t seen ThymeZone in ages (or have I?) Is Rome Again in here under a different handle?
28 Percent was funny.
Shit, there are a lot of people but I can’t even remember their names.
eemom
and speaking of names, one of the most storied commenters of all time, who has made an appearance here once or twice, was Evil Parallel Universe.
Back in the day at FDL, he always showed up at the bottom of threads after everyone had moved on…..and thus his name evolved into one of the first official termes d’arte of bloggerdom, “epu’d,” which described a person whose comment appeared at the end of a thread right after a new thread had gone up. (as in “Oh shit, I got epu’d again.”)
WaterGirl
@LikeableInMyOwnWay: No, Suzanne’s MIL recently told Suzanne that Suzanne reminded her of a cow. A particular breed of cow, if I am remembering correctly. This to a woman who just had a baby!
CynDee
@LikeableInMyOwnWay: The General has a really great doggie, do not forget.
General Stuck
@Mumphrey:
I also like this question and will answer for myself. My first two handles were names of birds, or bird families. The handle I got Stuck with, so to speak, was first formed during the 2008 election during the finance meltdown, and continuing PUMA nonsense, and one thread was so nuts, I thought it was like being Stuck in the Funhhouse. So it began with several iterations, until some troll stopped by with an aristocratic name for a handle. Like like Lord Count something or other, reminiscing about the Old Whig party. So when I was researching the Whig’s, I came across General Winfield
ScottStuck, and took that handle to mock the troll. Finally coming to General Stuck. I tried changing my handle once to Alice B. Stuck, but got tired of answering questions of relations with the Gen Stuck, and just surrendered to that handle.LikeableInMyOwnWay
@Tony J:
The fellow in Hawaii, whose name escapes me at the moment?
I told him he had called for more human sacrifice than the Hawaiian Kings. And that is saying something.
Tenguphule! That’s the guy.
LikeableInMyOwnWay
@WaterGirl:
Good lord. Personally, I think pregnant women are beautiful.
They have this glow.
General Stuck
@CynDee:
Awww! thanks Cyndee, Charlie’s godmom. He is a great doggy, more so than I likely deserve.
Evolved Deep Southerner
@General Stuck: You were General Egalitarian Stuck for a time, no? And Comrade Stuck?
Mumphrey Oddison Yamm
@General Stuck:
I recall when you were General Winfield Stuck, and I could only guess that it had something to do with Winfield Scott, but I couldn’t guess how you got from “Scott” to “Stuck”.
See, we’re all learning valuable tidbits of random & variegated information here…
General Stuck
@Evolved Deep Southerner:
LOL, true. I forgot about those iterations.
asiangrrlMN
@WaterGirl: Ouch. Just, ouch. I thought it was the cudlip and suzanne’s particular antipathy for m_c.
@Thoughtful Black Co-Citizen: RomeAgain is Little Dreamer. TZ is here as LikeableInMyOwnWay. Check out comment #152 for a partial list of his nyms. Oh, and whatever happened to that kommrade reproductive vigor? Do you happen to know?
LikeableInMyOwnWay
@General Stuck:
Get that dog a computer and get him online.
I assume the animal is a Democrat?
CynDee
@General Stuck: No, you deserve him and he’s lucky to have you.
General Stuck
@CynDee:
:-)
eemom
@General Stuck:
I like the fact that you are a General — allows me to feel that I have high-ranking friends.
My original screen name at FDL was oddmommy, which evolved from one of my tenderest memories as a mother from something my daughter said when she was little. (“You’re an odd mommy but a nice mommy to have around.”) (You can see why I take umbrage at assholes who disparage my mom-ness.)
Then when FDL and I came to a parting of the ways, I used my first initial “e” (Elaine) over at the blog TRex kindly maintained back then as a kind of political asylum for those fleeing the tyranny of Hamsher.
And I just kind of mushed those together when I arrived here in Casa del Cole.
Evolved Deep Southerner
@General Stuck: That may have been in my non-commenting days. But I was watching it all close.
RedKitten
I used to go by my real first name for the longest time. And then another commenter showed up with that name, and so to avoid confusion, I decided to change my moniker. It’s the colour of my hair + my husband’s pet name for me.
