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TPMCafe Troll-a-thon: Day Five...
...is canceled due to lack of interest and lack of recommendations.
Now I won't be able to give away that 2008 Toyota Prius.
You have only yourselves to blame.
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Comments (93)
*I* care.
April 18, 2008 12:53 AM | Reply | Permalink
That's why we love you Smurfette.
April 18, 2008 12:59 AM | Reply | Permalink
I'm so concerned today I have to put this one right up front where everyone will see it!
I'm concerned because Barack called Charlie Gibson "Sir" at the beginning of the debate.
Obama said "Yes, sir" to that scumbag Wilson. I'm an Obama supporter, but I think it made him look weak.
I'm embarrassed for Barack. I'm afraid people will make fun of him and think of all kinds of scumbag people he might call "Sir."
Maybe he thought he was still in college at that elite Harvard Law School where they don't even teach you how to help your mother fill out insurance forms, and the latte liberal professor was calling on him: "Barack." "Yes, sir?"
Can anybody help me with this? I've already tried donating more money to Barack, but it didn't help. I called Billy Glad a troll, but it didn't help. He just told me to go back to my echo chamber, wherever that is.
April 18, 2008 3:33 PM | Reply | Permalink
Echo....
Echo....
April 18, 2008 4:14 PM | Reply | Permalink
Hey hot dog, check this out:
http://bp3.blogger.com/_MRs_Nt465oE/RzxwJ1G-wOI/AAAAAAAACkg/ER-f756dc4Q/s1600-h/TopDems.png
Obama is the MAN!
April 18, 2008 8:14 PM | Reply | Permalink
I think it was the William Jennings Bryan assignment -- write in the language of the time? Can barely write now!
April 18, 2008 12:55 AM | Reply | Permalink
Poetic justice, my friend. As a wise babe once said, you have every right, but not a very good reason. DDN3 looks forward to seeing this post in hell.
April 18, 2008 12:59 AM | Reply | Permalink
I think that the main problem is that these posts were all about the comments, not about the posts themselves. Some people don't really care about the conversation potential of a post--they just want to glance at it for thirty seconds and click "recommend" or "next."
Let me tell you, after the last few days though, I have a new-found affection for Bardo. Very amusing fellow.
April 18, 2008 1:03 AM | Reply | Permalink
Wouldn't it be easier than say, bookmarking everyone whose posts we generally follow (posts that will usually be unseen and die a quick death due to the current policy); if we simply nominated an unofficial moderator, such as yourself. And, once a day you post a diary rescue with links, etc. (e.g. orange satan) and we make sure to rec that post to death, bumping it to the top consistently. Or, does anyone have an idea along these lines? Waiting for the software to catch up could be a long wait.
April 18, 2008 1:27 AM | Reply | Permalink
I think it is a general lost cause.
I have settled with bookmarking the blogs of interesting bloggers.
But then I forget to search blog by blog.
April 18, 2008 1:30 AM | Reply | Permalink
Also it's very confusing when some posters change their names every day.
April 18, 2008 1:34 AM | Reply | Permalink
Who would do a thing like that?
April 18, 2008 1:59 PM | Reply | Permalink
I just caught that. Thanks for the laugh, ghengis2. Fortunately I had swallowed my coffee.
At least I did not start changing my picture, which I toyed with.
April 18, 2008 3:10 PM | Reply | Permalink
Yeah, I've thought about changing both my avatar and display name simultaneously. It'd be so easy to spoof being someone else. The only way you can tell for sure is to click on the link attached to the display name (or hover over it and see where it points).
April 18, 2008 4:42 PM | Reply | Permalink
I don't know. I think that would be very difficult to do.
April 18, 2008 5:01 PM | Reply | Permalink
For reasons I can't fathom, it's more difficult than it appears.
April 18, 2008 5:06 PM | Reply | Permalink
First fake sinbad, and now fake Genghis.
Will the madness ever stop!!!!!!!!!
April 18, 2008 5:42 PM | Reply | Permalink
I'm so confused.