@Thoughtful Black Co-Citizen: TZ is still around — he’s in this very thread. : )
I’m a little nostalgic for Darrell, but not really. He was sort of like high school — time and distance tends to blur how hellish it all was. I do miss having some righties to fight with, though. Remember Defense Guy? He was a tenacious little fart, wasn’t he?
Evolved Deep Southerner
@RedKitten: We have change, though.
LikeableInMyOwnWay
@RedKitten:
Hey, noticed that you and a certain Juicer have tagged up on FB. Glad to hear it.
I guess I could mention that my nonpaying fanclub members can meet up with me on FB: Ty Emzone. Give me some info about yourself when you drive by, I am skittish about blank or hidden profiles.
You paying members … just keep paying. You are doing a great service.
asiangrrlMN
@Evolved Deep Southerner: You can keep that change. Very weak sauce.
WaterGirl
@LikeableInMyOwnWay: I agree about pregnant women and mothers. Saying that was bad, bad, bad, even if she didn’t mean anything by it.
Anne Laurie
@LikeableInMyOwnWay: __
They’re not the first, and probably won’t be the last. It’s the way you two fight like Irish twins.
Which is not a compliment, in case you were mislead.
CynDee
@ John Cole: This was a really fine idea for a thread, John. Excellent leadership, excellent man. Stay cozy and I hope your team wins. Is there football tonight? See, I’m reading Jane Eyre and don’t keep up. There’s a good dog in Jane Eyre: “Pilot,” who belongs to Mr. Rochester, master of Thornfield, showing that even a Byronic hero with a tortured soul and who can be quite a pill is a tremendous man as evidenced by the fact that a dog stays with him through thick and thin, and believe me, his trials are uniquely lonely and daunting.
For those who haven’t watched a Jane Eyre film lately, the 2006 production with Ruth Wilson and Toby Stephens (son of Maggie Smith and Robert Stephens) is absolutely terrific. Wonderful chemistry, much skill and art. And it has the best happy ending you’ll ever see anywhere. ( I watched the ending four times. If you ever get low, go do that. Not that you ever get low.)
I greatly admired Timothy Dalton’s work in an earlier production, but he had to carry the whole show himself, with only the help of the canine actor.
P.S. To the General: It would be a different slant, but Charlie could play Pilot. He could.
Pooh
@Evolved Deep Southerner:
Hey thanks. I still lurk occasionally, but post inauguration I’ve simply lost the will to argue politics on teh intrawebz.
General Stuck
@Anne Laurie:
Sometimes I wonder if you’re on the right blog Anne Laurie. That is not a compliment either.
Renfrew Squeevil (formerly Mumphrey Oddison Yamm)
Of course, the one name I wonder about most is “John Cole”. I mean, what kind of name is that? Who would choose a name like that? What does it mean?
Anne Laurie
@Mumphrey: __
I’m excellent picking out names for others (like pets) but I’m absolutely horrible at thinking up nyms for myself. Which is why I use the one my parents gave me. Sometimes I pretend this is due to my rigorous honesty, in the Mark Twain “Always be honest, you don’t have to remember as much that way.”
demimondian
@srv: Yes, I’m still around, although far less that I was. Sorry.
ETA — although I may be the only person sorry about that…
LikeableInMyOwnWay
@Anne Laurie:
I didn’t take it as a compliment, although it is a remarkably absurd thing to say. But that’s for another thread someday.
Anne Laurie
@General Stuck: Give my best to Charlie.
LikeableInMyOwnWay
@demimondian:
It’s unbearable around here without you.
Jamey
Not much to say–and some others hereabouts say it far better at any rate. A peaceful 2011 to all.
SGEW
Sure. A few reasons:
– Real life intrudes. Less time for blogosphere.
– O, I’m sick of politics.
– B-J has too many threads for me to keep up with nowadays.
Ross Hershberger
If I’d known this blog got such high Google rankings I’d probably be under a pseud like I am on BoingBoing. My BJ comments are creeping into the second page of my Google hits. I probably shouldn’t have somewhere I regularly make an ass of myself so easily found.
If a RossinDetroit shows up soon and I disappear, it’s me.
I don’t think too much about online identities but my brother does and I trust him. He either posts under his own name or keeps his trap shut.
Mike Kay (True Grit)
@eemom: what caused you to leave FDL?