April 19, 2008 2:37 AM | Reply | Permalink
You can't fool me!
April 18, 2008 6:18 PM | Reply | Permalink
I think it takes a hash of everyone's picture. A minor edit is all that is required to thwart it, however. Something like adding a little blue to a baby's eyes…
April 18, 2008 8:07 PM | Reply | Permalink
There is the drawback, however, that all of your past comments now have the same avatar…
I'm going to leave it like this until either, (a) you comment, or (b) too much pandemonium ensues!
April 18, 2008 8:20 PM | Reply | Permalink
Yeah, I noticed that. I just couldn't take anymore of looking at your face.
April 18, 2008 8:29 PM | Reply | Permalink
I find it easiest just to resave the jpg as a bmp.
April 18, 2008 8:31 PM | Reply | Permalink
I think I beginning to go a little crazy. Maybe this is what schizophrenia feels like…
April 18, 2008 8:34 PM | Reply | Permalink
Actually, the only reason that worked for you is because I changed my picture first. I know this because now I can't change back to my old avatar, since you have it!
April 18, 2008 8:38 PM | Reply | Permalink
I don't think that's true, since I was you using the BMP before you were me, from about 6:10 to about 6:40. You just didn't notice.
I had a hard time reverting to my photo, but found that it helped to: clear my cache, and log out and back in.
April 18, 2008 8:41 PM | Reply | Permalink
Why do I feel like I'm in a film called "Being Ben Hocking"? Also, is this going to the other side? What in the hell happens when you go to the other side as the same person? Genghis, help!
April 18, 2008 8:49 PM | Reply | Permalink
Wasn't this a Star Trek episode about alternate realities? You know, that one.
April 18, 2008 9:31 PM | Reply | Permalink
There've been several such Star Trek episodes, with the majority of them taking place on Deep Space 9.
I figured while we're in the testing scenario, I'd test to see how thin these responses can get!
April 18, 2008 10:08 PM | Reply | Permalink
Oh, but Lis, DF's reference was actually to "Being John Malkovich". An interesting movie that you should watch. I wouldn't call it great, but it's definitely different.
April 18, 2008 11:13 PM | Reply | Permalink
Oh, it's not necessarily the greatest film of all time or anything, but it's fun. Also, don't forget the TNG finale "All Good Things" and several other key episodes such as "Parallels" and "The Inner Light".
April 18, 2008 11:50 PM | Reply | Permalink
Don't bother--Genghis already beat us to the other side. But maybe when we cross the streams, we'll trade identities back.
April 18, 2008 11:58 PM | Reply | Permalink
If you guys can pull that off I will shit a flux capacitor.
April 18, 2008 11:59 PM | Reply | Permalink
Any thinner and individual words will be too large@
April 19, 2008 12:45 AM | Reply | Permalink
This
is
the
way
the
world
ends
Not
with
a
bang
but
a
whimper
April 19, 2008 1:23 AM | Reply | Permalink
You people shouldn't play around with the OTHER SIDE. It's not a game. People come back...different. I'm not even sure who I am anymore.
April 19, 2008 2:43 AM | Reply | Permalink
I can't decide if this is a bug or a feature of the new website. If I have your permission, I will make a post about it.
April 18, 2008 8:36 PM | Reply | Permalink
Have at it! Should we retain our current "identities" for the duration of said post?
April 18, 2008 8:39 PM | Reply | Permalink
Ok--I will change back to you
April 18, 2008 8:42 PM | Reply | Permalink
Baby Allsburg is a Dune Mentat. Don't lie. That blue isn't from photoshop, it's from The Spice.
April 18, 2008 11:13 PM | Reply | Permalink
I thought the Mentats were into the juice of sapho?
April 18, 2008 11:52 PM | Reply | Permalink
This is a very good idea. Things get blown out of view quickly, and a link referring to other posts works well. It is facilitative and non-negative, to paraphrase the comments the Play Button makes below.