Benjamin Cisco
@Mumphrey:
Nice question. I used to post under the name Indie Tarheel, but once I saw a lot of Star Trek related quips here, I decided to change it to honor one of my favorite characters from that universe (purposely misspelled as a nod toward my current profession).
Chad N Freude
@RedKitten: Do you know what became of Oliver?
LikeableInMyOwnWay
@Chad N Freude:
We certainly do. He’s alive and well, I see him online every day.
I will mention that you asked.
Evolved Deep Southerner
@LikeableInMyOwnWay: AnneLaurie, you opened the door there.
RedKitten
@Chad N Freude: As Herb said, Oliver is doing quite well and entertains me daily with a series of brilliant and twisted Facebook status updates.
e.g. “Oliver _______ wishes he could get a tattoo of the windowless basalt towers of Yuggoth, the very sight of which drive men to madness. He’d get it just about anywhere on his body except for in front (because then he’d see it in the mirror and go crazy) or on his lower back (because that’s 32 different flavors of wrong, right there).”
Chad N Freude
@LikeableInMyOwnWay: Quoting myself @120:
Well, it was only a suspicion, not an assertion. And speaking of Miss Ledyard (well, not really, but the reference should get your attention):
J. Michael Neal
@Mumphrey:
Well, I’d been tired of being Michael Jackson for pretty much my whole life. When my ex-wife and I decided to get married, we liked the idea of having the same last name, but didn’t like the symbolism of her just taking mine. So I changed my last name to Neal, which is my mother’s maiden name. I like her side of the family better anyway. While I was at it, I dropped the “ohn” from my original first name, which I’ve never gone by. Hence, J. Michael Neal.
Did you mean how did I choose my screen name? If so, I have no idea where it came from.
Chad N Freude
@LikeableInMyOwnWay: @RedKitten: Do you correspond with him?
LikeableInMyOwnWay
@Chad N Freude:
We exchange semantic abstractions daily on FB. I told him you inquired.
RedKitten
@Chad N Freude: On Facebook, yes. And he was in my guild when I played Kingdom of Loathing, another online habit that I’ve neglected sorely as of late.
LikeableInMyOwnWay
@Chad N Freude:
Um, Ledyard? As in Latin class? Or ….?
CynDee
Has anyone heard from Celtic? I have wondered and wondered about how things are going for him (her?)
Thoughtful Black Co-Citizen
Heh. He keeps forgetting to switch his handle on his other computer. I’m not sure how I feel about this one. Unless you’ve read this it does rather shout TROLL.
I may just go back to Jake since there don’t seem to be any others left any more.
Or perhaps I will start using my real name: Jonah Goldberg.
Chad N Freude
@LikeableInMyOwnWay: Dude, I used to be Narvy. You don’t remember when Narvy made a Miss Ledyard reference and PPGaz picked up on it? And I thought I was forgetful!
ETA: We had an online conversation about WPHS and Miss Ledyard’s specialness.
stuckinred
@Mike Kay (True Grit): I bailed on FDL almost a year ago. I check in almost every day and the same people are saying the same shit over and over. It’s funny, some years back my cocker Raven was fighting cancer and there were folks there that were very helpful. I just got to the point where I couldn’t the constant vitriol about Obama so I just quit. Eureka Springs was a particular asshole but I have not seen him there in a long time.
LikeableInMyOwnWay
@Chad N Freude:
Dude, I had no idea you were Narvy! Sumabitch!
I wondered what happened to you. Come on over to FB and tag up with me at Ty Emzone. Just do it.
S. cerevisiae
Choosing a handle was hard, I tried several on different blogs and sometimes would encounter duplicates on the web so I abandoned them and became beer yeast because it makes people happy and I didn’t see anyone else using it.
Plus I thought it sounded cool.
stuckinred
@S. cerevisiae: I used my dogs name at FDL but I didn’t want anyone ID’ing me here so I changed. eemom figured it out anyway.
RedKitten
@Chad N Freude: You’re such a sly dog, you! You’ve been commenting as CNF for how long now? And you gave me no indication whatsoever that you were Narvy? Tsk, tsk!
Chad N Freude
@LikeableInMyOwnWay: I have dedicated my life to not being on Facebook. I’m more into antisocial networking. And I think someone has registered Chad N Freude on FB, which would force me to create yet another false identity and become like someone in a confusing spy novel.
LikeableInMyOwnWay
@Chad N Freude:
I remember the past conversation, but had no idea CNF was you. RK and I used to wonder now and then where you went.
Come over to FB and receive your punishment. Er, that is, catch up.
Mark S.
@Thoughtful Black Co-Citizen:
If you do that, I admit the S stands for Steyn.
White women need to have more babies! Preferably with me!
Here’s my come hither look.
LikeableInMyOwnWay
@Chad N Freude:
Excuses, excuses. K and I are waiting with paddles to give you what for.
Handles are a dime a dozen. Just pick something and sign up.
Waynski
Still here, John. But I’ve been looking for a job, so that I will have time to comment once again. Happy New Year to all the juicers.
Chad N Freude
@RedKitten: I apologize. I think I may have dropped a more or less oblique reference once in a thread we were both commenting on. And there was a long interval between Narvy and Chad when I was way out of the BJ loop and when I started participating again, I felt a little uncomfortable about looking back instead of looking forward(tm).
LikeableInMyOwnWay
@Chad N Freude:
That ship has sailed. You are already like a mysterious character in a spy novel. Keyser Soze has nothing on you.
Chad N Freude
@LikeableInMyOwnWay and @RedKitten: Begins to tear (that’s tier, not tare) up.
Chad N Freude
@LikeableInMyOwnWay: Now That’s what I call a compliment! I guess the three of us should haul out the Macbethian cauldron and resume the incantation process.
RedKitten
@LikeableInMyOwnWay:
Ssshhhh! Nobody’s supposed to know about my paddle collection!
Chad N Freude
@RedKitten: Do you work in a club frequented by the RNC?
J. Michael Neal
@RedKitten: SamKitten already ratted you out.
LikeableInMyOwnWay
@RedKitten:
Mum’s the word.
Not the safeword, though. Let him figure that out.
eemom
@stuckinred:
I was so glad when you finally showed up here. I’d see you back over there surrounded by the crazies and knew you’d like it here, but had no way to get in touch. (Eunuch-in-chief “RBG” must’ve banned my ass at least 8 different times; I signed up under different names but could never last long without insulting the hell out of Her Ladyship.)
LikeableInMyOwnWay
@Chad N Freude:
I’ll get a fire going.
stuckinred
@eemom: Wonder what happened to Eureka, he got really nasty on facebook with me because I didn’t like Siun’s constant prattle.
eemom
@stuckinred:
Oh yeah, Siun. Good thing I was banned or I could’ve been a real star on one of those Israel threads, eh? : )
I’ll always wonder what happened to Oklahoma Kiddo. Of all the nasty back-stabbing shit Hamsher pulled, that was one of the worst.
What’s really scary is even some of the saner people over there seem to have drunk her kool-aid recently…….even females, who can’t be explained by my theory about her Disembodied Testicle trophy collection…..
They never DARED to ban you, though!
Ash Can
I always enjoyed reading comments from Littlbritdifferent, Laura W, Indylib, Just Some Fuckhead before he got crabby, and, of course, the always entertaining Birdzilla.
Mike Kay (True Grit)
@eemom:
can you fill out the story for those of us who aren’t/weren’t readers.
my current fav story comes from angry black lady who wrote that three days before the vote on DADT, hanoi jane went on tee vee and mocked the pending vote, saying it would go down to defeat, but when it passed she ran around taking credit for the victory. Grifter to the bitter end.
stuckinred
@eemom: Oklahoma Kiddo and Lahoma! I do miss the Southern Dragon.
stuckinred
@Mike Kay (True Grit): They had a thread up earlier hammering Norquist. I almost chimed in but. . .nahhh.
burnspbesq
@eemom:
We had a really cool community at IAmTrex for a while. That was fun. I miss David.
He seems to have completely disappeared, which is a drag because I didn’t save any of my Fat Charlie stuff. Would like to be able to get it out of his archive.
stuckinred
@burnspbesq: He lives about three blocks away but I never see him.
burnspbesq
@Tony J:
You sure you’re not thinking about Big Mitch?