April 18, 2008 2:00 PM | Reply | Permalink
What we need is a dedicated page for bloggers, with a longer list of recommended posts. Kinda like the cafe, but for users. Of course at that point the "recent" column becomes redundant and screws up the format, but form really should follow function.
April 18, 2008 3:12 PM | Reply | Permalink
Baby love, my Baby love,
I need you now, oh how I need you...
Take me, come into me
Suffer the little children to come unto me
See you in hell, Allsburg, I'm worth a million
in prizes, more than a Toyota Prius.
With a lust for life.
April 18, 2008 1:35 AM | Reply | Permalink
PS - I would have won solely on my "Martin Luther's dream only came to be realized through the Pope" comment, only perhaps the unwashed are not so versed in laïc German. Perhaps Middle Ages theology was a poor period choice to respond to Mr. Einstein - I suspect a Dante-ish juxtaposition mixed with ecclesiastic Latin would be a bit more jarring and unsettling. Oh well, die and learn.
April 18, 2008 1:57 AM | Reply | Permalink
Wow, I missed that. That is true genius.
April 18, 2008 9:45 AM | Reply | Permalink
Bardo can be hilarious, but I'm bored of the Exorcist references.
In all seriousness, the recommended posts have been getting worse, and it's become more difficult to make the list. I tried to take up the issue with Charles Gelman, who chooses recommended reader blogs but got no response:
http://tpmcafe.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/04/15/todays_recommended_reader_blog_15/#comment-2727267
Gelman recommends posts every few days, whenever, it seems, he feels like it. But as far as I can tell, a lot more people read the recommended list than read Gelman's column. Posts that he references which did not make the recommended list seldom have many comments or recommendations.
BPS's moderator suggestion is interesting, but I worry about the recommended list becoming too insular. It would be very easy for a bunch of insiders to take over and dominate the list every day.
Suggestions that I made to Gelman:
) Editor's recommendations indicated in the recent posts list, perhaps with some icon
2) Longer recent list
3) Display number of recommendations at the list level, which will help people see which recent posts are worth clicking
Ideally, of course, we'd each have a home page where we could add preferred bloggers and see all their posts, as well as track threads of interest, but I don't think that's coming anytime soon.
April 18, 2008 1:58 AM | Reply | Permalink
Those are good ideas for features, but, as you have noted before, features take time. The rec list is starting to look like the Drudge Report, but with the headline posted six separate times.
April 18, 2008 2:41 AM | Reply | Permalink
Blame it on Billy - I was on my way out and he repossessed me with this avatar - as soon as I can cover the down payment, I'm outta here. I suppose it could have been worse - Desperately Seeking Susan or something - how many Madonna references before suicide is the only option?
But even spewing vile and vulgar Satanic diatribes about Hillary will never take me to Top of the Pops - the Kool Kidz Rulz, dumb and dumber, misspellings preferred, and they all vote for themselves. It's not an Echo Chamber as Billy insists, it's more like a mutual grope-a-thon, without the redeeming smell of cheap tawdry sex. The sad thing is they don't see their similarity to College Republicans.
April 18, 2008 3:34 AM | Reply | Permalink
It's true, Desperately Seeking Susan would have been worse. Fortunately, that's not Billy's style.
Don't pretend that you're not one of the crowd just because you dye your hair green and have piercings. Your presence on this thread suggests that you like hanging out with the College Republicans and just want to get laid like everyone else. (Though at my liberal college, I don't think the Republicans got much action.)
But seriously, I agree. That's why I wrote:
April 18, 2008 9:15 AM | Reply | Permalink
Call her SIR!
April 18, 2008 3:36 PM | Reply | Permalink
HITLER!.... HITLER?.... Hitler?.... hello?
*sniff*
April 18, 2008 1:20 AM | Reply | Permalink
You win
:)
April 18, 2008 1:36 AM | Reply | Permalink
Oops, I meant:
U WIn U MOrAn!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
April 18, 2008 1:37 AM | Reply | Permalink
Let's consider the prize shared, my friend.
April 18, 2008 1:43 AM | Reply | Permalink
The problem was you were requiring more thought to be used to engage in trolling. You essentially destroyed my cut-and-paste methodology, wich is the true troll way.