Mike Kay (True Grit)
@eemom:
there are a number of people who openly profess to possessing a crush on her, including kos. there are a lot of isolated dysfunctional people who’s only interaction with humans are in cyber world. I imagine this would include females.
stuckinred
Here’s an interesting post about david and jane
stuckinred
@Mike Kay (True Grit): They love that “you are so pretty and you are the ONLY one who tells the truth”.
TooManyJens
@Mumphrey:
Because there are too many, damn it. Whenever anyone would reply to a Jen, I would do a double-take.
eemom
@Mike Kay (True Grit):
OK Kiddo was just this really sweet, hard-core dyed in the wool Democrat (no John Cole he)……always a man of principle……wanted Al Gore to run in ’08. He was a HS math teacher and half Cherokee; his wife, Lahoma, was a full-blooded one, and he was always talking about how much he adored her. She’d show up occasionally too, and the two of them would cute everybody to death with little details of their everyday yet idylically romantic life together.
The man did not have a sexist nor a misogynist bone in his body…..was always citing Lahoma as political authority and saying how much smarter than him she was.
Then came the hideous primary season of ’08…..when Hamsher first began to really show her true colors. Long story short, she made this big bullshit schtick about FDL being “neutral”…..while it was screamingly obvious to anyone with two brain cells to rub together that she was fucking dying for Hillary to win (my theory being that she saw herself as a contender for the Dana Perino of a Hillary WH). She launched on this ridiculous crusade where literally anybody who said Boo about Hillary was branded a MISOGYNIST, vilified, and banned.
And that is what she did to OK Kiddo, on the flimsiest of excuses, one Sunday afternoon where the supposed rampant MISOGYNY of the primary campaign was the topic.
Others were complicit in the attack also, even the frequently-sainted Christy Hardin Smith. All in all, a most disgusting pile-on ambush of a longtime loyal commenter, the likes of which I don’t think I’ve ever seen on any other blog.
eemom
@burnspbesq:
He’s on FB though, and very much his old self there. You’re his friend, aren’t you? Thought that’s how I found you on there.
burnspbesq
@eemom:
Really? Tres cool. Will check it out. I hardly ever do anything on FB. I got a friend request today from someone whose name I don’t recognize and can’t place.
The highlight of my time at FDL was when I got yelled at by Krugman (for daring to mention moral hazard in some context which I have forgotten) in a Book Salon thread. It was all downhill from there.
eemom
@stuckinred:
wow, that IS interesting. Not to mention evidence of how AA progressives have seen through her from the get-go, whereas it took most of the rest of us quite a bit longer.
Her attitude about that Lieberman black-face thing has always been the standard non-apology “sorry if you were dumb enough to be offended” kind of thing — and even many others have been like “shit, get over that already” — but, once again, when the true colors come out for those who know what they look like, there’s no going back.
As for DF, I love him to death, but he WAS yet another slathering true-believer “she’s SO pretty and the ONLY one who tells the truth” groupie before she publicly fucked him over. That’s just a fact.
Mike Kay (True Grit)
@burnspbesq: Krugman would later call FDL liars and hate mongers:
http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/01/11/jonathan-gruber/
de stijl
I do have an art crush on Piet Mondrian and the other De Stijl artists, but the reason I chose lowercase de stijl as my handle was that I like the way it looks, especially the “stijl” part with the crossbar of the t lining up with i and the j and then the dots on top (There has to be a word for those things, probably in German – singluats or somesuch. Germans have a word for everything.)
I just preferred the look of lowercase de stijl over uppercase De Stijl for some reason.
Church Lady
@LikeableInMyOwnWay: Then I’m so glad you’re still around, but sad you’re not getting into the flame wars you used to. They were such a blast to follow.
How is your significant other? Is she still commenting here, under another name?
Tim F.
I remember Darrell disappearing almost the day after Alberto Gonzales admitted that he lied and quit. That dude was so relentless that the people who remember him still won’t even invoke his name.
de stijl
@Tim F.:
If I remember correctly, Darrell was the progenitor of the jackalope post.
As in, “I’m pretending not to know the topic of this post is John Yoo, but, hey, look over here, there is some link to a lefty person who did/said something stupid (Cindy Sheehan was a go-to person for a while.)
This was an attempt to thread-jack – please don’t talk about John Yoo, talk about Cindy Sheehan instead was the unstated reason.
Or, shorter version, “Hey! Look over there – it’s a jackalope!
Is Jackalope in the Lexicon list?
(Edit – Yes.
“Jackalope- A trolling tactic, also used in national politics, in which one knowingly makes an inane and unrelated complaint to distract from an uncomfortable topic. Coined here.”)
de stijl
@Tim F.:
In looking at the “Coined here” in the Jackalope entry, you are also the coiner of the term back in 2005. Dude, you rule!
Did you also invent “pie”?
Jean
@eemom: OMG, your posts in this thread bring it all back for me, and I was a daily reader of FDL until the primary season got underway. I trotted over to TRex, but that community didn’t last long. I occasionally posted at FDL, was familiar with all the regulars there, but commenting was rarely enjoyable on any level once the craziness set in, and intelligent, decent posters were insulted or banned or they fled to sensible places.
Church Lady
@Mumphrey: When I first stumbled onto BJ, I commented under my real first name. One of the other commentors (can’t remember his name, but I don’t think he’s been around for a long time, said I reminded him of Dana Carvey’s Church Lady. Thus, a handle was born.
The thing that makes me laugh is how many here take it literally, and say I don’t sound like a Church Lady.
de stijl
@Church Lady:
Church Lady, I served with Dana Carvey. I knew Dana Carvey. Dana Carvey was a friend of mine. Church Lady, you’re no Dana Carvey. ;-)
Neal Peart
Geddy, Alex and I are still here.
Poopyman
Well crap. The iPad does not play well with WP. Anyway, Poopyman is the nickname of a cat I found at work when he was about 2 days old. Had to feed him by bottle, and discovered that dry-mix formula causes rather spectacular effects on the digestive systems of little kitties. And a nickname was born. Since I work for a Large Defense Contractor, I thought a nom de rude might be prudent, and since I was (am) using Tux’s email addy I might as well take his nickname too. If I ever get off my ass and send pics to Annie Laurie you may all see the full glory of the little shithead.
Interesting you should bring back the memory of TRex. He was one of the first bloggers I really liked to read. I think he was at Shakespeare’s Sister back then. I’m still bummed that he stopped, but I get that that was best for him. Hope he still hasn’t resumed smoking.
Oh well, this is way late and probably EPUed. :^)
burnspbesq
@burnspbesq:
Turned out to be newdealfarmgirl, one of the sane folks from FDL. Accepted that one lickety-split.
LikeableInMyOwnWay
@Church Lady:
She has taken a break from politics and the blogguescape.
I would imagine she will be back. I will let her know you inquired.
LikeableInMyOwnWay
@Hob:
Yes, mostly right. I have generally been in situations where I might post from any of ten or twelve different combinations of machines and browsers over a period of hours. Since the handle stuff is stored in cookies which are stored by the browser, just moving from one chair to another might put me in a different handle, and I really never keep track of them. I am way too lazy to do that.
But to balance it out, I also don’t keep track of who is saying what exactly, when I am replying. So I might bark at you for something somebody else said.
That way, it all evens out.
joel hanes
I read BJ often but comment seldom; you can more often find my remarks at Obsidian Wings or on Kevin Drum’s site.
Gave up reading dKos and FDL years back; dKos objected to my ad-blocking software, and I was horrified to discover that half the commenters in one FDL thread were anti-vaccination.
Have never felt the need for a nym.
Like Ross Hershberger’s brother, I either post under my real name or keep silent.
A happy and prosperous New Year to you all.
Tim F.
@de stijl: Yes, I did. It started with one of my less clever ideas where I challenged the readers to argue about Nazis without ever going off topic or insulting each other. I deleted pointless comments and edited out the ad hominem parts of otherwise substantial comments to read I like pie. You know what? It worked! Just kidding. It failed utterly and I swore never to do that again.
One of the readers liked the pie thing so he wrote a greasemonkey script to swap it in automatically as a cheeky sort of ignore feature.
The pie idea originally comes from the pie wars at Kos, an epic civil war over whether a sexy pie ad was sexist or awesome. That blogwar goes so far back that the threads are in cuneiform.
Rome Again
Apparently John Cole has lost track of me since I stopped playing Mafia Wars and he is no longer my big boss man.
John, we’re still on each other’s friends lists, are we not?