There is little to cut and paste when attacking Einstein or anything at all in 1908.
That and I need to keep my job.
April 18, 2008 1:29 AM | Reply | Permalink
As soon as we figure out what you do, we're going to replace you with a machine.
April 18, 2008 3:36 AM | Reply | Permalink
Actually my job involves wrangling my machine... there must be some kind of self referencing tool that could do it.
Wait... I just called myself a self referencing tool... so am I the tool or the reference?
April 18, 2008 3:08 PM | Reply | Permalink
Ha! A Prius?! Do you have a fair-trade, shade-grown, double-decaf nonfat Macchiato with extra whip to go with that? Why don't you you pull your Birkenstocks over your wool socks and recumbent cycle your way on up to the co-op and grab one, you ninety-eight pound liberal communist!!!!1
April 18, 2008 1:50 AM | Reply | Permalink
Sorry, DF--contest's over. No use trolling now.
April 18, 2008 2:10 AM | Reply | Permalink
I troll for street-cred, not for cash and prizes.
April 18, 2008 2:14 AM | Reply | Permalink
That's why the girlz drool over u 4 eva.
April 18, 2008 3:13 PM | Reply | Permalink
No, that's just one of the reasons, and it's kind of lower down on the list.
LOL
April 18, 2008 8:44 PM | Reply | Permalink
And don't forget to set the dial on your iPhone to "Smooth Jazz"!!!!!111ONE
April 18, 2008 1:54 AM | Reply | Permalink
"The Exorcist" GIF gives me motion sickness.
I can't look at the posts, as they are going to make me physically ill.
I can
t watch a lot of "produced" TV shows either, for similar reasons.
April 18, 2008 12:14 PM | Reply | Permalink
Reading them is worse.
April 18, 2008 12:56 PM | Reply | Permalink
Fuck you Allsburg--I was interested, and only my opinion matters.
TYPICAL LIB WAFFLING FROM YOU!!!
Say one thing and deliver another!!!!
April 18, 2008 1:04 PM | Reply | Permalink
On the subject of recommendations, and frustration over people ignoring a thread, I honestly believe that, the lamer my post (assuming for the sake of argument they are all not equally lame), the more recommended it is. My favorite satire has a very hard time getting looked at much, but my crappier posting does well.
My wife the journalist tells me that that's the way real journalism is too (she went to your school, Allsburg, so my lighthearted crapping on it the other day was really aimed at her).
It would be cool if someday a group could get ten posts with the same title, functionally, like the mass of Hillary "Screw 'em" posts recommended yesterday, and get them all recommended at once, kind of like a Christo piece of art-stretching-across-the-entire-site.
If ten or so of us did that, it would work. We could cross-post in the comments to get people to read and recommend the other ones, as if seriously intended.
April 18, 2008 1:17 PM | Reply | Permalink
Bingo, bingo - you've pinpointed why mainstream media sucks and will never get much better.
April 18, 2008 2:11 PM | Reply | Permalink
I'm tired of whining about the lost features of the old Cafe, so I'm being proactive, looking forward, enhancing facilitation, and all other social-interaction jargon verbs. Meaning, I'm applying down-ratings to the junk lately cluttering the Reader Posts.
Look for the old-fart seal of disapproval---rating: 0 (troll)--on egregious trash like
http://tpmcafe.talkingpointsmemo.com/talk/2008/04/baracks-underground-friends.php#comments
April 18, 2008 1:19 PM | Reply | Permalink
BTW, did you all see that Eric McClure's diamond in the rough post got 268 recommendations. I think that's a new record. It's a great post, but I was curious how it received so many. Even fly's Josh Marshall approved post didn't hit that. So I googled. It got digged. Amazing to me, now that I think about it, that TPM doesn't have digg links. The next time I write something worth sharing with people outside TPM, I plan to include a digg link.
http://digg.com/2008_us_elections/Obama_A_Diamond_in_the_Debate_Rough
April 18, 2008 1:43 PM | Reply | Permalink
One of my posts got Dugg, or Digged, or something.