I am also Little Dreamer, but I don’t spend much time here anymore. I was told by TZ that people were asking about me… so, yes, I’m still alive. Happy New Year.
de stijl
@Tim F.:
Big whoop. I invented cake.
different church-lady
@Tony J: The new “different church-lady rule” of internet arguing states, “Anyone who claims to have won an internet argument has lost that argument.”
different church-lady
@Tim F.: I don’t get it: when it comes to Nazis what is there to argue about?
tBone
Ahhh, I’m getting a little misty seeing all my old compadres coming out of the woodwork. (Except for ppGaz, that fucker.) Even decided I should bring my original screen name out of retirement for the occasion.
I’m still around and I read the front page posts and the odd comment thread, but I have too many small children at home now along with various other IRL things that prevent me from wasting half my day on BJ like I used to. Was a lot of fun while it lasted, though, and I manage to keep up with most of the old crew on Facebook.
Disappointed this thread didn’t feature a Darrell appearance, though. Not that I want him to come back, but I’m really curious about why he suddenly stopped cold turkey after years of spamming comment threads with his relentless bullshit.
PS: Just kidding, ppGaz.
Cathie from Canada
Reading all these comments is the most fun I’ve had in weeks.
I’ve got to get out more.
LikeableInMyOwnWay
@tBone:
Bone, you are the man. Come back and put your sparkle back into this place.
Tony J
@burnspbesq:
Nah. TZ/LIMOW got it right, it was Tenguphule.
Thoughtful Black Co-Citizen
Shit, I forgot about Chuck Butcher. I see his blog is still active, but I haven’t seen him here in a while. Maybe the ladies who posed with his motorcycle ran off with him.
And did Paul L. get banned here? I think Rumproast had a brief outbreak of Paulitis a couple of months ago.
Rome Again
@Maude:
Hi Maude. I saw your comment. Ummm, forgive me please, my brain might be a little fried (frozen actually, I just delivered a bunch of Sunday newspapers in 30 degree weather), but, do I happen to know you by another name?
RA/Little Dreamer
Rome Again
@Church Lady:
I’m not around much anymore, but once in a while I’ll make a post. (I’ve been using Little Dreamer since Obama came into office, I only used Rome Again when Bush was leading us into the empire wars, but it was my original name so I’m on it right now). Thanks for thinking of me.
The person I’m wondering about is “A Phoenician in a Time of Romans” (who incidentally justified my own name – and funny how many people recognize now that this world seemed to become more like Rome. TZ and I were just watching something about that on tv a few days ago). Also funny considering my move to Phoenix (which made me a Phoenician myself LOL).
Cris
300 comments and nobody misses hearing from Atanarjuat?
eemom
@Thoughtful Black Co-Citizen:
Chuck Butcher stilll comes around — was here the other night IIRC.
Haven’t seen Paul L(oser) in a while — good riddance.
Didn’t YOU used to post under another name?
@Burns
Big Mitch never came to BJ — he was a FDL/TRex/Snoozehouse exclusive.
Thoughtful Black Co-Citizen
@eemom: Thanks, sorry I missed him. (Chuck NOT Paul L.)
I’m still Kommrade Reproductive Vigor on my other computer and many moons ago I posted as jake (or Jake don’t remember.) But for a while there was another Jake (or jake) and Derbyshire’s Happy Reproductive Vigor needed memorializing. Since I’m not in a rock band …
TenguPhule
Still here, but the snark is fading under required 10 hour work days thanks to a lot of people who quit at my work place. Plus losing 3 holidays last year thanks to “the descretion of management” in deciding whether or not we get them.
Butch
John, just catching up so I don’t know if you’ll see this; I decided that some time in intensive care would be a great way to ring out the old year, and I’m slow about rejoining the blog world.
tBone
@LikeableInMyOwnWay:
Spreading my sparkle around’s what got me all these little ankle-biters, man. I gotta be careful where I unleash that stuff.
Snowwy
I miss Billmon.
Chuck Butcher
@Thoughtful Black Co-Citizen:
I’m around, I read daily. I don’t much do “me too” and if it’s been covered I don’t have anything more to say unless I think it needs tweaked a bit. Looks like I left coasted another topic.
Ranger 3
I still read your stupid blog. Never commented much but my trolling is first rate.