I didn't get 268 recommendations though.
http://digg.com/political_opinion/Clinton_Obama_supporters_want_me_to_lose
April 18, 2008 4:33 PM | Reply | Permalink
Obama supporters are the trolls.
I nominate Genghis the troll.
April 18, 2008 2:12 PM | Reply | Permalink
I second
April 18, 2008 2:33 PM | Reply | Permalink
I move to close. All in favor?
April 18, 2008 8:51 PM | Reply | Permalink
Aye. But only if DF is VP.
April 18, 2008 11:14 PM | Reply | Permalink
Well, you know.. you really have to consider these things carefully. Take them as they come. I'm really not prepared to make an official announcement here. Let's just say that I might be open to the possibility.
April 18, 2008 11:54 PM | Reply | Permalink
I'm sure DF would be on anybody's short list.
April 19, 2008 2:41 AM | Reply | Permalink
Gotalife, we missed you in the troll contest.
For whatever reason, we didn't get any real trolls here.... go figure.
April 18, 2008 4:18 PM | Reply | Permalink
Hey! Gotalife! Fancy seeing you on the Troll thread.
April 18, 2008 2:15 PM | Reply | Permalink
After coming out of the gate hard on Day 1, I realized that I was a one-trick, mixed-metaphor-spewing concern pony. Allsburg's brilliantly themed troll-offs were well designed to loose amateurs like me. They truly selected for the five-tool trolls.*
*What are the five tools? Obviously: Troll for power, Troll for average, Speed trolling, Troll fielding, and Troll throwing
April 18, 2008 2:20 PM | Reply | Permalink
I collected a couple of personal trolls the other day. My mom wouldn't let me keep them, so I had to take them to the troll shelter. And, well, if someone doesn't adopt them in 10 days, they may have to go to troll heaven. Better known as .... All together now! Yes!! The .... .......!
April 18, 2008 3:39 PM | Reply | Permalink
Pat, I'd like to solve the puzzle: Free Republic.
April 18, 2008 7:48 PM | Reply | Permalink
You just won yourself a trip to Myrtle Beach!
April 18, 2008 10:56 PM | Reply | Permalink
Billy's just playing on your fear of the dark side (the right margin, as you intrepid Web explorers have discovered). I found 'em circling Romulus, gave 'em a good talking to and sent them packing. They'll be home by dinner. Who says Pazuzu doesn't have a soft side? Now let's get back to bickering, I'm having trouble with all this cognitive sonance.
April 19, 2008 3:32 AM | Reply | Permalink
I for one are sad to see the troll-a-thon come to such an ignominius end. I was finally learning the ins and outs of trolling, honing my skills and developing my style.
But alas, perhaps the troll-a-thon might be postponed or suspended instead of cancelled. I shall miss the trolls and the thon.
April 18, 2008 5:20 PM | Reply | Permalink
Look, man, you don't have to, like, bow down to the tyranny of cheap contests. This isn't your father's trolling! Do it for the love, man, do it for the art.
April 18, 2008 8:53 PM | Reply | Permalink
What were the first 2 troll-a-thons about?
April 18, 2008 9:10 PM | Reply | Permalink
You don't have to act like your avatar. Unless you're Desidero.
April 18, 2008 9:31 PM | Reply | Permalink
Wow, you're brave. It's one thing to face the horde of Obamanauts, but provoking the wrath of the wounded Edwards supporter is just feckless.
April 18, 2008 11:58 PM | Reply | Permalink
Whoa! You take no prisoners, my friend. Brilliant.
April 19, 2008 12:43 AM | Reply | Permalink
I'd rather have my avatar than sound like Gomer Pyle in a blazer and $400 haircut. Thhhptttt!!!
April 19, 2008 3:34 AM | Reply | Permalink
Oh shit, you switched avatars and now all my baby jokes are f*cked. I've been reverse trolled, bait burp and switch.
April 19, 2008 3:36 AM | Reply | Permalink
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